Sales & offers
Quote checklist for trades
The quote went out, the job came in – and on site it turns out: scaffolding forgotten, disposal not included, foundation unclear. Not out of sloppiness. But because the quote came together at ten at night, after twelve hours on site.
Quote-prep assistant
01Quote checklist for trades
The quote checklist turns your costing knowledge into a system: per project type, the line items that belong, the follow-up questions that must be cleared before the price, and the risks that have cost money before. When a project brief comes in, the assistant prepares the draft – with the fitting line items from your stock and a compact open list: foundation unclear, structural check from 3 m projection, price only after clarification. The boss checks, decides, sends. The quote doesn't become automatic – it becomes complete. And it takes thirty minutes instead of two evenings.
Straight up: the quality stands or falls with your costing logic. If line items and rules of thumb live only in the boss's head, writing them down is the first project step – and often the most valuable. Binding prices can be anchored in the draft by the system – but final checking and sending is always done by a person.
02Demo
On the left a project brief, as the project qualifier delivers it. On the right, what the quote checklist prepares from it – and what it deliberately leaves open. Two examples to click through.
The draft never leaves the building automatically: check, adjust, decide, send – that stays reserved for humans.
03How it works
- 01
Make project types and line items visible
Which project types do you offer, and what ALWAYS belongs to each – scaffolding, travel, disposal, incidentals? Today this knowledge sits in the boss's head. Writing it down is the core of the project.
- 02
Gather follow-up questions and risks per type
What must be cleared BEFORE the price (subsurface, access, structural work), and what has cost money before? Rules of thumb become checklist points no quote can leave out again.
- 03
Curate the text building blocks
Your best quote copy becomes a library: introductions, service descriptions, terms – in the business's tone, not in AI-speak.
- 04
Build the draft flow
A project brief in, a draft plus open list out – as a lean internal tool. The more structured the input (see the project qualifier), the better the draft.
- 05
Test on a real case and adopt it
The last ten real inquiries run through it: where does the assistant hit, where's a line item missing? Checklists get sharpened, then the flow becomes routine – and the quoting time shrinks measurably.
04Stages
The entry point needs no software of its own – just your costing knowledge in good shape.
Entry: checklists + building blocks
Line items, follow-up questions and risks per project type as curated checklists plus a text-building-block library – the work aid that helps right away, even without a tool.
Extended: the internal mini tool
A project brief in, a draft and open list out – a small tool of your own for the quoting process.
Full build: connected
Connection to trade software, a line-item database and email drafts – the assistant sits right in the middle of your toolchain.
05Technical implementation
- Input: a qualified project inquiry, measurement notes or photos – the more structured the input, the better the draft.
- Knowledge base: line-item catalogues, checklists per project type, text building blocks and sample quotes – curated, not thrown together.
- The language model suggests line items and phrasings and flags open points; it invents no prices where the logic yields none.
- Output to suit your process: a draft as a document, an email template or an entry in the trade software.
- The safe start is export rather than send – a direct connection only comes once the flow has proven itself.
- Hosting: as a small internal tool or a function in the existing website stack.
for context · This shows how something like this usually gets built – not how it has to be built for you. What actually fits is worked out in the project: around your existing setup, your team, and what stays easy to maintain.