How to write a machine quotation that the buyer's team can approve

Your quotation for the profile cutting machine ran to two pages: a specification copied from the brochure, a price, "installation extra", "warranty one year" and "delivery as per schedule". The engineer liked the machine. Then finance asked what "extra" would cost, the owner asked when the year starts, and purchase asked whether the fume extractor was in the price. They did not call you. They called the maker whose quotation already answered. A machine quotation gets approved when each person on the buyer's team finds their answer on the page, in plain words, without phoning you.

Who reads which part

The engineer reads whether the machine meets the specification, line by line. Purchase reads the commercial terms. It copies the price breakdown into a comparison sheet. Finance and the owner read one page, the summary, because that is what goes into the capex note. And the maintenance head reads the spares list and the warranty, because the breakdowns will be theirs.

Write for all four. A quotation written only for the engineer who asked for it is approved by nobody else.

The sections, in the order the team reads them

1. Summary page. The machine and model, and what it will do on the buyer's own job. Then the total price and what it includes, the delivery basis and the validity date.
2. Compliance with the specification. Take the buyer's specification and answer each line: complies, deviates (and how), or not offered. Never paste the brochure in its place.
3. Scope of supply. Everything that arrives in the crate: the machine, controller, software licence, tools, first set of consumables, manuals and drawings.
4. Exclusions and the buyer's scope. The table below. This is the section that prevents the argument at site.
5. Installation, commissioning and acceptance. Who comes and what the engineer does. Then how the machine is accepted: a trial on the buyer's own parts against figures agreed in advance, signed by the buyer's engineer.
6. Training. Who is trained, how many operators, where, and in which language.
7. Spares. A recommended spares list with prices, the consumables and their source, and how long you will stock spares for this model.
8. Warranty. When it starts, what it covers, and what it does not.
9. Commercial terms. Price basis, GST, freight, transit insurance, payment stages, and the event delivery is counted from.

Exclusions: the table that prevents the argument

Every machine sale has a line between your work and the buyer's. If that line is written as "civil and electrical work by customer", each side draws it somewhere different. Write it item by item.

Send this table again with your order acknowledgement, as a readiness list. Your engineer travels only when the buyer confirms each line on the right is done.

Plain words for the lines that cause trouble

Some phrases look complete to you and mean nothing to finance. Replace them.

• "Installation extra" becomes "Installation and commissioning by our engineer at your plant are included. The engineer's travel and stay are included."
• "Warranty one year" becomes, for example, "twelve months from commissioning or eighteen months from dispatch, whichever ends first. Consumables and damage from voltage swings are not covered."
• Instead of "Delivery as per schedule", write "dispatch a stated number of weeks after we receive a technically and commercially clear order and the advance."
• "Payment as discussed" should name each stage: an advance with the order, the balance against proforma before dispatch, and a final part after commissioning.
• Replace "Prices subject to change" with "valid until a stated date. After that, revised only for the steel rate or the controller's exchange rate, with the reason shown."

The warranty line is the one owners argue about most. The year has to start from a date both sides can see.

For example: a Nashik cutting machine and a Raipur fabricator

Imagine a maker of CNC plasma and oxy-fuel profile cutting machines in Nashik, quoting a structural fabricator in Siltara, Raipur. The quotation said "installation extra, foundation and power by customer". The buyer's finance head took the price as complete. At site, the cable from the main panel was not laid and the compressor line ended ten metres short. The maker's engineer waited for days. The buyer then held back the final payment until commissioning, and both sides argued over who should pay for the engineer's extra days.

On the next quotation the maker put the exclusions table on its own page and sent it again with the order acknowledgement as a readiness list. The engineer's visit was booked only after the buyer ticked every line. And the final payment was tied to commissioning, or to a stated period after the buyer confirmed the plant was ready, whichever came first.

When a shorter quotation is right

For a standard machine bought by an owner who decides alone, one page will do: the price, what is in the box, delivery, warranty and payment. The full nine sections would read as padding. For the lines that purchase, stores and accounts check on a smaller order, see a quotation format for a small factory.

If the buyer sends a price schedule of their own, fill in that format first and attach yours behind it. And never put terms in small print at the back that contradict the summary page. Purchase will find them, and the quotation goes back for a revision you could have avoided.

Read your last quotation as the finance head would

Open your most recent machine quotation and read it as the finance head would, looking only at the summary page and the exclusions. Wherever you would need to phone the maker to understand it, rewrite that line. Makers of industrial machinery and equipment who want the quotation and its follow-up done together can tell us what you need.