Spent 30 minutes on a quote breakdown and the client just wanted a round number

I used to write out every line item when quoting jobs. Hours, materials, revisions, the whole thing. Last month a long term client asked for a quote on a big project, I spent half an hour breaking it all down, sent it over, and they came back saying 'just give me the total, I don't need to see the math.' Felt like I wasted all that time. Now I just give one lump sum and only explain if they ask. Has anyone else had clients who hate seeing the details?

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shane1708h ago

Funny thing is, I actually went the other way on this and it backfired. I had a client who always wanted round numbers so I started giving just a flat price no breakdown. Then one time they came back and said 'this seems high, what am I paying for exactly?' so I had to go back and recreate all my math from memory which was a mess. Now I give a one page summary with maybe 3 or 4 big categories like labor, materials, and overhead instead of every single line item. That middle ground seems to work best in my experience. Some people really do want to see some of the bones without having to study a novel.