How to Create a Price List for Services: Structure, Packages and Update Rules

BOTrento Team12 October 20267 min read

What your price list is for

A service price list has two jobs. It lets anyone on the team build a quote without asking the owner, and it keeps that quote within prices you've already approved. It isn't a brochure, and it doesn't replace judgement on unusual jobs.

Keep two versions that come from one source:

• Internal: every item, unit, cost assumption, minimum, surcharge and discount limit.
• Client-facing: packages and common extras, written in plain language.

If you edit the client-facing version on its own, the two versions will stop matching.

Service price list structure: five layers

Build these layers in order, because each one depends on the one before it.

1. Units: per hour, half-day, day, item, event or month. Use one unit per service. If you quote the same crew sometimes by the hour and sometimes by the day, your quotes won't be consistent.
2. Base items: the smallest things you sell, such as a technician day, a speaker set or a design hour. Each gets a code, a unit, a price excl. VAT and a line on what's included.
3. Packages: fixed combinations of base items for the quotes you send most often.
4. Extras: priced add-ons such as weekend work, express delivery or travel.
5. Rules: minimum order, surcharges, discount limits, price validity and payment terms. People usually keep these in their heads, so write them down.

Template you can copy

Every row needs a code, a unit and a note on what's included or excluded.

How to price service packages

• Offer about three options: an entry option, the one you expect most clients to choose and a complete option. Offer more and clients will ask for a custom quote anyway.
• Build packages from base items. If you change a base price, you can see straight away which packages it affects.
• Say what isn't included, such as delivery, travel, overtime or materials. One line here prevents most follow-up questions.
• Set the package discount once, and write down why, so people don't make up their own.
• Let clients add extras from your list instead of asking for a new package.

To turn a package into a real quote, use our service quote template with copy-ready text. For event or rental work, the pages for event and production companies and equipment rental firms show how this fits a typical enquiry flow.

Step by step: build the list from quotes you've already sent

1. Collect recent quotes from your email, your CRM (HubSpot, Pipedrive) or your accounting tool (Xero, QuickBooks).
2. List every line item in one spreadsheet, with its unit and the price you actually quoted.
3. Settle the inconsistencies. Where you quoted the same item at different prices, choose the right price and note why.
4. Fix units and codes. Merge items that are the same thing under different names.
5. Build packages from the combinations that come up most often.
6. Write the rules: minimum order, surcharges, discount approval, validity and payment terms.
7. Test it on live enquiries. Quote strictly from the list. Each time you have to improvise, add an item or a rule.

Most teams skip step 7, but it's the step that shows whether the list is complete.

Update rules: keep one version of the truth

• One owner changes prices. Everyone else suggests changes.
• Version and effective date on every list. Each quote records which version it was built from.
• One shared location for the current list. Move old versions to an archive folder.
• Quotes already sent: decide whether you honour the old price until a quote expires, and write the decision down.
• Review triggers: a fixed schedule, plus supplier price changes, new services or items the team keeps improvising.
• Discount authority: write down who can approve which discount, and up to what limit.

These rules also let you quote faster without losing margin. We cover this in how to speed up sales proposals without losing control of your prices.

AI-drafted quotes and how BOTrento handles them

If a language model drafts your quotes without approved prices, it will produce figures that sound plausible but may be wrong. If it has a coded price list with written rules, it has something concrete to work from, and the person reviewing the draft can check it line by line. Keep the list as a structured spreadsheet (CSV or XLSX), not as a PDF.

BOTrento Chief of Staff runs enquiries and quotes as a managed process. It watches your mailbox and the data you upload, including imported spreadsheets. It prepares draft replies, quotes and follow-ups in four languages, and it picks up promises such as "I'll get back to you by Friday" and reminds you about them. Nothing is sent without your approval. You check the draft against your price list and send it yourself. Every working day you get a morning overview of what needs attention.

BOTrento doesn't read the content of attachments, so import your price list rather than attaching it to emails. It also doesn't replace your CRM or accounting software. AI usage is included in the plan. You can see a case move from enquiry to draft quote in the process walkthrough, and plans are on the pricing page.

The 14-day free trial needs no payment card and no API key of your own. It starts only when you first upload data successfully, by import or by connecting your mailbox, and you have 7 days to prepare. Within 24 hours on working days, one of our people will contact you to help you connect your mailbox.