Reading an Ajusteur quote, line by line

The header

The top of the page says Firm quote, who it is prepared for, the project it belongs to and your coordinator's name. It carries the date it was issued and the date it is valid until, which is 14 days later. After that date the page says so and asks you to message us, because board and hardware prices move. A quote with a number after it, such as Quote 2, is a revision, and the project page always shows the latest.

Before the quote there is an estimate: what the planner or our first reply shows from your rough sizes. The estimate moves when real measurements come in. The quote is the number we hold to.

The lines

Every line has an item, a detail, a quantity, a unit and a unit price, and the line total is the two multiplied. The unit tells you how that part of the work is counted. These are the units a kitchen quote uses, and a wardrobe or wall unit quote follows the same idea with boxes, doors and fittings.

Why materials, hours and hardware are separate

Because then you can check the quote. A price per running metre hides which board, which hinges and how many drawers it assumes. A quote by part shows them. Swap one lacquered door for a veneered one and only the fronts line moves. Add a drawer and a runner pair appears on the hardware line and a box on the cabinet line. Put two quotes side by side at the line level and the difference has a name.

Custom sizes, drawers and push to open fronts are priced by the workshop rather than by the planner, and the quote says so on that line. A measurement that was not taken on site is marked to be checked, and the line it feeds is marked with it.

Subtotal, VAT and what is not included

The subtotal adds the lines. VAT in the UAE is charged at a standard rate of 5 percent and the quote shows it on its own line, or says VAT not added when the total is shown without it. Then comes Not included, which names what the quote leaves out: work by your building's own contractors, for example, or the removal of an old wardrobe when it was not asked for. Read that section before you compare totals, because two quotes rarely exclude the same things.

Notes carry anything agreed in words: a finish sample to be confirmed, an access condition, a date the building needs.

Source: UAE Ministry of Finance: Tax

How you pay

New project quotes use three payments: 50 percent to start, 25 percent on delivery to site and 25 percent at the end of installation. The delivery payment needs the delivery recorded for every piece. The last payment follows the walk round at handover. The accepted quote records this schedule exactly, and an older quote keeps the schedule it was accepted with.

Card payments work up to AED 999,999.99, and above that we take a bank transfer. Each payment gets a tax invoice, and a refund gets a tax credit note.

The four terms printed on every quote

Every quote ends with the same four lines, and they mean what they say.

Accepting

You accept online by typing your full name as it appears on your ID and ticking the box. The page records who accepted which version and when, and you can print it or save it as a PDF. Then the first payment can be made from the same page and the dates are planned with you.

What moves the lines themselves is in the price guides: what sets a kitchen's price and what sets a wardrobe's. The rules on this page are also on prices and terms.