What a buyer wants in a sheet metal quotation: drawing, material, quantity, finish

The guards are ready, the truck is booked, and the buyer's assembly team says the sheet is the wrong thickness. That argument is settled, or lost, on the quotation. A buyer wants it to repeat back what you understood before it gives a rate: the drawing and its revision, the material grade and thickness, the quantity and the finish. Then the rate, and what it includes, in words. Write it so that someone at the buyer's end who never saw the enquiry could check your parts against it.

Where fabrication quarrels start

Almost every argument at delivery traces back to a word both sides read differently.

Thickness is the commonest. The drawing says "16 gauge", someone on the phone says "2 mm", and 16 gauge is close to 1.6 mm. "MS" can mean cold-rolled CRCA to the buyer and hot-rolled sheet to your store. "SS" can mean 304 to the engineer and 202 to the trader who sells you the sheet.

Finish comes next. "Powder coat grey" covers a dozen shades, smooth or textured, inside and out or outside only. Then hardware: hinges, latches, self-clinching nuts and gaskets, and who supplies and fits them. Then the dimensions on a bent box, inside or outside. Weld corners left as welded or ground flush. Delivery to the gate, or unloaded and stacked.

None of these is hard to agree. They only go wrong when nobody writes them down.

The quotation, block by block

Put the "what we understood" block first, above the rate, and ask the buyer to check it before you cut. Here is the layout, filled in for a set of machine guards. The figures and names are samples.

QUOTATION No. Q-0142        Date: 12 March    Valid till: 11 April
For: Purchase officer, XYZ Textile Machines   Your enquiry: drawing TG-114 rev C, and your message of 9 March

WHAT WE UNDERSTOOD  (please check before we cut)
Part:               Machine guard set, as drawing TG-114 rev C
Material:           CRCA 1.6 mm (16 gauge), supplied by us
Sizes:              Outside dimensions as drawing; bends within 1 mm
Quantity:           60 sets, one delivery
Process:            Laser cut, bent, corners MIG welded and ground flush
Finish:             Powder coat RAL 6011, textured, outside only
Hardware:           2 hinges and 1 latch per set, make as drawing, fitted by us
Packing, delivery:  Stretch-wrapped on pallets, to your gate; unloading by you

RATE
Per set:            ₹1,720 x 60 = ₹1,03,200, GST extra
Not included:       Changes after approval, site fitting, inspection beyond the drawing
Delivery:           Date agreed in writing once you confirm this block
Payment:            50% with the order, balance on delivery

One more rule. Wherever you had to assume something, write "assumed" beside the line, with what you assumed. "Thickness: 1.6 mm, assumed from the photo, please confirm" turns a silent guess into a question the buyer answers.

When the enquiry was a photo or a sketch

The block matters most here, because there is no drawing to fall back on. Name the source in the header, such as "your photo and sketch, sizes confirmed by phone". Mark every size taken from the photo as assumed. Getting a photo enquiry to the point where you can quote at all is a separate step. Our post on handling enquiries that arrive as a photo on WhatsApp gives the first replies.

Imagine: machine guards for a textile machinery builder in Coimbatore

Imagine a sheet metal shop in Coimbatore asked by a textile machinery builder for 60 sets of machine guards. The figures are illustrative. The drawing said "CRCA 16G". A WhatsApp message from purchase said "2 mm, powder coat green, with hinges".

The shop quoted one line: "MS 2 mm guard, powder coated, ₹1,850 per set". It made them in 2 mm. The green was a smooth shade it guessed, and the hinges came from its own stock. At delivery the assembly team found the guards too heavy for the hinge design. The drawing's 1.6 mm sheet had been swapped for 2 mm, a door a quarter heavier, and the hinges were chosen for the lighter door, so the doors sagged. The green did not match the machines, and the drawing had named a particular latch. Twenty sets came back, and the shop and the buyer argued over who should pay for the rework.

On the next order the shop sent the block above before cutting anything. Purchase corrected two lines. The latch make was wrong, and so was the texture. Everything else was confirmed in writing, and the guards were accepted on delivery. One habit came with it: when a drawing and a message disagree, the shop asks which is right before quoting.

When a shorter quotation is enough

A walk-in job at the counter, such as a bracket for a nearby workshop, needs size, material and rate on the job card. A full block there wastes everyone's time.

A repeat order on a drawing you have quoted before needs only the quantity, the date, the rate and a reference to the earlier quotation. Restate the drawing revision anyway, because that is the line that changes without anyone mentioning it.

Builder and contractor jobs turn on different terms: advances, how weight is counted, retention. Our post on getting fabrication work from builders and contractors covers those, and they sit alongside this block rather than replacing it.

After the quotation goes

Make one call within a day or two of sending it. Do not ask whether they have decided. Ask whether the "what we understood" block is right, and which line they would change. It is an easier question to answer, and it tells you how seriously they are looking. See quotation and proposal follow-up for the related service. If the quote goes quiet anyway, following up a quotation has the next messages.

Rewrite the quotation on your biggest buyer's desk

Put the block on top and check it against their drawing, line by line. Count every line you had left them to assume. An enclosure shop and a laser job shop will find different gaps, and the sheet metal and fabrication section goes through each kind of work. When you want your quotation format looked at by someone who has never seen your shop, tell us what you need.