How this template was made: built from the comparison in turning a quotation into a tax invoice — the fields a quotation actually needs, and pointedly not the ones a tax invoice needs, laid out and the Excel formulas written by us. Carries the same one-line credit to BahiSathi as our other templates; delete it if you like.
A worked example
A Jalandhar electrical contractor quotes a shop owner for rewiring and fitting out a new showroom: new wiring, fittings, and labour, coming to ₹42,500. He gives the quote 15 days' validity and asks for 40% advance to start.
| Line | Qty | Rate | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wiring (point-to-point, per point) | 48 | ₹350 | ₹16,800 |
| Fittings and fixtures (lump sum) | 1 | ₹18,200 | ₹18,200 |
| Labour and testing | 1 | ₹7,500 | ₹7,500 |
| Total (indicative, no GST shown) | ₹42,500 | ||
Nothing here is filed anywhere and nothing is owed in tax — not even if the shop owner takes three weeks to decide. The moment he says yes, this becomes the starting point for a tax invoice, not the invoice itself.
What a generic invoice template usually gets wrong
- Treating it as a thin tax invoice — adding a GSTIN field, a "place of supply" box, or a 16-character serial-number limit, none of which a quotation needs. It borrows invoice machinery a quotation has no use for.
- No validity date. The one field a quotation actually benefits from — a price without an expiry invites a customer to accept it months later at rates that have since moved.
- Baking in a fixed GST line rather than marking it clearly indicative — a customer who later gets a tax invoice at a different rate has a real reason to be annoyed if the quote implied a promise.
Questions
Does a quotation need the Rule 46 fields a tax invoice needs?
No. GST law has nothing to say about quotations — no mandatory field list, no 16-character serial limit, no place-of-supply requirement. See the full comparison in turning a quotation into a tax invoice.
Can I show a GST figure on a quotation anyway?
Yes, as an indicative line so the customer isn't surprised later — it just creates no liability by being on a quotation. Work out the split first with the GST calculator.
How is this different from a proforma invoice?
A quotation is a price offer, usually before a deal is agreed. A proforma invoice is laid out like a real invoice and is typically used after the deal is agreed, to request an advance payment or support a bank or customs process. See the proforma invoice format.
Does a quotation need its own serial number?
No legal requirement, but number them anyway for your own records — in a series kept separate from your invoice series. An invoice series must be unbroken, and a quote you send and never convert would leave a gap in it if the two shared a series.
The customer negotiated the price after I sent this — now what?
Revise the quotation freely, as many times as you need to. Nothing is owed in tax until an actual tax invoice is raised, however long the back-and-forth takes.
How BahiSathi handles it
Send the quotation, and if the customer accepts, convert it into a tax invoice without retyping a single line — the customer, items, quantities and rates all carry across, and only the invoice takes a number from the invoice series. The quotation itself stays in your records exactly as you sent it.
This is a format, not tax advice. If you are quoting a price inclusive of GST, check the current rate for your item before relying on the split shown.