| You get | A draft quote or form in your own template, with a note on anything it couldn't price |
|---|---|
| Stays with you | Every number, every discount, and sending it |
| You need | Your template, a price list it can read, an agent, a computer |
| Rough cost | Your AI plan; a few dollars a month on a pay-as-you-go key (a rough estimate) |
| Skip it if | Your invoicing tool already makes quotes, or you send a few a month |
1What it looks like handed off
Pricing a job from a template is half copying, half thinking. Handed off, the copying is done for you. The agent reads the request, fills in your template from your own price list, and leaves the draft with a short note: what it priced, what it assumed, and what it couldn't price. You do the thinking part: check the numbers, decide anything it flagged, and send.
| Priced from your list | |
|---|---|
| 40 menus, A4, 2 sides, 350gsm: $3.10 each from the price list. | $124.00 |
| Design time, 1 hour at your standard rate. | $65.00 |
| Assumed | |
| Pickup, not delivery: the email didn't say. | Check this |
| Couldn't price | |
| "Rush, by Friday": no rush rate on your list. | Left for you |
Draft saved as Quote-Café-Rosa.docx, from your Quote template. Not sent.
2The job, end to end
- A request arrives: an email, a form on your website, or a note you forward to the agent.
- The agent reads it and lists what's being asked for: items, quantities, dates, where.
- It looks up each item on your price list. It uses only the prices on the list.
- It makes a copy of your template (Word, Google Docs, Excel or a PDF form) and fills it in. Your original stays untouched.
- It writes a short note: priced, assumed, couldn't price. Totals are worked out by a calculation, not by the AI's guess.
- You open the draft, check it against the note, fix what's off, and send it yourself. If it's a reply to an email, the agent can leave a draft reply with the quote attached.
3What stays with you
- The numbers
- You check every quote before it leaves. A quote is a promise, and this is where AI's confident mistakes cost money.
- Anything not on your list
- Rush jobs, discounts, custom work: it flags them and leaves them blank. It doesn't invent a price.
- Sending
- Out of the box, it asks before it spends money or sends anything.
- Your templates and price list
- It works on copies. Changing the price list is your job, so a price only changes when you change it.
4When it gets something wrong
- It misreads the request
- Forty menus becomes four. The note lists what it understood at the top, so you catch it before the numbers.
- It picks the wrong line on the price list
- Similar items with different prices are the usual cause. The note names the line it used; rename or split items on your list so they can't be confused.
- The template comes out mangled
- Complicated layouts, merged cells and old PDF forms are the weak spot. If your template keeps breaking, a simpler copy of it for the agent fixes most of it.
- Your prices changed and the list didn't
- It quotes the old price, faithfully. Keep one price list and keep it current.
5What it costs
| Item | What it means |
|---|---|
| Your AI plan | A ChatGPT or Claude subscription can cover Codex or Claude Code. On a pay-as-you-go key, a quote is a small job; my rough estimate is a few dollars a month at a few quotes a day. |
| The agent | OpenClaw and Hermes are free and open source; Claude Code and Codex come with their subscriptions. |
| Your template and price list | What you already use. A price list in a spreadsheet works best. |
| A computer | One that can open your template's format. It only needs to stay on if quotes should be ready before you look. |
| Your time | A minute or two per quote to check it, instead of writing it. |
Doing it yourself
- Put your prices in one spreadsheet: one item per row, a clear name, the unit and the price.
- Make a copy of your template for the agent, with the fields to fill clearly marked.
- Install an agent on a computer that can open your template, and give it a folder with the template, the price list and an output folder.
- Write the instructions: use only listed prices, never invent one, work out totals with a calculation, work on a copy, and write the priced, assumed and couldn't-price note.
- Test it on ten old requests you've already quoted, and compare its quotes with yours before using it on a new one.
Budget an afternoon (a rough guide); longer if your prices live in your head rather than a list.
6When not to bother
- Your invoicing tool already does quotes. QuickBooks, Xero and most invoicing tools make estimates or quotes from your products and prices. Use that first.
- A few quotes a month. Paste the request and your price list into ChatGPT or Claude and ask for a draft. Check it the same way.
- Every job is priced by judgment. If nothing on the quote comes from a list, there's little for an agent to fill in.
If a $20 subscription does it, I'll tell you. The agent is worth it when quotes arrive often, come from a template and a list, and waiting a day to send one costs you the job.
7Want this running on your own computer?
I'll set it up, and keep it running if you like. On a Mac mini, a Windows PC or Omarchy, with the agent you use or want: OpenClaw, Hermes, Claude Code, Codex or another. Out of the box, it asks before it spends money or sends anything. Tell me about the job and I'll quote it. If a $20 subscription does it, I'll tell you. You keep the computer, the accounts and the setup.
Tyler Mayberry, who runs Cirlet (formerly Animas)
Cirlet sets up assistants and teaches teams at independent insurance agencies nationwide. Monthly live training and lifetime learning-library access are included. Open the team training library.