I am preparing my first cost estimate for a project as a freelance software developer, and I am wondering if there are templates or examples available to help me get started.
I understand that a spreadsheet with the tasks, time required, and pricing is the bulk of the report, but I need to submit a full report. Is there a report or template available that includes the typical language and layout for a software development cost estimate?
So far, we are at a 0.5 release, and I am providing an estimate to bring the product to a 1.0 release. I plan to detail all steps in between, such as 0.6, 0.7, up to 1.0. It is a community project for a non-profit, so there will be volunteers and possibly paid consultants contributing to the project.
I have already been working on the project for ~3 months, and I need to provide a cost estimate to bring it to completion. The budget is ~$15,000 over 6 months for myself and paid consultants, and a ~$5,000 equivalent volunteer contribution at $50/hr (basically the estimate includes 100 hrs of volunteer time). I will be building a CMS and other features for an existing web application that I have been working on.