Just wondering if you add tax when giving someone a beginning price quote or do you add it later when you give them the bill??

In my area you don't have to add tax unless they eat it at my establishment, which they NEVER do. Except for tastings, which are free....and there's no tax on free.

I do have to add tax on delivery fees, and I tell them delivery will be $x plus tax. I assume they know the approximate tax rate.

Verbally, I would give them the price without tax. This is just for those "how much are your cakes" phone calls.

When I sent a written quote after a tasting, the total was the grand total that included sales tax (when applicable) and any delivery/service fees. But remember that I had an excel form that was formula driven, so the sales taxes and service fees were automatically calculated ... I never had to do an extra step to add them anyway. I pretty much just plugged in the headcount on the order form and the formulas would calculate the total dollar value on the order form, then transfer this to the Summary Form, where the formulas would calculate the tax and svc fees.

I just entered the headcount in excel. The formulas did the work.