An hvac quote template is the document a residential customer signs: equipment, install, options and a total. An hvac bidding template, or a commercial hvac bid template, is the document a general contractor or a building owner compares against three others: the scope by drawing reference, the equipment schedule, the labor by phase, exclusions and the bid total, usually on the bidder's own form. The two are different documents built on the same estimate, and the template on this site works the arithmetic under either: the material total from the takeoff with waste, the hours at a loaded rate, subcontractors, overhead and the markup.
The residential quote: one page the customer can read
The quote carries the company's name and license, the customer and the property, the equipment by model and efficiency tier, the install scope in plain words, the options with a total against each, the warranty terms, the payment terms and the date the price is good until. It does not show the customer the labor rate or the markup; those live in the estimate behind it. Keep the quote to a page and the estimate to as many as the job needs.
The commercial bid: scope, schedule and exclusions
A commercial hvac bid template is judged by what it excludes as much as what it prices. It carries the drawing and specification references the bid is based on, the equipment schedule with alternates, the labor and materials by phase, the subcontracted work named, the exclusions in a numbered list, the schedule assumed, and the bid total. A bid that forgets to exclude the controls or the roof curbs has just donated them. The hvac bid proposal template is the same document with a cover letter the buyer's procurement process asks for.
Both start from the same takeoff and the same markup
Whichever document goes out, the number on it comes from the takeoff quantities, the crew's hours, the overhead the job must recover and the markup the company decided on. The estimate template on this site holds that arithmetic for one job at a time; Pro keeps every estimate against the customer and the job, so a commercial bid that comes back a year later as a change order can be repriced from the record rather than from memory.
Questions people ask about hvac quote template
Can the same template serve a residential quote and a commercial bid?
The estimate underneath can; the customer-facing documents differ. The residential quote is a page with options; the commercial bid carries scope references, exclusions and a schedule.
What must an hvac bidding template exclude?
Anything the drawings imply but the bidder is not pricing: controls, electrical feeds, roof penetrations, cranes, permits, commissioning by others. Exclusions are listed and numbered, never implied.
How long should an HVAC quote stay valid?
As long as the distributor's equipment price holds, which in a moving market is weeks rather than months; the template prints the date the price is good until.