Plain English

Glossary

The words that turn up on quotes, contracts and invoices, and what each one generally means when you are hiring anybody to do work for you.

Eighteen terms

What the words mean

General definitions, written to hold true for any kind of service work rather than ours in particular.

Allowancealso: provisional sum: A placeholder amount written into a price for something not yet chosen — a fitting, a finish, a fixture. The final bill moves up or down once the real choice is made, so it is worth asking what the allowance assumes.

Call-out fee: A flat charge for travelling to your address and looking at the job. Some businesses charge one, some do not, and some credit it against the work if you go ahead. Ask which before booking the visit.
Change orderalso: variation: A written record of work added to or taken out of the agreed job after it has started, together with what that does to the price and the finish date. A change agreed only in conversation is the most common cause of a bill nobody expected.

Deposit: Money paid before the work starts, usually to cover materials ordered for your job or to hold a date in the diary. A deposit should be written down with the rest of the price and it should be clear what it buys.

Estimate: An informed best guess at what the job will cost, based on what can be seen at the time. An estimate is allowed to move as more becomes known — that is the difference between it and a quote.

Final walkthrough: The look round at the end of the job with you present, before the last payment changes hands. It is the moment to raise anything unfinished, while everyone is still on site.

Invoice: The bill: what was done, what it cost, what has already been paid and what is left. A receipt is the separate proof that you paid it. Keep both — a warranty claim usually starts with one of them.

Labour and materials: The two halves of most prices: the time someone spends, and the things they fit or use while doing it. A price split into the two is easier to compare between businesses than a single number.
Lead time: The wait between agreeing the work and it actually starting. It covers scheduling and, where parts or materials have to be ordered in, their delivery too.
Liability insurance: Cover that pays out if a business damages your property or injures someone while working. It protects you, not only them, which is why it is a fair thing to ask about.
Licensed: Holding whatever registration the local authority requires for that kind of work. What needs a licence, and who issues it, varies by place and by trade — so the useful question is which licence, issued by whom.

Milestone paymentalso: stage payment: Payment released in steps tied to visible progress rather than all at the end. On a longer job it keeps both sides even: nobody is far ahead on money or far ahead on work.

Permit: Written permission from a local authority to carry out certain kinds of work, usually followed by an inspection. What needs one is set locally and changes from place to place — there is a general guide to permits on this site.
Punch listalso: snag list: The short list of small unfinished items noted near the end of a job — a touch-up, a missing cover, an adjustment. Writing it down turns “nearly done” into something with an end.

Quote: A fixed price for a clearly defined piece of work. Unlike an estimate it is not meant to move, and if it does, the reason should be a change in the scope rather than a change of mind.

Scope of work: The written list of exactly what is included and, just as usefully, what is not. Clearing up afterwards, disposing of the old item, making good around the edges — each of those is either in the scope or it is an extra.
Site visitalso: survey: A visit to measure up and see the real conditions before a firm price is given. Photographs help, but some jobs cannot honestly be priced until somebody has stood in front of them.

Workmanship warranty: A promise to put right faults in how the work was done, for a stated length of time. It is separate from the manufacturer's warranty on a part, which covers the part failing rather than the fitting of it.

A word here does not describe how one job is priced, scheduled or guaranteed. That is a conversation, and a phone call gets you a straight one.

Still unclear

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