Making quotes takes too much time

Have the draft prepared, you check it and send it

Making a quote is often the same work in a different order. You read the request. You look for the right products or hours. You take an old quote as a basis and adjust the text. Then you put in the prices and check all the calculations.

Much of that follows fixed rules. Software can prepare that part for you. This is called automating quotes. It doesn't mean software does everything by itself. A draft is ready when you start. You check it, change what needs to be different and send it yourself.

Do you recognise any of these situations?

• Every quote starts with an old quote that you copy and adjust.
• You look up prices in a list, a spreadsheet or your accounts.
• Only you or one colleague knows what a good quote looks like.
• After acceptance you type the same data in again for the schedule and the invoice.

How does automating quotes work?

You start with your own building blocks: your price list, your standard texts and a few good quotes. With these, software can create a draft. With generative AI this also works from a free-form request, such as an email from a client. The AI can pick out what the client is asking for and prepare the matching lines from your price list.

The prices come from your own list, not from the AI. AI can make mistakes, you see. That is called a hallucination. That is why a person checks the draft before it goes to the client.

After acceptance, the quote can flow through to the schedule and the invoice. That is called workflow automation. You can read how that works step by step in Making quotes with AI.

When is it not needed?

Do you make a few quotes a month, and is every quote very different? Then a good template is often enough. First check what your current software can already do, such as standard texts or fixed quote lines.

How I help you with this

The first conversation is free. If you want to go further, I start with a business analysis. I look at how a quote comes about now: where the request comes in, where the prices are kept and who checks what. Based on that you get a proposal with a fixed price, so you know in advance where you stand.

If you go ahead, I build it myself, integrated with the systems you already have. What that costs depends on how your quotes are structured and which systems it has to work with. Hosting and maintenance are agreed per month in consultation. You can read more about linking quote, schedule and invoice under automation.

Frequently asked questions