A bid proposal is read twice: once by somebody deciding whether to give you the work, and once by somebody arguing about what the work included. The sections that win it and the sections that protect it are almost the same, which is convenient, and the exception is the phrase estimated quote, which sounds reassuring and means nothing. A document is either an estimate or a quote, and the difference decides what you are bound to.
Lead a construction bid proposal with the scope, not the price
What is being done, element by element, with the exclusions named. A customer comparing proposals cannot compare prices until they can compare scopes, and the proposal that makes that easy is the one that gets read to the end.
Allowances, programme and terms
Allowances with rates beyond them for anything that cannot be known. A staged programme with the assumptions named: access, decisions by dates, lead times. Payment terms and a validity period. These are the four sections that turn a price into an offer somebody can accept safely.
Never write estimated quote
A quote is a fixed offer for a defined scope and binds you once accepted; an estimate is a considered guess and does not. A contractors estimate template and a proposal estimate template are different documents and should be labelled as such. Hedging with both words gives you the obligations of a quote and the credibility of neither.
Questions people ask about contractor bid proposal
How long should a bid proposal be?
Long enough to define the scope and short enough to be read. Two to four pages suits most small contracting work; a twenty page document for a bathroom signals process rather than competence.
Should I include drawings or photographs?
Photographs of the existing condition are worth including and cost nothing. They settle later disagreements about what was there before, which is the most common argument on refurbishment work.
What if the customer asks for a breakdown?
Give it by element or stage rather than by labour and material. Element pricing is comparable between bidders; a labour and material split invites negotiation on your rates.