A fence proposal should state the scope with run lengths and gates, a materials specification, site and access assumptions, boundary and permit notes, a payment schedule, exclusions and how long the price stands. AI turns your site-visit notes into clear wording for each part; you supply measurements and prices, and a person reviews every figure.
Proposals fail in predictable ways. A line that says "supply and install fence" gives the homeowner nothing to compare against the other two quotes. A missing exclusion becomes an argument at completion over a stump nobody mentioned. A figure copied from last week's job ends up in this week's total. AI is good at the first problem, because it can turn terse notes into plain, specific sentences, and it is a useful second reader for the third. It cannot measure the site, so the numbers stay yours. For pricing a job from a run length, the fence pricing tutorial comes first; this one starts when the numbers exist.
The ten parts of a fence proposal, in the order a homeowner reads them
A homeowner reads a proposal from the top, decides in the first half page whether you understood the job, and skims the rest for the price and anything alarming. Put the parts in that order and decide who writes each one before you start.
| Part | What it must say | Who writes it |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Cover note | Who it is for, the job in one line, the date, how long the price stands, the next step | AI drafts, you check the date and total |
| 2. Scope summary | Run length for each side, height, style, gates, removal of the old fence | AI drafts from your notes; you supply every number |
| 3. Materials specification | Posts, rails, boards or panels, fixings, finish | You supply the spec; AI formats it |
| 4. Gates | For each gate: opening width, type, hardware, posts | You supply; AI formats and lists the open questions |
| 5. Site and access assumptions | Access route, slope, ground, who clears the line | AI drafts from notes |
| 6. Boundary and permit notes | Who marks the line, the permit position, any association approval | Standing wording your lawyer has checked; AI picks the right version |
| 7. Price and options | Total, the main lines, optional extras with their own prices | You, from your quoting tool; AI checks the sums |
| 8. Payment schedule | Stages, triggers and amounts | You; AI checks the sums |
| 9. Exclusions | What is not included, and what it costs if wanted | AI proposes a list; you decide each line |
| 10. Acceptance | How to accept, the validity date, what happens next | Standing wording |
Notice how many of those are standing wording that never changes between jobs. Write them once and reuse them. That leaves parts 2, 5 and 9 as the real drafting work on each job, and those are where AI saves the most time.
From site-visit notes to scope wording: one job, start to finish
Here is the main example, and it is the same $6,400 job that the fence contract tutorial uses for its permit and payment scenarios, so you can follow one job from proposal to paperwork. The estimator has just left the site. These are the notes, typed fast on the way back to the van (illustrative).
Back boundary 16 m + street side 8 m = 24 m total. 1.8 m high privacy fence, treated softwood.
Back run falls about 0.9 m east to west: step the panels.
Old fence rotten, remove all 24 m and dispose of it.
Access: 900 mm side passage by garage, carry everything, no machine.
Gates: 1 m walk gate at back corner; 3 m double drive gate on street side.
Back line: survey pins at both back corners, customer to expose. Street side: old fence assumed on line, customer to confirm.
Street side may have a lower height limit, customer to ask the permit office.
Customer says water pipe runs along garage wall, away from the line. No locate yet.
Customer wants it unstained. Start within 3 weeks of acceptance or permit. 3 days on site.
Price: removal 480; fence 24 m at 150 = 3,600; stepped ground 500; walk gate 520; drive gate 1,150; site visit and measuring 150; total 6,400.The prompt turns that into a scope section a homeowner can read. Its most important rule is the separate "Confirm before sending" list, which stops the model from smoothing over anything the notes left open.
Turn these site-visit notes into the scope section of a fence proposal for [Customer].
Rules:
- Short numbered items in plain English. Use only facts in the notes; do not add measurements, materials or promises.
- Anything unclear or unconfirmed goes in a separate list headed "Confirm before sending", not in the scope.
- Do not say whether a permit is needed, that work meets any code, or that the fence will last any length of time.
- List the assumptions separately.
Notes: [paste]This is the sort of draft that comes back (illustrative).
Scope of work
1. Remove and dispose of the existing fence along the back boundary (16 m) and the street-facing side (8 m), 24 m in total.
2. Supply and install 24 m of 1.8 m high timber privacy fence in pressure-treated softwood, with the panels stepped to follow the slope along the back boundary (a fall of about 0.9 m, east to west).
3. Supply and install one 1 m walk gate at the back corner and one 3 m double gate on the street side.
4. Leave the site tidy, with spoil and offcuts removed.
5. All work completed to a high standard and built to withstand all weather conditions.
6. Permits included.
Assumptions
- Materials are carried in through the 900 mm side passage; no machine access.
- The Customer will expose the survey pins at both back corners.
- Three working days on site, starting within three weeks of acceptance.
Confirm before sending
- Customer to confirm the street-side line is the position of the existing fence.
- Customer to check height limits with the local permit office.
- Utility locate not yet requested.Items 1 to 3 are right and specific. The trouble is in the last three scope lines, and a person must catch them. Item 4 promises spoil removal, which the notes never mention and which costs money, so decide whether it is in the price and say so either way. Item 5 is a promise nobody can prove, and "all weather conditions" is the kind of phrase a customer quotes back after the first storm. Item 6 is simply invented: the notes say the permit position is unknown, and "permits included" would put a cost and a duty on you that nobody agreed. Delete 5 and 6, settle 4, and keep the rest. The "Confirm before sending" list is the best part of the output, because it turns three loose ends into a to-do list before the document reaches the customer.
The price section comes from your quoting tool or spreadsheet, not from the model. For this job it looks like this.
| Line | Basis | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Remove and dispose of the old fence | 24 m | $480 |
| Supply and install the fence | 24 m at $150 a metre | $3,600 |
| Extra labour for stepping panels on the slope | Back run | $500 |
| 1 m walk gate with hardware | Each | $520 |
| 3 m double gate with hardware and drop bolt | Each | $1,150 |
| Site visit, measuring and permit enquiry | Once | $150 |
| Total | $6,400 |
The same notes also give you the cover note. Ask for four lines and check the total and the date by hand.
Hi [first name], thank you for showing us around on [day]. This proposal covers replacing 24 m of fence along the back and street side with a 1.8 m timber privacy fence, a walk gate and a double drive gate, for $6,400. The price stands until [date]. To go ahead, reply to this email and we will send the contract and the deposit request.
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Buy nowA materials specification two quotes can be compared against
"Treated timber fence" covers both cheap and expensive builds. A specification names what you will actually build, so the homeowner can compare like with like, and so you can settle a later disagreement by pointing at the page. The table below is a filled-in example for the job above. Treat every figure as illustrative: your own standards, your supplier's data sheets and the ground on site set the real values, including how deep posts go.
| Item | Specification (example) | What to check before it goes out |
|---|---|---|
| Posts | 100 x 100 mm (4 x 4 in) pressure-treated softwood, 2.4 m long, set about 600 mm deep in concrete | Depth is your own standard; soft or frozen ground may need more |
| Post spacing | 1.8 m (6 ft) between centres | Drives the post count, so check it against the run length |
| Rails | Three horizontal rails per bay, pressure-treated | Rail count per bay affects both price and strength |
| Boards | Vertical overlapping boards, 1.8 m high, pressure-treated softwood | Add "or equivalent" only for lines where you would accept a substitute |
| Base | Treated bottom board along the base | Say whether it sits above the soil or in it |
| Fixings | [Galvanised nails / screws, as your supplier approves for treated timber] | Name the type; vague fixings are a common complaint later |
| Finish | Unstained; the Customer applies any finish | Staining is an exclusion unless it is priced |
The AI's job here is formatting and checking. Paste your supplier's price list or your standard specification, ask for the table, and then ask it to flag any line where the supplier's wording differs from your standard, for example "treated" against "pressure-treated for ground contact". That distinction matters, and a list written by a salesperson blurs it. Never let the model choose a post size or depth because a number looks plausible. If a figure is not in the material you pasted, it should say so.
Be careful with "or equivalent". It protects you when a supplier is out of stock, and it also reads as vague to a homeowner who is comparing three quotes. Decide line by line. Posts and boards, where a substitute would be the same grade, can carry it; gate hardware, where a substitute might be lighter, should not.
Gates deserve their own table
Gates are the first part to sag and the first thing a homeowner judges. Give each one its own row with the details that explain its price. Width alone does not: the 3 m double gate here costs $1,150, a little over twice the 1 m walk gate, and the table shows why it is not simply the same gate made wider, with two braced leaves hanging from heavier posts and a drop bolt to hold them.
| Gate | Opening | Build | Hardware | Posts | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Walk gate | 1 m | Boards on a braced frame | Two hinges and a latch | Two 100 x 100 mm posts in concrete | $520 |
| Drive gate | 3 m, two leaves of 1.5 m | Framed leaves with diagonal braces | Heavy-duty hinges, drop bolt, gate stop | Two 150 x 150 mm posts in concrete | $1,150 |
The AI earns its keep on the questions around the gate. Paste the gate table and ask it to list what the customer must still decide. A good draft asks which way each gate opens, how high the latch sits, whether a lock is wanted, and whether the driveway surface leaves room for the leaves to swing. Those are the four questions that cause call-backs, and each one is cheap to settle before the quote is accepted and expensive afterwards.
The exclusions for gates are just as specific: electric openers and their wiring, intercoms, locks beyond the latch supplied, and any groundwork needed so the leaves clear a sloping drive. If a customer asks about automation, price it as a separate option with the electrician's quote shown; do not tuck it into the gate line.
Boundary and permit notes: a short version the contract expands
A proposal should tell the homeowner where they stand on the line and on permits before they accept, in three or four sentences. The contract then carries the full clauses with deadlines and consequences, as the contract tutorial sets out. If the two documents are drafted from the same standing text, they never contradict each other. Write the standing wording once, have a lawyer where you work check it, and let the estimator pick the version that fits the job.
Boundary: the Customer marks the line before work starts and confirms it. We build where it is marked and do not establish legal boundaries. A land surveyor can do that if you want it confirmed.
Permit: on the information we have, a permit [is / may be / is not] needed for [section]. The Customer checks with the local permit office. Applying for the permit is [included / $[amount] extra]. Work starts once any required permit has been issued.
Association or similar approval, if needed, is the Customer's responsibility and is separate from any permit.The AI's role is to choose the right bracket from the notes and nothing more. Give it the notes and the standing text and instruct it: "Pick 'is not' only if the notes say the permit office confirmed it. If the notes say unknown or say nothing, use 'may be'." Without that rule, a model will sometimes reason that a fence under a certain height "usually" needs no permit and choose "is not", which is a confident statement about a rule it cannot see. For the job above, the notes say the street side may have a lower height limit, so the right output is "may be", with the street-facing section named.
Payment schedule and exclusions that match the scope
The payment schedule uses the same three stages as the contract, so the proposal and the paperwork agree: 25% on acceptance ($1,600), 45% when materials are delivered ($2,880) and 30% after the walk-through ($1,920), which adds to $6,400. Show the amounts as well as the percentages, because homeowners compare dollars.
Exclusions are where most proposals are weakest and where AI is most useful, because it can list what a homeowner might reasonably assume is included. Give it your scope and ask for assumptions, not for wording, then make the decisions yourself.
Here is the scope and price section of a fence proposal. List ten things a homeowner might reasonably assume are included but are not stated. One line each: the item, and why they might assume it. Do not decide whether each is included; that is my call.
[paste scope and price table]These are the kind of items that come back (illustrative), with the decisions an owner might make for this job.
| Item | Why a homeowner may assume it is included | Decision for this job |
|---|---|---|
| Staining or painting | They see a finished fence | Excluded; offered as an option at $720 |
| Stump and large root removal | The line is described as cleared | Excluded; extra cost per post if met, as in the contract's ground conditions clause |
| Repairing the lawn or planting | The work happens on their garden | Excluded; the crew keeps to a marked working strip |
| Rock or buried obstacles | Surprises feel like the contractor's risk | Excluded; $65 per post affected, in a signed change order |
| Utility locating | Digging is the contractor's job | State which of you requests it, as in the contract |
| Soil spoil removal | "Leave the site tidy" suggests it | Decide: included in the price, or $[amount] |
| Electric gate opener | A drive gate seems to imply one | Excluded; priced separately from an electrician's quote |
| Work from the neighbour's side | The line is shared | Excluded unless the Customer arranges written permission |
| Repairs to the neighbour's fence where it meets yours | The two fences touch | Excluded |
| Temporary containment for pets after the old fence goes | The garden is open for days | Excluded; the Customer arranges it |
Three of those ten, spoil removal, stump removal and the neighbour's side, are the ones that typically cause bad feeling when they surface after the work. The value of asking the AI is that it has no stake in your margin and no habit of skipping the awkward item. The electrical contractor proposals tutorial uses the same assumption-mining idea for another trade and is worth reading for its exclusion wording.
Optional extras on their own lines
Options let the homeowner choose without you re-quoting, as long as you keep them few and priced from the same per-metre logic as the main job. Here are three for the example (illustrative).
| Option | Calculation | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Capping rail on top of the boards | 24 m at $15 a metre | $360 |
| Two coats of stain applied by us once the timber has dried | 24 m at $30 a metre | $720 |
| Keyed lock on the walk gate | One | $85 |
The base price is $6,400. Choosing the capping rail and the stain brings it to $7,480, and all three to $7,565. Jobber's help article on quoting on its Grow plan, updated on 29 October 2026, describes optional line items that let clients add items to their quote, with the selected extras added to the total automatically in the client hub, and markups that only you can see. If your quoting software does not do that, a spreadsheet with a total that changes as boxes are ticked does the same job. Either way, keep the options to three or four. More than that and the homeowner stops choosing and starts stalling.
A cross-check pass before the proposal leaves the building
Cross-checking one part of a document against another is a job models do well, because every fact it needs is on the page. Give the AI the whole proposal and tell it to find disagreements, not fix them. Fixing is your decision, and a model that "helpfully" corrects a figure can hide the very error you needed to see.
Compare the cover note, scope, materials table, gate table, price table, payment table and acceptance section of this proposal. List every mismatch in lengths, counts, heights, materials, amounts, dates and leftover placeholders. One line per mismatch. Do not correct anything.
[paste the proposal]A realistic result (illustrative) on a draft with typing slips:
1. Gate table shows the walk gate at $520; the price table shows $502. The price table lines add to $6,382, not the $6,400 in the cover note.
2. The cover note says to accept by replying to the email; the acceptance section says to sign and return the contract.
3. The scope says panels; the materials table describes boards on rails.
4. The cover note still contains the placeholder [date] for the price validity.That first mismatch is the classic digit swap, and it is exactly the sort of slip that costs $18 on a quote or an awkward conversation at the final payment. Models can slip on arithmetic themselves, so confirm any sum with a calculator or spreadsheet before you trust either side. The AI's contribution is noticing that two places disagree; you decide which is right.
Some checks the model cannot make for you, so keep a short human list. Read the total and the validity date aloud. Compare the permit sentence with your site notes. Check the customer's name and address against the enquiry. And open the file on a phone, because that is where the homeowner will read it; a table that looks fine on a desk can be unreadable on a small screen.
What the routine saves, and where the proposal gets built
Suppose writing a proposal from scratch takes an owner 60 minutes and the notes, prompt and review routine takes 25. At eight proposals a week that is 280 minutes saved, almost five hours, worth about $187 a week at $40 an hour of owner time. Those figures are illustrative, and the real gain is usually that proposals go out the same day as the visit, when the homeowner still remembers you.
Where the document is built matters less than people think. A word-processor template with standing wording for parts 6 and 10 works fine, and so does a quoting tool. ArcSite draws the layout on a tablet; its fencing page says it turns the drawing into fence estimates and proposals, calculates material needs automatically and keeps a built-in price book. Its price page lists an Estimates plan, which adds estimates, proposals and digital approvals, at $159.99 a month billed monthly or $129 a month billed yearly. The pages I read describe no AI features, so any AI wording would still come from a chat assistant working from your notes, as above. If you already use Jobber, the optional line items mentioned earlier cover the options table.
Once the proposal is out, the work moves to the follow-up. The fence lead follow-up tutorial sets out the schedule of messages after a quote, which is where many proposals are won or lost. For larger home projects with allowances and phased scope, the remodelling proposal tutorial goes further, and the painting contractor proposal tutorial shows a prep-and-coats scope for a neighbouring trade.
Fence proposal questions answered
Should a fence proposal show unit prices or one total?
Show a total plus the main lines so the customer can see what drives the price, such as run length, removal, gates and sloping ground. Unit rates invite line-by-line haggling, while a single figure hides what is included. Keep optional extras separate, each with its own price, so the customer can choose without you redoing the quote.
How long should a fence proposal stay valid?
Long enough for a homeowner to compare quotes and short enough that material prices have not moved, often 14 to 30 days. State the date, and say what can change after it, such as material costs. Ask your lawyer or adviser how a validity date interacts with your contract wording.
Can AI turn my site-visit photos and measurements into a proposal?
It can describe photos and turn typed notes into wording, but it cannot measure the site or confirm a boundary. Type the measurements yourself, let the AI draft around them, and check every number against your notes before sending. Treat any figure the AI adds that you did not give it as an error until proved otherwise.
Where do boundary and permit terms belong, the proposal or the contract?
Both, at different lengths. The proposal states the position briefly so the customer sees it before accepting, and the contract carries the full clauses with deadlines and consequences. Keep the wording consistent by drafting both from the same standing text, and have a local lawyer check it.
Further reads
- Drywall Estimate Template: Scope Lines and Exclusions Written With AI — Scope lines and exclusions written for another trade.
- Good-Better-Best HVAC Pricing: A Worked Replacement Quote Written With AI — Present three priced options without confusing the customer.
- Asphalt Paving Proposal Template: Scope, Exclusions and Weather Terms — Scope, exclusions and weather terms for outdoor work.
- Workmanship Warranty: Exclusions to Draft With AI, Then a Solicitor Check — Draft the warranty your proposal refers to.
- Fence Company Marketing: Local Pages, Photos and Posts With AI — Keep marketing claims consistent with what the proposal promises.
- Typeform AI Form Builder: A Quote Request Form for a Fencing Firm — A step-by-step fencing quote request form built with Typeform AI: the prompt, branching questions, photo uploads, estimator alerts and what each plan allows.
- How Long Is a Quote Valid For? Set Expiry Rules for Trades With AI — Validity periods by job type, price-rise wording and a sample quote footer, with AI prompts to draft and chase before expiry.
- AI Tools and AI Development: The Complete 2026 Guide — the AI hub, including every tutorial in the AI-for-business series.
Sources: ArcSite pricing and fencing pages; Jobber help centre article on quoting on the Grow plan (updated 29 October 2026). Figures in the worked examples are illustrative. Read on 1 November 2026.