Guides
Eleven fields and a worked example build a virtual assistant agency quote
A virtual assistant agency quote template: eleven fields, what each one must say, and a worked structure you fill from your own capacity figures.
What to take away
- A quote is an operating document, not a sales letter. Eleven fields cover it, and nine of them are about what happens after the client says yes.
- The fields that prevent disputes are the boring ones: the unit, the overage rule, what unused capacity does, and how work is allowed to arrive.
- Never send a total without a buildup. A buyer who cannot see what a number is made of will compare it to a number made of something else.
- Put an expiry date on every quote. Without one, a price you set before your costs moved will be accepted a year later.
The template below uses placeholders rather than figures. Fill it from your own capacity arithmetic.
The eleven fields
| Field | What it must say | Common failure |
|---|---|---|
| Client and date | Who it is for, when issued, when it expires | No expiry, so an old price is accepted later |
| What you will do | The scope in the client's own words | A list of everything an assistant could do |
| What you will not do | Three named exclusions at least | Nothing, so every assumption is included |
| The unit | Reserved hours, task count, or coverage window | Two units named, and the generous one is assumed |
| Coverage | Days, hours, time zone, channels | A promise wider than the roster supports |
| Response and turnaround | Both, separately, with the hours they apply in | One word, "fast" |
| Overage | What happens above the unit: queue, bill, or agree an increase | Silence, which means absorbed |
| Unused capacity | Whether it lapses, rolls, and for how long | Custom becomes contract |
| Intake | How work arrives and what happens to work sent elsewhere | Personal channels, invisible scope growth |
| Price buildup | Setup, recurring, and anything variable, shown as lines | A single total |
| Term and exit | Start date, notice, and what the client gets back | Notice buried, exit undefined |
A field missing from your template gets settled during a disagreement, using whichever reading favors whoever is more upset.
The price buildup, using your own figures
Show three lines, not one.
Setup. The first month of an assignment costs more to deliver than the tenth: access, documentation, corrections, and supervision. Either price it as a line or accept that short relationships lose money.
Recurring. Reserved capacity multiplied by your cost per delivered hour, plus the loading that covers idle capacity, coverage and profit. That derivation is set out step by step in the guide on how to set profitable agency prices.
Variable. Anything outside the unit, priced per unit, with the unit defined. If you cannot define the unit, do not offer the line.
Draft the buildup with your placeholders visible, then replace them. A quote assembled from a competitor's number cannot be defended when the buyer asks how it was reached.
A worked structure, with placeholders
Scope: [anchor task], [recurring task], [recurring task]. Not included: [three named exclusions]. Unit: [N] reserved hours per month. Coverage: [days], [hours], [time zone], via [channel]. Response: acknowledged within [window] during coverage hours. Turnaround: [window] for standard requests.
Above the unit: work queues to the following month unless additional hours are agreed in writing at [variable line]. Unused hours: [lapse or roll, and for how long]. Intake: requests are accepted through [channel] only. Requests sent elsewhere are moved there and acknowledged from there.
Setup: [setup line], covering access, documentation and the first review cycle. Recurring: [recurring line] per month, invoiced [timing]. Term: starts [date], continues month to month, [notice] written notice either side. On exit the client receives [documented processes, exported files, transferred access]. This quote expires on [date].
That is the whole document. A page and a half at most. Length is not reassurance.
The three sentences that prevent most disputes
- "Work above the reserved hours is agreed in writing before it is done."
- "Requests sent to an assistant directly are moved to the agreed channel and answered from there."
- "Unused reserved hours [lapse or roll], and this is not varied by custom."
Each one is unglamorous and closes a gap that eventually costs real money. The wider set of terms a retainer agreement should carry is a separate document, and the reasoning behind the price it protects is in the pricing and profit guide.
What you may put in writing
A quote is advertising as well as a contract document. The FTC's advertising guidance for small businesses requires a reasonable basis before a claim is made, and implied claims count.
In a quote that means three things. Do not state a saving computed against the buyer's payroll, because that figure is theirs and not yours. Do not describe the experience of a bench you have not hired. Do not promise coverage hours you cannot staff on the worst week of the year.
Keep the quote with the job
File every issued quote against the client record, with the version, the date and the person who approved any exception. When you later reconcile delivered hours against what was sold, the quote is what you are reconciling against.
The IRS guidance on which business records to keep covers the financial retention baseline. Add your own rule for quote versions, because a quote that cannot be produced is a quote whose terms are whatever the client remembers.
For the labor input underneath the recurring line, the BLS occupational employment and wage statistics tables publish estimates by occupation, state and metropolitan area. That is a defensible way to sanity-check your assumed cost of a delivery hour when you have no history yet.
Before you send it
- Read the scope aloud. If you cannot say it in one breath, the buyer cannot repeat it to their colleague.
- Check the coverage line against the actual roster, including the week when somebody is away. Whether that promise is staffable is a question for the hiring and training guide.
- Check the recurring line against your floor. If it sits below, either the scope or the price is wrong, and the diagnosis is in what a healthy agency profit margin looks like.
- Confirm the quote matches what your public material promises, since a mismatch between the two is what the marketing and growth guide calls the fastest way to lose trust in the first month.
Common questions
Should the quote include prices for tiers the client did not ask about?
One tier above and one below is helpful. A full menu turns a decision into a research project.
How long should a quote stay valid?
Long enough for their approval process and no longer. If your costs move quarterly, a quote that outlives the quarter is a promise you did not intend.
Can I send a quote before a discovery conversation?
You can send a range with the assumptions stated, but a firm quote written without knowing how work arrives will be wrong about the only thing that matters.
What if the client wants to negotiate the overage rule?
Negotiate the number, never the existence of the rule. A retainer without an overage rule is an unlimited contract with a limit printed on it.
