Three details decide whether a quotation protects you. The word « acompte »: without it, your client can walk away by forfeiting the money paid. The exemption wording instead of a rate, because VAT written by mistake becomes payable. Finally, an expiry date: without it, a client can come back six months later expecting today's price.
You answer a few questions, and all three appear on your quotation automatically.
Save your identity once: it will fill in the twelve forms. It stays on this device.
This answer decides three things: whether a quotation is compulsory, whether you ask for a company number, and what a payment on order will be worth.
Everything happens on your device: the quotation is built there, nobody receives your answers, not even us, and it all disappears with the tab.
Information verified on October 1, 2026. Document composed from the model published by the French authorities, and dated. It is not legal advice: you remain responsible for the accuracy of what you declare and sign.
The official pages where we read the rules and amounts applied here.
It is the first question we get, and the answer is clear: the reform covers invoices, which will have to travel through an approved platform from 1 September 2027 for a micro-enterprise. A quotation is not an invoice. It enters no numbering sequence, records no sale, creates no debt, and still goes out as a PDF or on paper. The only change is upstream: the invoice that follows will have to carry your business client's SIREN. The quotation is the right moment to collect it, while the client still wants to answer you.
If your quotation asks for money on order without saying what it is, that money counts as arrhes when the client is a private individual. The two words do not commit your client, or you, in the same way:
Under the VAT exemption, your quotation carries no tax line: only the exemption wording. The price written is exactly the price paid, with no gap between excluding and including tax. A rate shown by accident ends up on the invoice, where it becomes payable purely by appearing there, without your client being able to reclaim it. The wording follows the quotation's date: « TVA non applicable, article 293 B du CGI » until 31 December 2026, « TVA non applicable, article L. 233-3 du CIBS » from 1 January 2027, the day VAT rules move to a new code.
Between businesses, no general rule imposes a quotation: custom does. With a private individual, the consumer code requires you to inform them about the features, the price and the timescale before they commit, and a quotation is the simplest way to prove it. It becomes outright compulsory for a list set by regulation, where failing to provide one exposes you to an administrative fine. The detailed list, activity by activity, with its amount thresholds, is kept up to date by Service Public Entreprendre.
| The particular | What it covers | What happens without it |
|---|---|---|
| The date and validity | The day it was drawn up, and the date the offer lapses | A client comes back six months later with your old price |
| Your identity | Name, address and SIRET, preceded or followed by « EI » | The document commits nobody identifiable |
| The client and the place | Their name, their address, and where the work will be done | Nothing ties the price to that particular job |
| The itemised breakdown | Every service and supply, with quantity and unit price | The client disputes line by line, with no common reference |
| The overall sum | The total payable, and the payment terms | The price is still up for discussion when payment is due |
| Free or chargeable | Whether the quotation is charged for, and at what price | A chargeable quotation that was not announced cannot be billed |
To which the tax line is added: the exemption wording, or the rate if you are liable. The Bulletin officiel des finances publiques admits three formulations of that wording, including article 293 B bis for the European exemption.
Sofiane, a joiner, prices a bookcase at €2,310 and asks for 30% on order, that is €693.
His quotation is complete: itemised breakdown, exemption wording, one month's validity, it is all there.
He only writes « payment on order », without saying what the money is.
Three weeks later the client changes their mind. They forfeit the €693 and leave: without the word « acompte », the money counted as arrhes.
The timber was ordered and cut, and Sofiane kept €693 for a job that had already cost him more.
Hand over the quotation before the first hour of work. Signed afterwards, it proves nothing about the agreed price.
Have the client write « Bon pour accord », the date and their signature, and keep the signed copy.
Ask a business client for their SIREN now. Your invoice will have to carry it from 1 September 2027.
Number your quotations in a series separate from your invoices, whose sequence has to stay unbroken.
A signed quotation brings in no money. Your turnover counts on collection, never on signature.
The deposit does become turnover the day the money arrives, and contributions are due at the next deadline.
Any extra goes through a written amendment, dated and signed before the work. Without one, the client only owes the amount on the quotation.
Keep the quotation with the invoice. They are the first two documents in your file if payment never comes.
A quotation is not affected by electronic invoicing: the reform covers invoices between businesses, which will have to go through an approved platform from 1 September 2027 for a micro-enterprise. A quotation remains an offer of contract, before the sale: it circulates freely, as a PDF or on paper. The only indirect effect is that the invoice that follows will have to carry your business client's SIREN.
Invoicing more than the quotation requires the client's written agreement. The signed quotation fixes the price, and an extra decided during the job can only be claimed after an amendment dated and signed before the additional work is carried out. A client who discovers the overrun on the final invoice is entitled to pay only the agreed amount.
Nothing requires quotations to be numbered like invoices. Unbroken numbering, with no gaps or duplicates, is an obligation specific to invoices. Numbering your quotations is still handy for finding the one an invoice picks up, provided you use a separate series so as not to blur the sequence the tax authority checks.
A written agreement to a quotation, even sent by email or messaging, counts as acceptance: what matters is proving that the client approved that particular document, on that date. In activities where a quotation is compulsory, the wording written on the document and then signed remains the safest form, because it ties the agreement to an identifiable version of the offer.
A signed quotation does not count towards your turnover, and that is the most widespread confusion. In a micro-enterprise, turnover counts on collection: neither signing the quotation nor issuing the invoice brings in a euro. The deposit, on the other hand, counts from the day the money reaches the account, before the work has even started.
Invoicing properly is half the work.
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