Still copying and pasting quotes in Word or Excel? Free templates might seem like the smart choice, but they are silently costing you work. Here is why tradespeople across the UK are switching to AI-powered proposals — and winning more jobs because of it.
No credit card required. First proposal is free.
QuoteSmith vs Word/Excel templates at a glance
The real cost of "free" quoting
A free Word or Excel quote template seems like the obvious choice. You download it, fill in your details, and save as PDF. Job done. Except it is not that simple.
Every single quote requires you to manually write the scope of work, terms, and descriptions from scratch — or copy-paste from the last one and hope you remember to change the client name and job details. Most tradespeople spend 30 to 60 minutes per quote in Word. If you quote five jobs a week, that is 2.5 to 5 hours — an entire evening or half a working day — just on admin.
With QuoteSmith, the AI generates your complete proposal in minutes. Enter the job details and line items, and you get a professional document with scope of work, timelines, payment terms, and T&Cs — all written for you. That is hours back in your week, every week.
Let us be honest: most Word template quotes look amateur. Inconsistent fonts, misaligned tables, a logo that is slightly too big or slightly too small, and formatting that breaks when you add an extra line item. Clients notice. When they are comparing three quotes side by side, the one that looks most professional creates the most confidence.
QuoteSmith produces a consistently branded, professionally designed PDF every single time. Your logo, your colours, your company details — all perfectly formatted. No wrestling with margins, no broken tables, no "Save As PDF and hope for the best." Every proposal looks like it came from a large, established business, even if you are a one-person operation.
With a Word template, the content quality depends entirely on your writing ability and how much time you have. After a long day on site, most tradespeople write the bare minimum — a list of prices with maybe a one-line description. No scope of work, no terms and conditions, no project timeline. This leaves room for disputes and makes your quote look like an afterthought.
QuoteSmith's AI generates detailed, professional content for every proposal:
This level of detail would take you 45 minutes to write in Word. QuoteSmith does it in under five.
Word templates are error-prone. We have all seen it — the quote that still has the previous client's name in the terms, the one where the total does not add up because someone edited a cell in Excel and broke the formula, or the version where the VAT calculation is wrong. These mistakes look unprofessional and can cost you the job.
QuoteSmith generates fresh content for every proposal and calculates VAT automatically. There are no leftover details from previous quotes, no broken formulas, and no inconsistencies. Every proposal is accurate and unique to the job.
Here is a truth that every tradesperson knows: the first quote that lands in the client's inbox has a massive advantage. If you visit a site on Tuesday and do not send your Word template quote until Saturday evening, the other tradesperson who sent theirs on Tuesday night has already built trust and momentum.
With QuoteSmith, you can generate and send a professional proposal from your phone on the drive home from site. Same-day quoting is not just possible — it is effortless. That speed translates directly into a higher win rate.
Stick with Word templates if: You only send one or two very basic quotes per month and genuinely do not mind spending the time formatting and writing content manually.
Switch to QuoteSmith if: You want to send professional proposals that win more work, save hours every week on admin, and look like an established, credible business. Your first proposal is free, so you can see the difference for yourself before spending a penny.
Free Word templates require you to write all content manually, offer no branding consistency, and often look unprofessional. QuoteSmith uses AI to generate complete proposal content — scope of work, terms and conditions, timelines — and outputs a professionally designed, branded PDF. The result is a proposal that helps you win more work, not just list prices.
The template itself may be free, but the hidden cost is your time. Writing up each quote manually in Word takes 30-60 minutes per proposal. At even £20/hour, that is £10-20 per quote in lost time. QuoteSmith generates proposals in minutes, and your first one is completely free to try.
Absolutely. A QuoteSmith proposal includes your branding, a professional layout, detailed scope of work, terms and conditions, and a polished PDF design. A Word template typically looks like a basic document with inconsistent formatting. Clients regularly tell tradespeople that their QuoteSmith proposals stood out from other quotes they received.
QuoteSmith is £39/month for unlimited AI-generated proposals. Word templates are free (if you already have Microsoft Word, which costs £60-100/year itself). However, QuoteSmith saves hours of writing time per week and produces far more professional results. One won job easily pays for months of QuoteSmith.
Create your first AI-powered, branded proposal for free. See the difference in quality, speed, and professionalism — and understand why tradespeople across the UK are making the switch.
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