How to quote a bike repair and get it approved

Most disputes at pickup are about a number the customer heard once, on the phone, and remembers differently to you. A written quote stops that conversation. This guide sits under running a bike repair workshop and picks up where the booking ends.

Assess first, commit second

• Any job where you can't see the scope from the outside gets booked as an assessment, not as the work
• The bike goes on the stand, then a price exists
• That's the other half of "from" pricing: "overhaul from $180" is honest because the quote step follows. More in pricing a bike service menu

What a quote has to say

"Repairs: $340" is a number, not a quote. Break it into lines:

• Each part by name, with quantity and price. The chain is a separate thing from the cassette.
• Labour as its own line, described by what it is. "Fit and index new drivetrain" beats "labour, 2 hours".
• Anything you checked and are not doing. Brakes inspected and fine is free goodwill.
• A total the customer can say yes or no to.
• What happens if you find something else. One sentence saying you'll come back before spending more.

Get the yes in writing, from anywhere

Verbal approval is worth nothing at pickup. Send the quote so it can be approved from a phone, without a login, with the approval on the job. In Velobook you build the quote line by line and send it by email or text with an approve-and-pay link; once accepted, it becomes the booking. Standalone quotes work the same way for the customer who hasn't booked yet.

Handle the mid-job surprise properly

You'll strip a bike and find something the assessment couldn't see. Don't eat it, and don't describe a worn freehub over the phone to someone in a meeting. Show them: a short video of the actual part, sent to their phone, gets a decision in minutes. Velobook's repair-approval video links do this without an account, and the approval lands on the job.

Keep the counter and the bench agreeing

If the quote lives in the workshop and the till has never heard of it, the customer is charged something else at pickup. With a POS, push the agreed lines across rather than rekeying: on Lightspeed or Ascend the quote lands as a parked sale, on Shopify as a draft order. Velobook only reads your POS stock, never writes it, so a pushed sale doesn't move your inventory behind your back.

When the parts aren't in

An approved quote is also an order list. Tick approved parts through to ordering and flag the job as awaiting parts with an aging indicator, so the bike doesn't disappear into the corner for a fortnight. Covered in tracking parts and stock without a POS.

Pitfalls to avoid

• Quoting from the customer's description. "It's making a noise" is not a scope.
• One-line quotes. Without the breakdown you've sent a bigger number than they expected.
• Approval by phone call. No record, no timestamp.
• Quoting the same job differently depending on who's on. Templates keep three mechanics quoting one shop's prices.
• Letting an approved quote sit unordered. The approval is the starting gun on the parts.