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A quote is the first thing a client sees from you in writing, and it is the licence until a contract replaces it. This page shows how to put one together: what to count before you write it, which lines it needs, and how it becomes an invoice once the job is booked. The fourth section is a template you can copy and fill in. It has no figures in it. Your figures come from your own rates, or from the VO Rate Calculator.
Before you write the quote
Do not write a number until you know the length of the script, every place the audio will run, the territory and the term. The questions to ask before you quote cover the rest.
Why a minimum fee exists
Every job has a floor of work before a single word is recorded. You read the script, mark it up, set up the booth, check your levels, record, edit, name the files and deliver them. A ten-word tag and a two-hundred-word spot both need most of that. A minimum fee is the smallest amount you will accept for any job, however short, so that the fixed part of the work is always paid.
Set your minimum once and keep it. State it on the quote when the script is short, so the client understands why the price does not fall with the word count. If a client asks for several short pieces at once, quote them together under one minimum rather than one minimum each, and say so. That is fairer to them and easier to approve.
The minimum covers the session. It does not cover the usage. A short script that runs on national broadcast still needs its usage priced for national broadcast.
Reading and counting the script
Read the whole script before you quote it. Count the words, and note anything that will slow the read: numbers, web addresses, product names, lists and legal lines. The voice over script timer turns a word count into a read time and into finished minutes, and tells you whether the copy fits the spot length the client asked for.
Count the versions as well as the words. A spot with three endings is three pieces of work to record and label, even when the body of the script is the same. Ask whether there are alternate takes, tags or lifts, because each one is a line on the quote.
For long narration, such as e-learning or a course, the count decides the price. Quote it per finished minute or per finished hour, and write down which count you used: the words in the script, or the length of the delivered files. The two rarely match exactly.
Then separate the two things you are charging for. The session fee pays for the recording. The usage fee pays for where the recording is used, how widely and for how long. The difference between a session fee and a usage fee is the line most quotes get wrong, and keeping the two apart is what lets you price a renewal later.
The quote template
Copy the block below into an email or a document and replace every item in square brackets. Leave a line out only when it does not apply, not because it is awkward to fill in.
Quote for [Client]
Project: [project name]
Date: [date]
Script: [word count] words, [number] versions
Session fee: [amount]
Usage: [media], [territory], [term], [exclusivity]
Usage fee: [amount]
Total: [amount]
Revisions included: [number] rounds of retakes on the approved script
Pickups: [policy]
Delivery: [file format] by [date]
Valid until: [date]
Payment terms: [deposit], balance within [number] days of delivery
Use outside the media, territory and term above needs a new agreement.How to fill in the lines that cause the most questions:
- Script. The word count and the number of versions, as agreed. If the script changes before the session, the quote changes with it.
- Session fee. The recording, including the retakes you name further down. For long narration, write the unit instead of a single fee: per finished minute or per finished hour.
- Usage. One line for each medium. Write the territory and the term in words, such as "national, one year", not an abbreviation. The client should be able to read the licence without asking you what it means.
- Exclusivity. Write "none" if there is none. A blank here invites an assumption.
- Valid until. A quote with no end date can be accepted a year later at last year's price. Give it a date.
The last line of the template is the one that protects you. It tells the client, in writing, that the fee buys the use described and nothing wider. If the audio later turns up somewhere the quote did not name, that sentence is where the conversation starts.
Retakes, revisions and new copy
Three different requests arrive after a session, and each one is priced differently.
A retake is a new read of the same words because the delivery was not right. Most quotes include one round, and some include two. Say how many on the quote, and say that they apply to the approved script.
A revision to the script is new words. If the client changes the copy after the session, that is a pickup, not a retake, and your pickup policy applies. State the policy plainly: whether short pickups are included for a set period after delivery, and what a new session costs after that.
New copy is a new job. A second spot, a version for another market or a longer cut needs its own session line and its own usage line. It is not a revision, however similar the words are.
Writing these three apart on the quote saves the argument later. A client who has read "one round of retakes on the approved script" knows what the fee covers before they book.
Deposits and payment terms
Payment terms belong on the quote, not the invoice. By the time you send an invoice the work is done, and a client who did not know your terms has no reason to accept them.
Say when you expect to be paid and how. For a new client, or a large job, ask for part of the fee before the session. A deposit confirms the booking and pays for the time you set aside for it. For a regular client you may be comfortable invoicing on delivery. Either way, write the number of days the client has to pay, and the date the quote stops being valid.
If the client works through an agency or a production company, ask who pays you and when. The client named on the brief is not always the one who settles the invoice.
From quote to invoice
When the client approves the quote, it becomes the invoice with very few changes. Keep the same lines in the same order: script, session fee, usage, usage fee, total. Add an invoice number, the delivery date and your payment details. A client who approved the quote can then check the invoice against it line by line, which is the quickest way to be paid.
If you price the job in the VO Rate Calculator, "Copy quote as text" puts the lines on your clipboard, ready to paste into an email or an invoice. "Download PDF" saves the same quote as a document you can attach. Both keep the media, the territory and the term written out in full, so the licence travels with the price.
Following up
Send the quote, then note the date you sent it. If you have not heard back in a few working days, send one short message asking whether the client has any questions. Do not lower the price in the follow-up. If the budget is the problem, the client will say so, and you can then change the usage rather than the rate: a shorter term, a smaller territory or fewer media.
If you subscribe, save each quote to your dashboard and mark it Sent when it goes out. Mark it Booked when the client approves it, or Lost if they do not. Over a few months the dashboard shows how many of your quotes turn into work, and what you have booked in total.
When you are ready to put figures on the lines above, price the usage in the calculator.