Quotation validity

Quotation validity is the period during which the price on a quotation is held open for the customer to accept. Once it passes, the supplier is free to re-price or withdraw the offer, and the customer has nothing left to accept. In English law a quotation is an offer, and an offer that has lapsed cannot be revived by the other side simply deciding to take it.

That legal position is also why the validity period is worth stating rather than assuming. An offer can be revoked at any time before it is accepted, provided the revocation actually reaches the other party first. A validity period does not create that right; it removes the argument, because the offer ends on a date both sides can read off the document.

How long to hold a price open

Set the period from the shortest cost you do not control. If your supplier holds its price to you for 30 days, your own quotation cannot safely run for 90 without you carrying two months of price movement on someone else's behalf. Where the cost is fixed by an agreed annual price list or a framework rate, a longer window costs you nothing and is worth giving.

Two other inputs push the period down. The first is the delay between acceptance and placing the purchase order, because the price you are exposed to is the one on the day you buy, not the day you were accepted. The second is currency: if the goods are bought in euros or dollars and sold in pounds, either quote a shorter window or state the exchange rate the price assumes and the date it was taken.

What happens when a quotation expires

An expired quotation is not re-priced automatically. Most suppliers will still honor one that has only just lapsed, but that is a commercial decision rather than an obligation. Re-pricing properly means checking current supplier prices against the original bill of materials, adjusting only the lines that have moved, and re-issuing with a new expiry date and a short note naming what changed. A stated reason is easier for a buyer to accept than a higher number with no explanation.

Working on an expired quotation without re-checking is the more expensive mistake, because the loss is built in before the job starts and only shows up at the final margin. Related to this: if no price is ever agreed at all, section 15 of the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 implies a term that a reasonable charge is payable for the service, and what is reasonable is a question of fact. That means it gets argued after the work is done, which is exactly what a dated quotation exists to avoid.

A price quotation that has expired should be re-issued as a new version rather than edited in place, so the record still shows what was quoted, when, and at what price, and the customer's request for quotation stays attached to both. Zigaflow's quotes keep each version against the same enquiry and carry the expiry date on the document.