We write terms to go out with your quotes, and the wording on the quote that brings them in, as part of the terms and conditions package at £695 +VAT. A quote the customer accepts can be the whole contract.
In England and Wales a contract needs an offer, an acceptance, something given in return and an intention to be bound. A quote that sets out the work and the price, accepted by email or a phone call, can meet every one of those. Whatever the quote leaves out is then left to the general law, or to whatever the customer sends next.
Terms count only if the customer sees them before the contract is made. Terms printed on the back of the invoice arrive after the work is done, which is usually too late.
The work described closely enough that both of you would recognise it as done, with anything excluded named.
A quote with no end date can be accepted months later, at last year’s prices.
Deposits, stage payments and the due date. Where nothing is agreed, payment between businesses becomes late 30 days after the work and the invoice.
How added work is priced and agreed, so the final bill matches what both of you expected.
A reference to your terms on the quote, with the terms themselves attached or linked, before the customer accepts.
The quotation shown is an illustration. We explain what each part does and write your terms around how you trade.
Between businesses both sides push their own paperwork. As a general rule, the last set of terms sent and not objected to before the work starts governs the contract. That is known as the battle of the forms.
So if a customer accepts your quote with a purchase order carrying their terms, and you start the work, their payment dates and their liability terms may be the ones that apply.
On a debt between businesses, the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 gives you statutory interest at 8% above the Bank of England base rate, plus fixed compensation of £40 on a debt under £1,000, £70 from £1,000 to £9,999.99 and £100 from £10,000.
Terms that say nothing about late payment leave that right in place. Terms that set a lower rate can replace it with something worse. Putting your interest term on the quote means the customer has seen it before they agree.
Selling to the public brings in consumer cancellation rights that your terms explain and cannot remove. The package covers business and consumer customers when you tell us you have both.
One set of terms for a business selling one way, agreed in writing before work starts. Subscribers pay from £625.50 +VAT.
Send your current quote template and any terms you already use, even a paragraph at the bottom of an email. They show how you sell day to day, which makes the drafting faster.
If a customer has sent you their own terms to sign, that is a contract review at £249 +VAT. If a customer has stopped paying, Business Debt Recovery, a trading style of Buzz Legal, prices that work separately.
Buzz Legal handles contracts, terms of trade, employment paperwork and dispute preparation. Court work, and the other activities reserved by law, are carried out by AD Solicitors, authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (no. 8011228), and you are told which yours is before you spend anything. How this works, in full. This is information, not advice on your situation.
It can be. In England and Wales a quote that sets out the work and the price is an offer, and once the customer accepts it there can be a binding contract, whether the acceptance comes by email, by phone or by signing. What the quote leaves out is then filled by the general law or by the customer’s own paperwork, which is why your terms should go out with it.
Refer to them on the quote itself, attach them or link to them, and do it before the customer accepts. A line saying the quotation is subject to your terms, with the terms attached, is the usual way. Send them again with your order acknowledgement, and read anything the customer sends back before work starts.
That is your choice, and the point is to state it. A quote with no end date can be accepted long after your costs have changed. A validity period written on the quote, such as 30 days, lets you re-price after it ends.
You can print them there, but by then it is usually too late. If the deal was agreed at the quote stage, the contract already exists, and terms arriving for the first time on the invoice are a proposed change the customer is free to ignore. Move them onto the quote and the order acknowledgement.
They are part of the terms and conditions package, from £695 +VAT, or from £625.50 +VAT for subscribers, agreed in writing before work starts. Separate terms for business and consumer customers, subscription billing or selling outside the UK make it a bigger job, and you get the figure first.
What you quote for, who your customers are, and the quote or terms you use now. You get back a fixed price before any work starts. See the privacy policy for how we use your details.
From £695 +VAT, agreed in writing before work starts.
