Size the inventory before you price anything
Every moving estimate is a volume estimate. A two-bedroom apartment can mean thirty boxes and flat-pack furniture, or it can mean a piano and a garage full of tools. Get a real inventory: a walkthrough, a video call room by room, or a detailed list from the customer with photos. Note the heavy and awkward items by name — safes, pianos, sectionals, gym equipment — because they drive crew size and time more than box count does.
Record access at both ends while you are at it: stairs or elevator, how far the truck can park from the door, narrow hallways, booking requirements for elevators. A long carry adds real time to every single trip.
Convert the inventory into crew-hours
Price the labor as crew size times hours. Experienced movers develop a feel for how fast their crew loads a given volume; use your own history, not a number from a forum. Build the hours in blocks: load time from the inventory, drive time from the route, unload time adjusted for the destination's access, plus setup and breakdown.
Then add the friction multipliers honestly. Stairs, long carries, and disassembly each stretch the clock. If packing is in scope, price it as its own block with its own hours and materials — boxes, tape, paper, and wrap are a real cost line, not a rounding error.
Decide how you charge: hourly or flat
Local moves are commonly billed hourly with a minimum; longer or well-defined moves are often flat-rated. Either model works if the estimate states the rules: what the hourly rate covers, the minimum, and what happens when the job runs long — or, on a flat rate, exactly what scope the fixed price buys and what counts as a change. Flat rate vs hourly pricing compares the two models in detail.
State the clock rules too: when billing starts (your shop or the customer's door), whether drive time back is billable, and how breaks work. These lines feel small until the day they are the whole argument.
Name the extras before moving day
The pattern is the same everywhere: an extra that is priced on the estimate is revenue, and an extra that is not is a dispute. For the overall document structure, what to include in an estimate is a good checklist.
- Specialty items: piano, safe, pool table, artwork — each priced or noted separately
- Packing and unpacking labor, plus the materials themselves
- Stairs, elevator waits, and long carries beyond a stated threshold
- Disassembly and reassembly of beds, gyms, and large furniture
- Storage time if the move spans days
- A date-change or cancellation policy, in plain words
What the customer should see
The estimate should show crew size, the time basis (hourly with minimum, or flat rate), what is included line by line, the extras and their prices, and the total or the expected range with the rules that move it. Note what the customer is responsible for: packed and ready, reserved parking, elevator booked.
Speed matters in this trade — customers collect several moving quotes and often take the first professional one. In EstimateBook you can talk through the inventory by voice right after the walkthrough, review the drafted line items and hours, and send a PDF while the other companies are still typing. Treat the draft as a starting point and adjust every line against your own notes.