FREE PRICE LIST TEMPLATE
Free price list template for service businesses
A price list template in Word and PDF, filled in for a painting business, every line explained, how to set the prices on it — and when to show them on your website.
Word and PDF · Free · No email, no sign-up
The short answer
A price list is the menu of what you sell: every service on its own line, what it includes, the unit you charge by and the price. It needs your business details, the date the prices took effect, your service area, how to book, the list itself — service, what's included, unit, price — and the fine print: deposit, travel and tax.
It does two jobs. For the customer it answers “what will this cost?” before they call, which is the question that stops most of them calling. For you it's the source every quote is priced from, so two customers with the same job get the same price and you never work out a number from scratch at the kitchen table.
Price the unit, not the hour. “Walls and trim, two coats — $400–$450 per room” is a line a customer can budget from. “$65 an hour” makes them guess how slow you are.
FREE TEMPLATE · WORD AND PDF
The price list template, filled in
Below is the template filled in for Harbor Coat Painting, a fictional business — the same one whose quote, invoice and receipt our other guides draw, so you can see the quote's lines come straight off this list. The download is the same sheet with [bracketed] lines to replace — free, no email address, no sign-up.
Example · fictional business
Harbor Coat Painting Portland, ME (207) 555-0164 · hello@harborcoat.example | PRICE LIST |
Prices valid From October 1, 2026 Every job is quoted in writing before we start Minimum charge $350 per visit | To book Call or text (207) 555-0164 hello@harborcoat.example Free quotes — we reply within two business days |
| Service | Unit | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Interior walls and trim, two coats Standard room up to 12 × 14 ft. We move light furniture and mask floors and fixtures. | per room | $400–$450 |
| Prep: patch, sand, caulk and mask Charged for every room we paint. Drywall repair bigger than a fist is extra. | per room | $95 |
| Ceilings, one coat flat white Standard room. Vaulted or textured ceilings quoted on site. | per room | from $240 |
| Doors, closets and built-ins Both sides, two coats of semi-gloss. | per door | $85 |
| Exterior siding and trim, two coats Includes power wash and scrape. Three-story homes and lifts quoted on site. | per sq ft | $2–$3.50 |
| Deck and fence staining Cleaning plus one coat of semi-transparent stain. | per sq ft | $2.50–$4 |
| Cabinet refinishing Doors and drawer fronts off, sprayed, two coats. | per front | $90–$125 |
| Drywall repair, wallpaper removal, small fixes Billed by the hour and confirmed before we start. | per hour | $65 |
| Paint and materials Premium interior eggshell, primer, caulk, tape — itemized on your quote. | per job | cost + 10% |
| Color consultation One hour in your home with samples. Free with any job over $1,500. | per visit | $90 |
Deposit
A deposit books your start date; the balance is due when the job is done. Pay by card, check or bank transfer.
Sales tax
Sales tax, 7% on materials (example). Labor is not taxed.
Every figure on the example is an example, not a price guide — use your own rates; the trade pricing guides linked below have the 2026 US ranges. The Word file is a standard .docx you can edit in Word, Google Docs or any app that opens Word documents; the PDF prints as-is.
Your prices and your website, one place
Start your website — your price book lives beside it
Add what you do, your town and your business name, and Zarla builds the site from that one line. The same dashboard keeps a private price book — every service with its price and unit — and builds your quotes and invoices from it.
Already have a website? Bring it across →Zarla keeps your old page addresses where it can and redirects the ones that change, helping you keep the Google standing you've built.
LINE BY LINE
What goes on a price list
Every line on the template, in order, and what to write on it.
| The line | What to put there |
|---|---|
| Your business details | Business name, phone, email, website — and your license number if your trade is licensed where you work. A price list travels: it gets forwarded, printed and pinned to fridges, so it has to say how to reach you. |
| The date, and the service area | When these prices took effect, and where you work. The date is what lets you raise prices without an argument — “that was the 2025 list.” |
| Prices valid, and the rule | How long the prices hold, and the line that every job is quoted in writing before you start. The list is a guide to what you charge; the quote is the price for one job. |
| How to book | Phone, email, website, and how fast you reply. A price list without a next step is a brochure. |
| Service | One line per thing a customer can buy on its own, in their words — “interior walls and trim, two coats”, not “painting services”. Most-booked services first. |
| What's included | The small print under each service: the size it covers, how many coats or visits, what you move and what you don't. It's the line that stops the “I thought that was included” call. |
| Unit | What the price is per: job, room, hour, square foot, linear foot, door, visit. Pick the unit a customer can count themselves. |
| Price | One number where you can (“$95 per room”), a range where the job varies (“$400–$450”), a “from” price where it varies a lot (“from $240”), and cost-plus for materials (“cost + 10%”). Never leave a price blank — “call for pricing” is the line customers skip past. |
| Deposit and travel | What books a date and when the balance is due, and how to pay; whether you charge for travel beyond your area. |
| Tax | Whether your prices include tax or add it, and on what. In the US, whether sales tax applies to your work — and whether it falls on the materials, the labor, both or neither — depends on your state, so keep materials and labor on separate lines and check your state's revenue department or your accountant. Outside the US: a GST-registered business in Australia or New Zealand and a VAT-registered business in the UK or EU show consumers prices that include the GST or VAT, and show the tax on the invoice the same way. Confirm the details with your accountant. |
STEP BY STEP
How to make a price list
An evening with the last twenty invoices and a cup of coffee.
List everything you've been paid for
Go through the last twenty invoices and write down every line you charged for. That's your service list — not what you could do, what people actually buy.
Pick the unit for each one
Per room, per hour, per square foot, per visit. The right unit is the one a customer can count before they call you.
Set the price from your numbers
Your hourly cost (wages, van, insurance, tools, the hours you don't bill) × the hours a job takes, plus materials and your margin. Check it against the going rate in your trade's pricing guide, then round to a number you'd say out loud.
Write what's included
One line under each service: the size it covers, how many coats or visits, what's extra. Write the extras down too — they're the lines that earn the margin.
Add the fine print
Deposit, travel, tax, and the line that every job is quoted in writing before you start. Date it.
Save it where your quotes are
The printed list is for customers; the working copy belongs in your quoting tool or price book, so every quote reads from the same numbers. Review it every January and after every supplier price rise.
How to set the prices on your price list
Start from what the job costs you, not what the competition charges. Add up a year of costs — wages including your own, the van, insurance, tools, software, advertising — and divide by the hours you can actually bill (for a solo trade, about 1,000 to 1,200 a year once you take out quoting, driving and paperwork). That's your break-even hourly cost. Add the profit you want, and you have the rate every unit price is built from. If you're still working out what's normal for your trade, our pricing guides have the 2026 US ranges: how much a plumber should charge, handyman rates, how much to charge for house cleaning, how much to charge for pressure washing, junk removal pricing, car detailing pricing.
Price by the unit the customer can see. Rooms, square feet, doors, visits. Time your last few jobs, divide by the units, and you know what a room costs you in hours. An hourly rate belongs on the list only for the work nobody can size in advance — repairs, troubleshooting, “while you're here” extras — and even then with a minimum.
Use ranges and “from” prices honestly. A range says the job varies by something you'll measure on site (ceiling height, how many coats the color needs). A “from” price says the cheapest version is this, and the quote will say the rest. Both beat a blank. Neither excuses a quote that comes in above the range without a reason written on it.
Three packages beat twenty lines. For the service you sell most, offer a good-better-best version — a basic, the one most people pick, and the premium — each with a price. Customers compare your packages with each other instead of comparing your price with the next business, and most pick the middle one.
Raise prices on a date, not in an argument. Put the date on the list, review it every January and after every supplier increase, and send the new list to regulars before it takes effect. Customers accept a dated price rise; they argue with a surprise one.
Should the prices be on your website? Put the flat ones there — the services you can price per unit without seeing the job — and the “from” prices for the rest. A page with no prices loses the people who would have paid you and keeps the ones hunting for the cheapest; a page with your real units and ranges gets fewer calls, from people who've already decided you're in their budget. Keep the full working list, with your notes and margins, private — that's the price book inside your quoting tool.
Keep your working price list in Zarla's price book
A printed price list is for the customer. The one that runs your business is the private version — the price you actually charge for each service, the unit, and the note to yourself about why — and it belongs where your quotes are written, not in a drawer.
If your website is on Zarla, the quoting tool keeps a price book in the same dashboard: every service you sell with one price, a range or a “from” price, per job, hour, square foot or your own unit, and a private one-line note. Zarla shows what you last charged for each service, lists the services on your website that don't have a price yet, and lets you add a line to a quote or an invoice straight from the book — so a quote takes two taps per line and the arithmetic is done for you. The book never appears on your website: your site shows what you do, the book holds what you charge, and the quote is where a customer sees the two meet. In the US, several trades can start their book from a typical price range in one of our published pricing guides, which you accept, edit or dismiss; Zarla never sets a price on its own.
Next step: turn a line of the list into a job — how to write a quote, then how to write an invoice and how to write a receipt, with the same painting job on every page. The free work order template is the sheet the crew takes on site in between.
Price lists: common questions
Your business name and contact details (and your license number, if your trade is licensed); the date the prices took effect and your service area; how to book; then one line per service with what's included, the unit you charge by and the price; and the fine print — deposit, travel, and whether tax is included. Add a line that every job is quoted in writing before you start, so a reader knows the list is a guide and the quote is the price.
Write down everything you've charged for on your last twenty invoices, pick a unit for each (per room, hour, square foot, visit), work out what each unit costs you in hours and materials, add your margin, and round to a number you'd say out loud. Write one line of what's included under each service, add the fine print, date it, and save the working copy where your quotes are written. The template on this page is laid out in that order.
A price list is your standard prices for every service, published once and valid until you change it. A quote is the price for one customer's specific job, worked out from the list — these rooms, this many coats, this start date — and it's the quote, not the list, that sets the price for that job. Put “every job is quoted in writing” on the list, and see how to write a quote for the next step.
By the job (or the room, the square foot, the visit) wherever you can size the work in advance — customers can budget for it, and a fast worker earns more, not less. By the hour only for work nobody can size until it's open: repairs, troubleshooting, extras found on site. Put a minimum on the hourly line, and say on the quote which lines are flat and which are hourly.
A starting price: the cheapest version of that service costs this, and the quote will say the rest. It's honest when the job genuinely varies by something you'll measure on site, and it keeps a customer reading instead of bouncing off a blank. The rule is that a quote above the “from” price should say why — the vaulted ceiling, the third coat — on its own line.
Review it every January and after any supplier price rise, and date every version. Most trades raise prices once a year; the ones who don't end up raising them 15% at once and losing regulars. Send the new list to repeat customers before it takes effect, and keep the old one — it settles “but last time you charged…”.
In the US there is no general rule that a service business must publish a price list, though some trades have their own — auto repair shops in some states must post their labor rate, and in many must give a written estimate before work starts. In Australia, consumer law says any price you show consumers must be the total price including GST; in the UK and EU, a price shown to consumers should include VAT. Check your local rules.
Say which, on the list. Businesses selling to homeowners usually show the price the customer pays; businesses selling to other businesses often show prices before tax. In the US, whether sales tax applies to your work — and whether it falls on the materials, the labor, both or neither — depends on your state, so keep materials and labor on separate lines and check your state's revenue department or your accountant. Outside the US: a GST-registered business in Australia or New Zealand and a VAT-registered business in the UK or EU show consumers prices that include the GST or VAT, and show the tax on the invoice the same way. Confirm the details with your accountant.
Yes. It downloads free as a Word document and a PDF — no email address, no sign-up. Edit the Word file in Word, Google Docs or any app that opens Word documents, or print the PDF and fill it in by hand. There's no Excel version; if you'd rather work in a spreadsheet, the same three columns — service, unit, price — are all it needs.
A private one. If your website is on Zarla, the quoting tool keeps a price book in the same dashboard: every service with one price, a range or a “from” price and its unit, plus a private note to yourself. You add lines to quotes and invoices straight from it, and it never appears on your website. For a printed list to hand customers, use the template above.
Quote from your own price book
Add what you do, your town and your business name, and Zarla builds the site from that one line — with a private price book, quotes, invoices and receipts in the same dashboard.
Already have a website? Bring it across →Zarla keeps your old page addresses where it can and redirects the ones that change, helping you keep the Google standing you've built.