E-signatures for kitchen and bathroom fitters: the quote, the layout and every change, signed

The short answer

1. Put the quote and the layout in one PDF. The price, what is included, who supplies what, and the drawing with its revision on it.
2. Send it with a signing link to both homeowners. Each signs on their own phone with a finger. No app, no account, no password. The link stays live for fourteen days.
3. Get each change signed before you do it. The sink moved to the window, the tiles swapped, the floor that needs levelling: a short quote of its own, signed the same way.
4. Close the job with a snag list and a sign-off. What is left, when it will be done, and the final price against the quote.
5. Keep the sealed PDF. It comes with an evidence certificate of who signed and when, and anyone can check it free at pixasign.co.uk/check.

If your design software or job app already takes a customer signature, it may do all of this for you. The rest of this page is the detail, and where Pixasign fits if your quotes and drawings are made anywhere else.

Where the money goes on a fit

A kitchen or bathroom is a long job with a lot of decisions in it, and the customer makes most of them before you start and changes a few once you have. The arguments are rarely about the work. They are about which version of it was agreed.

• The drawing that changed. The sink went to the window in the second layout and back again in the third. The worktop was cut to one of them. The customer remembers another.
• Who was supplying what. The units came from you, the appliances from the customer, the tiles from a showroom. When something arrives late or wrong, everybody remembers the split differently.
• The change made mid-job. The customer saw the tiles on the wall and wanted different ones. The second box was ordered and the first could not go back. It gets queried on the final invoice.
• What the strip-out found. Walls out of true, a floor that needs levelling, old pipework in the wrong place. Priced in the room, agreed with whoever was at home, and news to the other homeowner when the bill arrives.

A quote and a drawing, signed together

A signature only proves they agreed to the document in front of them. A quote that says “supply and fit kitchen as discussed” proves they agreed to a conversation. Put the quote and the layout drawing in the same PDF, so the price and the plan are signed together, and put the revision letter and date on the drawing. A signed quote that points to “the drawing” leaves room to argue about which drawing.

• Who supplies what: units, worktops, appliances, sanitaryware, tiles, taps. Yours at a price, or theirs to have on site by a date.
• What the job includes: the strip-out and disposal, the trades you are bringing in, and making good.
• What it does not include. Decorating, flooring, and anything found behind the old units or under the old floor.
• The price, and whether it includes VAT, in the figure itself: “£16,500 including VAT” or “£13,750 plus VAT”.
• The stage payments: what is due before you order, on delivery, and on completion.
• When you would start, roughly how long the room is out of use, and how changes are priced and agreed.

If you fit for a showroom or a retailer, the customer’s order may sit with them, on their paperwork. Agree with them whose paperwork covers what before you send your own.

Two homeowners, two signatures

Save the quote and drawing as one PDF from whatever you make them in, upload it, put a signature box for each homeowner, and type their names and email addresses. Each gets their own private link and their own fields, so nobody can sign in the wrong place. You can set a signing order, or turn it off and send to both at once, which is usually faster. Each person is recorded separately on the evidence certificate, so “my partner agreed that, not me” has an answer.

They get an email, tap the link, read it on their phone and sign with a finger or tap to adopt a typed signature. There is no password to invent. Send it from your computer, or have the office send it while you are still in the house. Our guide to getting a quote signed online goes through it step by step.

Changes once the room is stripped

Write each change as a short quote of its own: what changes, why, what it costs, and what it does to the finish date. If it changes the layout, attach the new drawing with its new revision. Send it before you do the work or order anything for it. Each change counts as one document. Our page for tradespeople and builders covers the same habit on bigger jobs.

Snagging and sign-off

At the end, walk the room with the customer and write the snag list: what is left, who is doing it, and by when. Send it with a sign-off for everything else, and the final price set against the quote and the changes agreed on the way. When the snags are done, a second short sign-off closes the job. The last stage payment is then asked for against something both of you signed.

Certificates and building control notifications for work inside the job, such as the electrics or the gas, are separate documents with their own forms, set by whoever issues them. Whether any of those can be signed this way is a question for that scheme or body, not for a software supplier, and this page makes no claim about them.

If you already have a signature box

Some kitchen design software and many job-management apps built for UK trades already let the customer sign. If yours does, use it: one less tool and one less bill. Three things are worth checking about the one you have.

• Can you download the signed quote and drawing as a file you keep, or do they only exist inside the software?
• Does it record when each homeowner signed, and from what device?
• Could somebody else, the customer or a solicitor, check that the file has not been changed since it was signed?

If the answer to the last one is no, the signature is a picture on a page. That is the gap a sealed document fills, for the quotes, drawings, changes and sign-offs you make anywhere else.

What you are holding afterwards

When the last person signs, Pixasign seals the whole file. The seal carries a timestamp from DigiCert, an independent timestamp authority. It is applied once, after the last signature, and that time does not come from us. The time of each earlier step is recorded by our server.

With the sealed PDF comes an evidence certificate: the name and email address it went to, when it was opened and signed, the IP address and approximate location, the device, and digital fingerprints of the file before and after sealing. The events are hash-chained, each locking in the one before. The chain’s final value is printed on the evidence certificate every party is sent, so a later change to the record would not match their copy.

The seal and its timestamp are inside the PDF. Anyone can check a document free at pixasign.co.uk/check: no account, no sign-in, no card. It tells you whether Pixasign sealed the file and whether it has changed since, and it decides that from Pixasign’s own records. Download your signed documents whenever you like. The files sit on hardware in Nuremberg, Germany, with encrypted backups in Reykjavík, Iceland, and card payments are handled by Stripe. The detail is on our security page.

What a signature does not do

• It does not get you paid. Stage payments still need asking for. A signature is evidence of what was agreed, not money in the bank.
• It does not fix a vague quote or an unlabelled drawing. See the checklist above.
• It does not settle who was right about the work. It records what was agreed, by whom and when.
• Some documents carry extra formalities, deeds and certain land matters among them. That is a question for whoever drafts them, not for a software supplier. Our guide to whether an electronic signature is legally binding in the UK covers where the lines are.

What it costs

Pixasign is free for 1 user and 3 documents a month, with no card. Paid plans are one flat monthly price with unlimited users: £19 a month inc VAT for 50 documents, £59 inc VAT for 200 and £99 inc VAT for 500. Unlimited users means no charge per user: an account starts with room for 200 active people, and we raise that free on request. Put the fitters, the designer and the office on it at no extra cost. Each quote, change or sign-off is one document, however many pages it has and however many people sign it, so a fit with a quote, two changes and a sign-off is four. Your customers never pay and never need an account.

Questions

How do I get a kitchen or bathroom quote signed?

Put the quote and the layout drawing in one PDF and send it with a signing link. Each homeowner opens the email, reads it on their phone and signs with a finger or adopts a typed signature, with no app and no account. The link stays live for fourteen days. If your design software or job app already takes a signature, it may be all you need.

Can both homeowners sign the same quote?

Yes. Add each of them as a signer: each gets their own private link and their own fields, and you can set the order they sign in or send to both at once. Each person is recorded separately on the evidence certificate, and the file is sealed when the last of them signs.

The customer changed the tiles after I ordered them. What should I have done?

Written the change as a short quote of its own, what changes and what it costs, including the tiles already ordered, and had it signed before ordering the new ones. It is one document, and the customer signs it on their phone. It does not settle every argument, but it settles which version was agreed.

Is a quote signed on a phone screen binding?

The Law Commission concluded in 2019 that an electronic signature is capable of executing a document where the signer intends to authenticate it and any formalities for that document are met, and a quote, a change or a sign-off for a kitchen or bathroom fit is ordinary commercial paperwork. A small number of document types carry special formality requirements; if you are unsure whether something you are sending is one of them, ask a solicitor rather than a supplier. What decides a dispute in practice is evidence: who agreed, to which version, and when.