Free Quote Template for Contractors in Canada (GST/HST/QST Included)

If you search for a "free quote template" you'll find hundreds of generic US documents with no mention of GST, HST or QST. A Canadian contractor quote has to do more: show the right tax for your province, protect you on scope, and be clear enough that the client can say yes without calling you three times. Here is the structure that works, section by section.

What every contractor quote should include

• Your business details: legal or trade name, phone, email, address, and your GST/HST number (plus QST number if you operate in Quebec). Once you are registered, tax numbers on documents are expected.
• Client details and job address: the billing party and the site, which are often different.
• Quote number and date: so you and the client can both refer to it later.
• Scope of work: what is included and, just as important, what is not.
• Line items: labour, materials, equipment, subcontractors, permits, disposal.
• Taxes: shown as a separate line, not buried in the price.
• Payment terms: deposit, progress payments, balance due.
• Validity period: how long the price holds (30 days is common; shorten it when material prices are moving).
• Acceptance: a signature or electronic acceptance line.

Getting Canadian taxes right

Tax depends on where the work is performed. In general: Alberta, Saskatchewan (GST plus PST rules), Manitoba and BC have different structures from the HST provinces, and Quebec charges GST plus QST. A few examples of the combined rates in force at the time of writing:

• Ontario: 13% HST
• Quebec: 5% GST + 9.975% QST
• Alberta: 5% GST only
• BC: 5% GST, with PST applying to some goods
• Atlantic provinces: 15% HST

Rates and rules change, so confirm with the Canada Revenue Agency or Revenu Québec, or your accountant, before you fix a template. The point is that a template with one hard-coded tax rate will be wrong the moment you work across a provincial border.

Scope of work: where most disputes start

Most quote disputes are not about price, they are about what the price covered. Write the scope as a short list of outcomes ("Supply and install 3 interior doors, including trim and paint-ready finish") and add an explicit exclusions list ("Drywall repair, painting and electrical are not included"). One extra sentence on how changes are handled ("Work outside this scope will be quoted separately and approved before it starts") saves many arguments.

Deposits and payment schedule

For anything beyond a small repair, ask for a deposit before ordering materials or booking your crew. Common patterns are 10–30% on acceptance, a progress payment at a milestone, and the balance on completion. Whatever you choose, put it on the quote in plain numbers, not a vague "deposit required". Check provincial consumer protection rules, because some provinces cap deposits on home renovation contracts.

Where a static template falls short

A Word or Excel template looks free, but you pay for it in time: retyping client details, recalculating taxes, fixing formatting, exporting to PDF, then chasing the client. Mistakes creep in, and the quote reaches the client hours or days after the visit, when other contractors may have already replied.

That is the gap quoteai's free quoting is built for: you describe the job, it builds the itemized quote with the right Canadian taxes, and you send a professional PDF from your phone. If you are comparing approaches, see how it stacks up against the Excel template and the Word template, or read the full guide on how to write a professional quote.