How to Check an AI-Generated Trade Quote Before Sending It

An AI-assisted quote can save you from starting with a blank page, but it should still be treated as a first draft. Before it reaches the customer, check that it reflects the job you actually surveyed, includes every likely cost and turns those costs into a sensible selling price.

A reliable review should cover seven areas:

1. The draft matches the customer, property and project.
2. The scope says clearly what is and is not included.
3. Assumptions are visible and reasonable.
4. Measurements and purchasing quantities make sense.
5. Labour has been allowed for realistically.
6. Materials, plant, waste, subcontractors and other costs are complete.
7. The final selling price covers cost, overhead and profit.

The aim is not to rewrite every line manually. It is to apply your trade knowledge to the parts that software cannot confirm on its own.

Why an AI quote is a draft rather than a finished price

AI can organise project information, suggest a structure and calculate from the information and pricing rules it has been given. It cannot know something that was never recorded, and it cannot take responsibility for the commercial promise you make to the customer.

For example, a photograph may show the room where a consumer unit is being replaced. It may not reveal restricted parking, an asbestos concern, damaged circuits elsewhere in the property or the need to work outside normal hours. A landscaping brief may state the patio area but omit the depth of excavation, distance to the skip or whether spoil must be moved through the house.

Those details can change labour, plant, waste and material requirements substantially.

Use AI to prepare the working draft. Use your survey notes, trade experience and pricing policy to approve the quote.

1. Confirm that the draft matches the right job

Start with the basics before reviewing individual prices. Check the customer, site address, project description and version of the work being quoted.

This matters when a customer has discussed several options. A builder might have surveyed both a single-storey extension and a smaller internal alteration. A landscaper might have discussed porcelain paving as well as a lower-cost concrete option. If notes from both options have been mixed together, the draft can look convincing while pricing the wrong specification.

Check the source information

• Is this the correct customer and site?
• Does the draft use the latest measurements?
• Are revised customer choices reflected?
• Have relevant photographs and sketches been considered?
• Is the project brief consistent with what was agreed during the visit?

If the source record is wrong, correct that information before relying on the rest of the draft.

2. Read the scope as if you were the customer

A quote should describe a result, not merely list materials and hours. Read the scope from the position of a customer who was not standing beside you while you surveyed the work.

A line such as install new bathroom leaves too much open to interpretation. It does not say who removes the existing suite, whether wall repairs are included, what happens to waste, whether decorating is included or who supplies the sanitaryware.

A clearer scope could explain that the price includes isolating services, removing the existing suite, carrying out the listed plumbing alterations, installing the specified customer-supplied sanitaryware, testing the installation and removing trade waste. Separate lines can then identify exclusions such as tiling, decorating or repairs to concealed defects.

Look for four parts

• Inclusions: the work, supply and service the customer is buying.
• Exclusions: related work that is not part of the price.
• Customer responsibilities: choices, access or items the customer must provide.
• Completion standard: what will be installed, tested, cleared or handed over.

A technically accurate price can still become an unprofitable job if the written scope allows the customer to expect more than you included.

3. Identify assumptions before they become promises

An assumption fills a gap in the available information. It is not automatically a problem, provided it is reasonable, visible and checked.

Common assumptions include:

• normal access during working hours;
• parking or loading close to the property;
• sound existing substrates or services;
• no hazardous or specialist waste;
• standard excavation conditions;
• the customer making final product choices by an agreed date;
• measurements being subject to confirmation before ordering.

If a draft assumes clear access for a mini digger but the only route is through a narrow side gate, the labour allowance and plant choice may both be wrong. If an electrician's draft assumes the existing circuits pass testing, the quote should explain how remedial work will be handled if faults are found.

Where an assumption could materially change the price, either confirm it before sending the quote or state how a change will be priced and approved.

4. Check measurements, waste and purchasing units

A measured quantity is not always the quantity you need to buy. Materials may be sold by pack, sheet, length, bag, roll, coverage or yield. Waste, cuts, breakage and minimum order quantities also matter.

Example: paving purchased by pack coverage

Suppose a landscaper has measured a patio at 24 square metres. Allowing 10% for cuts and waste gives:

24m² × 1.10 = 26.4m² required

If each pack covers 3.2m²:

26.4m² ÷ 3.2m² = 8.25 packs

You cannot normally buy 0.25 of a sealed pack, so the purchasing quantity becomes nine packs. Eight packs would cover 25.6m² and fall short of the waste-adjusted requirement.

Apply the same reasoning to plasterboard sheets, cable drums, pipe lengths, paint coverage, fixings, insulation packs and materials sold by yield. Check:

• the original measurement;
• the unit used;
• the waste percentage;
• pack or coverage size;
• rounding to a purchasable quantity;
• delivery charges and minimum orders.

Do not accept a neat-looking quantity merely because it has been calculated automatically.

5. Review the labour plan, not just the labour total

Labour should be checked against how the work will actually be delivered. Ask who will attend, how many days are needed and which parts require skilled labour.

A three-day job completed by two skilled workers and one labourer is not the same as three total labour days. Using internal day costs of £220 for each skilled worker and £150 for the labourer, the direct labour calculation would be:

Review whether the allowance includes unloading, protection, setting up, collecting materials, testing, clearing down and waste handling. Also consider whether part of a day will be lost because another trade must finish first.

Your internal labour rate should represent the cost basis you use for pricing. It is not necessarily the employee's wage or the amount shown to the customer.

6. Check every direct cost category

Materials and labour are the obvious costs, but they are rarely the whole job. Depending on the trade, review:

• subcontractors;
• plant and tool hire;
• scaffolding or access equipment;
• skip hire and waste charges;
• delivery and collection fees;
• parking, permits or congestion charges;
• consumables and fixings;
• testing, certification or specialist reports;
• accommodation or longer-distance travel;
• contingency for genuine uncertainty.

For the paving example, the cost review might look like this:

The figures are illustrative, but the method is important: review the complete delivery cost before deciding what the customer should pay.

7. Confirm that cost has become a viable selling price

A draft can contain accurate costs and still produce a poor quote if the selling-price rules are wrong. Your price must make an appropriate contribution towards business overheads and profit, not merely recover the direct purchases made for that job.

If £3,810 of direct cost receives a simple 20% mark-up:

£3,810 × 1.20 = £4,572 selling price before VAT

The resulting gross contribution is £762. That is a 20% mark-up on cost, but the gross margin on the selling price is approximately 16.7%:

£762 ÷ £4,572 × 100 = 16.7%

Mark-up and margin are not the same thing. You should also ask whether £762 is enough to contribute towards insurance, vans, office time, software, non-productive labour, callbacks and the profit the business needs.

Check category-specific pricing where appropriate. You might apply different pricing rules to materials, labour, subcontractors and plant rather than adding one percentage indiscriminately.

8. Check VAT, totals and payment arrangements

If the business is VAT registered, confirm that VAT is being handled consistently and is clearly presented. Check that it has not been omitted from a price the customer may read as final, or accidentally included twice.

For larger work, consider whether the quote should include a payment schedule. A commercially sensible total can still create cash-flow pressure if the business must fund all materials and labour until completion.

Review deposits, pre-start payments and final balances against the expected timing of expenditure. The percentages and amounts should add back to the full quote total.

9. Give the customer-facing quote a final sense check

Once the technical and commercial checks are complete, read the document without looking at your internal calculations.

• Can the customer understand what they are buying?
• Are provisional items and choices clearly identified?
• Are exclusions easy to find?
• Are the quote validity period and terms appropriate?
• Are customer-facing notes professional and free from internal shorthand?
• Do reference images support the correct specification?
• Does the final total look consistent across the summary and payment stages?

Internal cost rates, working assumptions and supplier calculations should not accidentally appear as customer-facing notes.

Common warning signs in an AI-assisted draft

• Quantities are unusually round despite an irregular area.
• The scope is polished but too vague to define completion.
• Labour days do not match the planned team size.
• Waste, delivery, access or disposal has not been allowed for.
• A product specification has been inferred rather than confirmed.
• The draft treats internal cost as the customer price.
• Every category has received the same mark-up without review.
• There is no explanation of what happens if hidden defects are found.
• The price looks much lower or higher than comparable work with no obvious reason.

A better three-pass quote review

Rather than jumping randomly between lines, use three deliberate passes:

1. Technical pass: check the scope, specification, measurements, sequence, access and assumptions.
2. Commercial pass: check labour, materials, plant, waste, subcontractors, mark-ups, contingency, overhead contribution and VAT.
3. Customer pass: check clarity, exclusions, presentation, payment arrangements and terms.

This is usually quicker and more reliable than trying to review technical detail, profitability and wording simultaneously.

How Tools2Done supports a controlled drafting process

Tools2Done can use an existing project's brief, facts, images and trade profile alongside the business's saved labour rates and pricing settings to create an AI-assisted first draft. Where configured, it can also consider working-day length, call-out charges, mark-ups, contingency and trade-specific estimating or purchasing rules.

The result opens in the normal quote editor. It is not automatically sent, and it does not remove the need to check scope, assumptions, quantities, costs and selling prices. If the project information is incomplete, the draft may contain reasonable trade-specific assumptions rather than pretending exact information exists.

The practical advantage is that your review starts with the job information already gathered. You are checking and improving a working draft instead of rebuilding the entire quote from scattered notes and photographs.

Your next step

Create a repeatable review checklist covering technical detail, commercial viability and customer clarity. Use it on every substantial quote, whether the first draft was prepared by AI, copied from an older job or written manually.

For a closer look at a workflow where AI prepares the starting point but you retain control of the final quote, explore the Tools2Done guide to reviewable AI-assisted quote drafts.