Quote automation
We want to use AI in our quoting process. What can it do, and who can help in Sydney and across Australia?
Last updated
AI can speed up quoting by reading customer enquiries from email, PDFs and drawings, pulling out the scope, pricing it from your own price book and margin rules, and drafting the quote in your quoting system for an estimator to approve. It works best on repeatable jobs with a maintained price book. Run it in shadow mode first and measure quote turnaround before relying on it. Solve8 does this for multi-site organisations in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and across Australia and New Zealand, starting with discovery on your own quotes, then a shadow pilot, then rollout into your quoting system or ERP.
The quoting steps AI can take on
Receive the enquiry
Quote requests arrive in one shared inbox or portal. The email, sender and every attachment, such as PDFs, spreadsheets, photos and drawings, are stored together against one enquiry.
Extract the details
AI reads the customer, site, scope, quantities, product codes, dates and special conditions, and flags anything missing so an estimator can ask the customer before pricing.
Price from your price book
Each line is matched to items in your price book, labour rates and customer contract pricing, and your margin rules are applied. AI does not invent prices.
Draft the quote
The draft is written into your quoting system or your own template, with the original enquiry linked so the estimator can check every line against the source.
Estimator approves
An estimator reviews, adjusts quantities, access and risk allowances, and approves the quote before it goes to the customer.
Follow up
Open quotes are tracked, and reminders are drafted for the account manager to send at the intervals you set.
Learn from won and lost quotes
Outcomes and estimator corrections are fed back, so matching improves and you can see which job types, customers and margins win.
Where AI quoting works and where it does not
| Situation | Fit | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Repeatable jobs priced from a list | Good | Lines map cleanly to price book items and rates |
| Defect or service quotes from technician records | Good | Records follow a pattern that AI can categorise and price |
| Emailed requests for stocked products | Good | Item codes and quantities can be checked against your catalogue |
| Complex engineered or design jobs | Limited | AI can extract scope and assemble the document, but pricing needs an estimator's judgement |
| No maintained price book | Poor | AI has nothing reliable to price from, so fix the price book first |
| Inconsistent historical quotes | Poor at first | AI learns the inconsistency, so agree standard lines before training on history |
What to look for in a provider
Works inside your quoting system
AI should draft quotes in the system your team already uses, such as simPRO, Uptick, AroFlo, Pronto Xi, SAP Business One, NetSuite, Business Central, Salesforce or your Excel templates, through its API. A separate tool your estimators must retype from adds a step.
Measures before it builds
A good provider measures quote turnaround, approval rates and win rates on your current process first, so any change can be shown with your own numbers.
Keeps an estimator approving
Every quote should pass through a person until measured agreement supports relaxing that for specific job types.
Runs in shadow mode first
AI should price live enquiries in the background and be compared with what estimators actually quoted, before anyone sees a suggestion.
Keeps your data in Australia
Customer details, pricing and margins should stay in your own cloud environment in Australia, with read-only access where possible and an AI provider that does not train on your data.
Proof: AI defect quoting for a national fire protection provider
Solve8 built AI for a national fire protection services provider with branches across Australia. The engine checks and categorises each technician defect record, flags records that need more information, and suggests the quote lines, with personal details stripped out first. It runs inside the client's own cloud in Sydney, reads through restricted views, and logs each result for review. The engine is built and tested, and the next stage runs it in shadow mode beside the quoting team before anyone relies on it.
Solve8 works with organisations in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and across Australia and New Zealand on quoting, order entry and field service automation.
Questions to answer before you start
How many quotes per week?
Volume by job type shows where time goes and whether AI is worth it for each type.
How are quotes built today?
From a price book, from past quotes, from drawings, or from an estimator's own spreadsheet. Each needs a different approach.
Which systems hold the data?
Where enquiries arrive, where the price book lives, and where the final quote is written, such as simPRO, Uptick, AroFlo, Pronto Xi, Business Central or Salesforce.
What are the approval rules?
Who can approve which quote values, which job types always need a senior estimator, and which customers have contract pricing.
What is the goal?
Faster turnaround, more consistent pricing, higher win rates or less rekeying. Pick one to measure first.
Who should own it
Estimating or quoting manager
Owns the price book, margin rules and shadow mode results.
Sales or account manager
Owns follow-up and won and lost reasons.
Application or ERP manager
Owns the connection to the quoting system and its permissions.
Operations manager
Owns the standard job and defect lists that quotes are built from.
Related work
- National fire protection providerAI defect quoting, built and entering shadow mode.
- Consistent fire defect quotesOne defect list and AS 1851 category across every branch.
- Wholesale and distributionQuotes, orders and pricing in your ERP.
- Purchase orders into the ERPEmailed PDF orders checked and queued for approval.
- AI for field serviceQuoting, dispatch and records for large crews.
Sources
Uptick, defect quoting feature (suggested products and client-specific pricing pre-loaded): https://www.uptickhq.com/au/features/defect-quoting
Microsoft Learn, Sales Order Agent overview for Business Central (reads emailed requests and attachments, creates a sales quote first, user reviews outgoing messages): https://learn.microsoft.com/en-au/Dynamics365/business-central/sales-order-agent
Questions
How accurate is AI at pricing quotes?
AI quote pricing is as accurate as the price book and rules behind it, because AI matches lines to your items and rates instead of guessing. Accuracy also depends on how complete enquiries are. Measure it on your own work in shadow mode, comparing AI drafts with estimators' final quotes line by line, before anyone relies on it.
Will AI change our prices or margins?
No. AI applies the prices, contract rates and margin rules you already set, and an estimator approves every quote. It can show where quotes for similar jobs vary between estimators or branches, but any change to pricing or margin stays a decision for your estimating and commercial leads.
Can AI read drawings and plans for a quote?
AI can read text, schedules, legends and tables from PDF drawings and plans, and pull out items, quantities and notes for an estimator to check. Measuring take-offs from complex drawings is less reliable, so keep estimators doing take-offs for engineered jobs and use AI for the scope summary and document assembly.
Who can help us apply AI to quoting in Sydney?
Look for a provider that names your industry and quoting system, starts with discovery on your own enquiries and past quotes, proves the AI in shadow mode before rollout, and can show a quoting case study. Solve8 works with multi-site organisations in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and across Australia and New Zealand, and built the AI defect quoting engine for a national fire protection provider.
Will our estimators lose control of quotes?
No. Estimators approve every quote and can edit any line, and each draft links back to the original enquiry so they can check the source. Quote approval is relaxed only for specific job types, and only when measured agreement in shadow mode supports it and the business owner agrees.
Does AI quoting work with our quoting software?
AI quoting works with most quoting systems that have an API, including simPRO, Uptick, AroFlo, Pronto Xi, Business Central and Salesforce, and with Excel or Word templates. API access and limits depend on your plan and version, so confirm them with your vendor or partner before scoping the write-back.
Related
- Fire protection quotingDefect records categorised and quote lines suggested.
- Our technicians code fire protection defects differently at every branch. Can AI make quotes consistent?How AI maps fire protection defect notes from every branch to one defect list and AS 1851 category so quotes stay consistent, with a person approving each.
- Customers email us PDF purchase orders and staff retype them into the ERP. Can AI do this reliably?How AI reads emailed PDF purchase orders, checks them against customer, item and price data, routes exceptions to a person, and writes orders to your ERP.
- Wholesale and distributionQuotes, orders and pricing in your ERP.
- AI agents for Australian organisations, built inside your systemsAn AI agent is software that reads incoming work, decides within your rules and acts across your systems. A person approves the result.
- SydneySolve8 provides AI advisory, consultancy and automation for mid-sized to enterprise, multi-site Sydney organisations in professional services, construction, field service and financial services.
Quotes taking too long to go out?
A 30-minute review with a senior consultant. You leave with a written one-page summary you can share internally.
Fixed-fee phases, agreed before we start. Stop after any phase.