# Freelancing - tips on quoting **URL:** \ **Category:** random\ **Created:** [September 5, 2008, 9:49am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/freelancing-tips-on-quoting/270120 "2008-09-05T09:49:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bombdogs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e68b1a/32.png) [@Bombdogs](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/Bombdogs)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2008, 9:49am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/freelancing-tips-on-quoting/270120/1 "2008-09-05T09:49:07Z")
Hi all, I’ve been freelancing for nearly a year now & I’m still struggling with the whole quoting process. On bigger projects I can sometimes spend hours preparing a quote detailing the work & often clients are coming back wanting it a lot cheaper or even just leaving the quote un-answered full stop. It’s extremely frustrating when you spend a lot of time researching the problems, understanding the full scope of a project & getting it all down on paper. I know clients are generally going to want things cheaper but I’m often finding that projects tend to need more hours than I even quote for - always a few un-anticpated problems, clients squeezing a few little extras in as the project progresses etc. - so my hourly rate never works out that fantastic. I enjoy the work & I’m still learning, so the hourly rate is not a problem right now, but as things progress it’s something that I know I’m going to need to address. How do others deal with quoting - are there structures/methods for reliable quotes? How do you manage client expectations? Do you prepare a preliminary quote before spending considerable time preparing a proper one? How do you decide a quote is competitive or not? Or is quoting just always going to be a difficult process? I feel a little isolated at the moment - programming in my office on my own - I have no real clue on how other professionals go about this. I’d very much welcome any input the community can give me. Many thanks, Paul