Quoting Assistant: the guide

• New Zealand trade and service businesses that price made-to-measure or job-priced work
• Window furnishings, fencing and other trades that quote from price lists, sizes and their own rules
• Owners and designers who quote on site from a phone or tablet

Quoting takes hours in spreadsheets and Word, prices drift from the supplier's latest list, things get missed, and the quote goes out days after the visit.

• Every job priced the same way, from your own pricing and the supplier's current prices
• Quote on site from a phone or tablet, with the total updating as you go
• Your pricing is checked against your past quotes before it is used
• A quote that looks like your own, with your logo, letterhead, colours and footer, that your customer reads, chooses options on and accepts online
• The moment the customer signs, the deposit invoice is ready for Xero (one of Xero users' most requested features) and the orders are written
• Travel priced from the real drive, with the traffic at the time you usually leave

Prices from your own rules

Each product's pricing is a set of questions, price lists and steps, shown as plain sentences with the numbers worked out. Start from a trade starter, or say how you price and it drafts it for you to check.

Keeps price lists current

Drop in a supplier's spreadsheet or PDF, every sheet and brand at once, in their own headings and centimetres. It shows what changed in a sentence and a table, and uses the new prices only once you confirm them. Each supplier is updated on its own.

Runs your promotions

Take a percent off one line between two dates, like free making in November. It shows on quotes and website estimates as its own line, and stops on the last day.

Checks against past quotes

Your pricing must give the same answers as three or more of your past quotes before it goes live. Where it doesn't, it says by how much. Old quotes can be read from a PDF, pasted text or a paid invoice in Xero.

Quotes on site

Add rooms, windows or runs, answer only the questions that apply, and see each line and the total. Up to three options sit side by side, and the margin can change per job down to your lowest.

Measures on the map

For a fence or a lawn, tap along it on the aerial map and the length or area goes straight into the quote.

Prices travel

The drive from your base to the job is measured with the traffic at the time you usually start, and charged the way you set.

Checks before it goes

A review of each draft flags what's often missed, a margin below your lowest and sizes out of your usual pattern. It never changes a size: you decide.

Looks like your own quotes

Drop in one of your own quotes and its logo, letterhead, footer, colours and type are read. Check them on a sample page, and every quote you send looks like the ones your customers already know.

Sends and is accepted

The customer gets a page and a PDF in your brand, chooses between options, types their name, signs with a finger or mouse and ticks your terms. The accepted copy is locked and both sides get it.

Deposits and stages in Xero

Xero users have asked for deposits from quotes for years; Quoting does it the moment the customer signs. The deposit is ready to put in Xero as a draft, then invoice each stage as a share of the quote, the lines that are done or what's left, with the balance always shown against the quote. With Get Paid, each one goes out with Pay now and is chased.

Writes the orders

Once a quote is accepted, the emails to your suppliers, maker and installer are written from it, each sent when you approve it.

A price range on your website

If you switch it on, visitors answer a few questions and see a range from your approved pricing. Unusual jobs are held back for you to quote personally.

Asks by chat or by voice

Instead of a form, your website can ask your questions one at a time in a chat. Visitors type or talk; when they talk, it reads each question aloud in a natural voice, which they can turn off. Every visitor gives their name and email before seeing the range, so each one is someone you can follow up. The range still comes from your pricing, and each conversation arrives with the enquiry.

1. 1

   Set up once

   Your name, logo, colour and contact details come from the AI control centre. Add your terms of trade, how long quotes stay open, any deposit and where travel is measured from.

2. 2

   Build the pricing

   Pick a trade starter, drop in your price lists, or say how a product is priced. Every change lands on a draft; the live pricing keeps quoting until you publish.

3. 3

   Prove it

   Add three or more past quotes with what you charged. Check it, and publish once it matches, or publish anyway with a reason that's kept.

4. 4

   Quote the job

   On site or at your desk, answer the questions and see the price. A review flags anything that looks out of line.

5. 5

   Send it

   Check the message and press Send. The customer gets a link and a PDF in your brand.

6. 6

   They accept

   The customer chooses their option and accepts online. You're told at once, and the accepted copy is locked.

7. 7

   Deposit and orders

   The deposit invoice is ready to put in Xero, and the orders are written from the accepted quote. Each waits for you to approve it.

8. 8

   Invoice each stage

   As the job goes, invoice a share, the lines done or what's left. The quote shows what's invoiced and what's left.

1. 1

   Your quotes' look

   Drop in one of your own quotes as a PDF. Its logo, letterhead, footer, colours and type are read; check them on a sample page and press Use this look.

2. 2

   Settings

   Sending, days a quote stays open, deposit, your Xero sales account and tax rate, where travel is measured from, sizes on the customer's copy, terms of trade and your suppliers.

3. 3

   Pricing

   Start from a trade starter, drop in each supplier's price list, and change anything by saying it.

4. 4

   Past quotes

   Add three or more past jobs with what you charged, from your quotes, a PDF or Xero, and check the pricing matches.

5. 5

   Publish

   Publish the pricing. From then on every new quote is priced with it, and records the version that priced it.

6. 6

   Your first quote

   Make a quote, see what the customer sees, and send it to yourself first.

Every Buildloop assistant works off your AI control centre, which holds your company details, knowledge and settings, trains each assistant and passes what one learns to the others. The more it knows about your business the more accurate every assistant is, and each one you add makes the others stronger.

Your AI control centre keeps what it knows about your business in Content Sections you can open, check and add to, with what's missing shown. Each says whether it's for customers, staff or both. You start with About the business, Products and services, Pricing, Payments, Opening hours, Contact details, Locations and service areas, Booking and ordering, Delivery and collection, Returns, refunds and warranty, Terms and policies, Common questions, Staff knowledge, Other, and can add, rename or remove them; the AI suggests sections from what it reads. How we talk, Rules and Suppliers are kept beside them.

Email

Needed. Quotes, reminders and orders sent in your name.

Google Maps, through the AI control centre

Optional. The drive to each job with predicted traffic, and finding the job's address.

LINZ aerial imagery

Optional, coming. Measuring a fence or an area on the map.

Xero

Optional. Reading your past paid invoices as past quotes, read only.

A natural voice

Optional. Reading the website chat's questions aloud in a natural voice.

Xero invoices

Optional. Deposit and stage invoices from the accepted quote, as drafts you approve in Xero.

• Every quote is sent only when a person presses Send
• Every reminder about an unanswered quote waits for a person
• Every order to a supplier, maker or installer waits for a person
• A pricing change goes live only when a person publishes it, after it has been checked against past quotes or with a reason
• Every deposit or stage invoice goes into Xero only when a person presses Put in Xero, and as a draft to approve there
• A margin below your lowest needs the owner

NZ$99 a month, including 50 quotes a month, then NZ$1 for each quote after that. Cancel any time. Plus a one-off set-up and configuration fee, agreed after a short call about your business. Every account also has the AI control centre, NZ$49 a month, once for all its assistants.

• It doesn't take card payments itself: deposits and stages are invoiced in Xero, and Get Paid collects them
• No stock control
• It never sends a quote or an order without a person
• It flags sizes that look wrong but never changes them
• It doesn't connect to suppliers' own ordering systems: prices come from their files

• Your pricing, quotes, customers and photos are stored in Sydney, Australia, and only people in your business can open them
• Price lists, old quotes, the quote its look is read from and photos are read by the AI model and are never used to train it
• Only the job's address goes to Google Maps to measure the drive, never a customer's name
• The customer's acceptance is kept with its time and a fingerprint of the accepted copy, so it can't be changed later
• Emails are sent through our email provider, Resend
• Deposit and stage invoices go to your own Xero with the customer's name, email and address, only when you press Put in Xero
• In the website chat, what a visitor types or says goes to the AI model to understand their answers; their browser turns speech into text, and only the text is sent. The assistant's own words go to our voice provider to be read aloud