How to Write a Video Production Quote Clients Approve

What a quote is for, and when to send one

An estimate is what I give on the phone when a client asks what a two-minute brand film costs and I have three facts to work with. A quote is what I send after scope is agreed: fixed deliverables, fixed shoot days, fixed terms, valid for a set period. An invoice comes later and should match the quote line for line unless something changed in writing.

The mistake is sending a quote when you only have enough for an estimate. If the brief says "a video about our new factory, maybe some drone", that is not scoped. Either ask the four questions that let you scope it, or send a range with the assumptions written out and call it an estimate.

The practical difference matters when things go wrong. A quote with clean assumptions is the document you point at in week six when the client asks for a third edit round and a Spanish version. Without it you are arguing from memory.

How much detail should a video production quote show?

I work with two layers. Page one is the summary the decision maker reads: deliverables, three phase totals, fee, contingency, total excluding VAT, payment terms. Pages two and three are the line items for the person who has to defend the spend internally.

That split solves an argument I used to have with myself. Show every line to a marketing director and they start optimising your gaffer. Show one number and procurement assumes you have padded it. Give them both, in that order, and the conversation stays on scope.

There is one thing I never show: my buy rates next to my sell rates. Mark-up lives inside the crew and kit lines or in a stated production fee, never in a column headed "margin".

The blocks I put in every client-ready video quote

Header. Your company, the client's company, the project name, a quote number, the issue date and the validity date. Quote numbers sound like admin until you are on version four with an agency and nobody knows which PDF the finance team approved.

Scope in plain sentences. Two or three lines describing the job: "Two shoot days at the Łódź site, interviews with four staff plus B-roll of the production line, one main film and three social cutdowns." If the client cannot recognise their own project in that paragraph, the number underneath is meaningless.

Deliverables, specified. Runtime, aspect ratio, format, language, subtitle files. This is the single biggest source of late scope creep, so I spell it out as a table:

Costs by phase. Pre-production, production, post-production. Clients think in phases, not in departments, and phase subtotals make it obvious where their money sits.

Fee and contingency. As their own lines, clearly labelled.

Assumptions. Everything you priced on that is not yet certain. Consecutive shoot days. Access to the site from 07:00. Client staff appearing on camera rather than paid talent. Brand assets supplied as vectors by a stated date.

Exclusions. Shorter than the assumptions list and more useful. Paid media adaptations, additional languages, voiceover talent, drone permits, overtime beyond a ten-hour day, travel outside the stated region.

Terms. Payment schedule, revision rounds included, usage licence and term, cancellation terms, validity. Then a signature block, because approval by email reply is fine until the person who replied leaves the company.

A video quote example with the arithmetic

This is a two-day corporate film, Warsaw area, illustrative rates in euros. Your market will be different, but the shape holds.

Pre-production

Production (2 shoot days)

Post-production

Totals

Page one of the PDF shows the five lines in that last table plus the deliverables table. The three department tables go behind it. The client approves a shape they understand, and if they come back asking to lose a shoot day, I can tell them in two minutes what comes out: roughly €4,500 of crew, kit and catering, plus a tighter edit because there is less material.

I keep crew and kit rates per currency in Vidaset so a new quote starts from last month's actual numbers rather than from whatever I remember paying. Before that I had six versions of the same spreadsheet and no idea which one had the current grip rates.

Where the production fee and contingency sit

On commercials and anything going through an agency, I show the fee as a separate line, usually 10 to 20% of direct costs depending on how much producing the job really takes. Multi-location, heavy casting, difficult permits: the top of that range. A two-day interview shoot I already know how to run: the bottom.

Contingency is different and clients misread it constantly. It is not padding and it is not profit. It is the line that covers a weather day, a reshoot of one interview, an extra courier. I use 5 to 10%, and I say in the terms that unspent contingency is deducted from the final invoice. That sentence has won me more approvals than any showreel.

Some clients will ask you to remove contingency. Remove it and add a line to the assumptions saying that any change to the shooting schedule is quoted separately before it happens. One of the two has to exist.

How do you quote when the brief is half-finished?

Quote the version you can defend and price the unknowns as named options. A quote with three optional add-ons reads as thorough. A quote that silently assumes the expensive version reads as expensive.

For the example above, the options block might look like this:

• Third shoot day, including crew, kit and catering: €4,500
• Two paid actors, half day, two-year online usage: €1,600
• Additional 9:16 cutdown beyond the three quoted: €400 each
• English voiceover, talent and record: €650
• Third edit round beyond the two included: €400 per day

That last one does quiet work. Naming the price of a revision round before anyone needs it turns a tense email in week five into an ordinary line on a change order.

If your jobs repeat, build the structure once and reuse it. I started from a stripped-down version of these free video budget templates, and the corporate ones are closest to the example above, including the phase subtotals.

Common mistakes that delay approval

One number, no phases. The client has no way to negotiate except to ask for a discount. Fix: three phase subtotals so they can cut scope instead of cutting your margin.

Deliverables described as "a video plus social edits". You will be asked for five cutdowns and a 4:5. Fix: the deliverables table, with runtimes and ratios counted.

No validity date. Quotes come back approved four months later with the kit rates from last season. Fix: 30 days, stated in the header, with a line saying rates are re-confirmed after that.

Nothing about usage. Corporate clients assume perpetual worldwide rights because nobody told them otherwise, and then the film turns up as a paid ad. Fix: state the media, territory and term, and price extensions in the options block.

Sending a quote for scope you have not confirmed. Fix: reply with the three questions that block the quote, not with a meeting request. Clients answer questions faster than they attend calls.

Keeping the master in a spreadsheet nobody versions. I did this for years and once sent a client a total that had a stale 10% in it. If that sounds familiar, the comparison between a budgeting tool and a spreadsheet is worth five minutes before your next busy month.

FAQ

What should a video production quote include?

Client and project details with a quote number and validity date, a plain-language scope paragraph, a specified deliverables list, costs grouped into pre-production, production and post-production, a production fee, contingency, assumptions and exclusions, payment terms, usage rights and a signature block. Anything that would cause an argument in week six belongs in the assumptions.

What is the difference between a video production quote and an estimate?

An estimate is an indicative number given before scope is settled, often as a range. A quote is issued after you and the client agree deliverables and schedule, and it fixes the price subject to the written assumptions. Send estimates early and often; send quotes only when you can name the shoot days.

How long should a video production quote be valid?

I use 30 days and state it in the header. Crew availability, kit hire and location fees move, and a quote approved three months later is a different job. If a client needs longer, extend the validity in writing and note which lines will be re-confirmed.

Should I show hourly rates or day rates in a quote?

Day rates, for anything involving a crew. Hourly billing invites a conversation about how long a grade "really" takes and gives you no protection on a shoot day that runs to eleven hours. State the length of a standard day in your terms and price overtime as a named option.

How many revision rounds should a quote include?

Two on most corporate and commercial work: one on the first cut, one on the near-final. Write down what a round means: consolidated notes from the client side delivered in one document, not notes trickling in from four people over a week. Price the third round in the options block so nobody has to invent a figure under pressure.