Guide
Invoice vs Quotation: What's the Difference?
People often use the words invoice and quotation as if they mean the same thing. They do not. Getting the difference right makes you look professional and keeps your records clean.
What a quotation is
A quotation (or estimate) is a price offer you send before any work happens. It says: here is what I will do, and here is what it will cost. It is not a demand for money, it is an invitation for the client to say yes.
What an invoice is
An invoice is a request for payment, sent after you have agreed the work or delivered it. It carries a unique invoice number, the amount due, and where to pay. An invoice is a financial record for both sides.
The normal order of events
Most jobs follow the same path: you send a quotation, the client accepts it, you do the work, you send an invoice, and once they pay you issue a receipt. For bigger orders a purchase order and a delivery note fit in between.
Because a quotation and an invoice share most of the same details, good tools let you turn an accepted quote into an invoice without retyping anything.
A quick way to tell them apart
If you are ever unsure which document you are holding, ask one question: has the work been agreed or done yet? If not, it is a quotation, an offer of a price. If yes, and you are asking to be paid, it is an invoice.
The quotation looks forward to work that might happen. The invoice looks back at work that has. Keep the two clearly labelled and numbered so your records, and your client, never confuse the offer with the bill.
