E-signatures for plumbers and heating engineers: get the job agreed in writing

The short answer

1. Write the quote so it can be agreed. What is included, what is not, the price and whether it includes VAT, and how long the price holds.
2. Send it as a PDF with a signing link. The customer reads it on their phone and signs with a finger. No app, no account, no password. The link stays live for fourteen days.
3. Price extra work before you do it. A seized valve or a moved radiator goes out as a short quote of its own, signed the same way.
4. Close the job with a sign-off. One page: the work done, anything left to do, 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 you already run your jobs through an app that 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 are written anywhere else.

Where the money goes on a heating or plumbing job

Most customers are straight, and most jobs end with a cup of tea and a bank transfer. The losses sit in the few that do not, and they nearly always come down to what was agreed and when.

• The boiler quote accepted on the phone. The customer rang and said go ahead. You ordered the boiler and the controls, and booked two days. A week later they have had another quote, and you are holding stock and an empty diary with nothing showing they agreed.
• The extra found when the system was drained. A valve that will not shut, a corroded length of pipe under the floor, a radiator that will not come off the wall in one piece. You priced it in the kitchen and cracked on. It gets queried on the final invoice, when the goodwill has gone.
• The quote that changed. The first quote was a combi swap. The second added a cylinder and moved the boiler to the loft. At the end the customer is quoting the first figure, and both files are called Quote.pdf.
• The rented house. The tenant lets you in, the landlord or the agent pays, and the person who said yes was never in the room. When the invoice is queried, nobody can show who agreed the price.

A quote the customer can say yes to

A signature only proves they agreed to the document in front of them. If the quote says “replace boiler” and little else, a signature proves they agreed to something vague. On a heating or bathroom job, these are the lines that save an argument later.

• The appliance or the suite, by make and model, so a later substitution is a conversation and not a surprise.
• What the job includes: taking out and disposing of the old one, the controls, any system clean you have priced, the flue, and making good where you have lifted boards or cut in.
• What it does not include. Decorating, floor coverings, and anything under a floor or behind a wall you have not opened yet.
• The price, and whether it includes VAT, in the figure itself: “£3,850 including VAT” or “£3,200 plus VAT”.
• How long the price holds, and the deposit, if you take one, before you order.
• How extra work is handled: that anything found once the system is drained is priced and agreed in writing before it is done.
• A quote number and your business details, so this quote cannot be mistaken for the last one.

Then send it. Save the quote as a PDF from whatever you write it in, upload it, put the signature box where the customer signs, and type their name and email address. Send it from your computer, or have the office send it while you are still in the house. The customer gets an email, taps the link, reads the quote and signs with a finger or taps to adopt a typed signature. The moment a customer has to invent a password, many of them stop, so there is none. Our guide to getting a quote signed online goes through it step by step.

Extra work found on the day

The original quote is rarely where the money goes. It goes on what you find once the water is off. Write the extra as a short quote of its own: what you found, what you will do about it, and what it costs. Send it before you do the work, and the customer can sign it on their phone while you are standing in the kitchen. Each one counts as one document.

On a rented house, send it to whoever is paying. If the landlord and the agent both need to agree, add them both: 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 everyone at once. Each person is recorded separately on the evidence certificate. One document can have up to 20 people signing it.

Sign-off when the job is done

A one-page sign-off closes the job: the work done, anything left to come back for and when, and the final price set against the quote and any extras agreed on the way. The customer confirms it before you load the van. If something is queried later, the conversation starts from what they signed, not from what anybody remembers.

It is not a certificate. Certificates, safety records and notifications for the work 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 your job app already takes a signature

Many job-management and quoting apps built for UK trades already let the customer sign the quote. 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 as a file you keep, or does it only exist inside the app?
• Does it record when the customer 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, extras and sign-offs you write in Word, Excel or your accounts software.

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 quotes 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. Take a deposit if the job needs one. A signature is evidence of what was agreed, not money in the bank.
• It does not fix a vague quote. See the checklist above.
• It does not prove authority. It records who agreed, by the email address the link went to. Whether an agent can commit a landlord to the price is between them.
• 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 engineers and the office on it at no extra cost. Each quote, extra or sign-off is one document, however many pages it has and however many people sign it. Your customers never pay and never need an account.

Questions

How do plumbers and heating engineers get quotes signed?

Most email a PDF and wait for a phone call. To get the yes in writing, send the quote with a signing link instead: the customer opens the email, reads the quote on their phone and signs with a finger or adopts a typed signature, with no app and no account. If your job app already takes a customer signature, it may be all you need.

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, an extra or a sign-off for plumbing and heating work 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.

The tenant let me in but the landlord is paying. Who signs?

Whoever is agreeing to pay. Send the quote to the landlord or the agent, and if both need to agree, add both: each gets their own private link and their own fields, and you can set the order they sign in. Each person is recorded separately on the evidence certificate.

Can I use it for certificates and safety records?

Pixasign signs and seals a PDF. Whether that suits a certificate or a safety record is a question for the scheme or body that issues the form, not for a software supplier, and we make no claim about it. This page is about the commercial paperwork: the quote, the extras and the sign-off.