How to automate quotes: a one-page process for your crew
Most small crews quote the same way. A request lands, you're on a job, and the reply goes out that night. Harvard Business Review's 2011 study of web leads found that 37% of companies replied within an hour, 23% never replied, and the companies that did reply took 42 hours on average.
The same Harvard Business Review study from 2011 found that companies reaching out within the hour were about 7x more likely to qualify the lead than companies that waited even one hour more. Speed wins, and speed comes from a process you don't have to remember.
This post gives you that process on one page, the rules you write before any software runs, and a plain look at what Excel, Word and Power BI can and can't do.
How to automate quotes: five steps for a small crew
Write the process on one page. Every step gets a trigger, an owner and a finish line. A step with no owner is the step that gets skipped on a busy Thursday.
- Capture the request. Trigger: someone fills in your website form. Owner: the form, set up once by you. Finish line: the lead sits in one list with the address, the service and the size, using the fields in a quote request form template.
- Screen the job. Trigger: a new lead lands. Owner: your rules sheet. Finish line: the lead is marked fits, check or no before any price goes out.
- Price it from your rules. Trigger: the lead passed the screen. Owner: your price rules, written once. Finish line: a quote with a total, what's included and a link to book.
- Approve or auto-send. Trigger: the quote is ready. Owner: you, either one tap per quote or one setting that sends standard jobs on their own. Finish line: the quote reaches the customer.
- Follow up until the lead books. Trigger: the quote went out and nobody booked. Owner: a follow-up sequence you write once. Finish line: the lead books, says no, or the sequence ends, and the outcome is written down.
Read the list again and you'll see no box says whoever is free. Every box holds a rule, a setting or your name. That's what lets the process run while you're on a ladder.
Steps three and four are where the race is won. A homeowner who sent a written request may be asking two or three companies, and a first real number gives them a reason to stop looking.
What should you write down before you automate anything?
Rules come first. Software can only apply what you've already decided, so decide in this order: what you won't do, then your minimum, then your price per unit, then add-ons, then what needs your eyes.
If you don't have your numbers yet, the free quote calculator lets you enter your rates and get a quote you can share. Use it to test a price before you commit it to a rule.
A rule of thumb for the minimum: set it at the smallest job that still pays for the drive, the setup and the follow-up. Anything under it gets a no or a bundle offer.
Here's a sample rules sheet. Copy it into a note and fill it in tonight.
Service area:
Jobs I won't take:
Minimum job price:
Price per unit, such as window, visit or foot of gutter:
Add-ons and their prices:
Send on its own when:
Hold for my OK when:
The last two lines do the most work. Send on its own when might read: a standard job inside your service area, under your pane count limit, with no add-ons. Hold for my OK when might read: a third story, hard water etching or a photo you can't read.
Screen bad jobs out before you quote. A quote to a job you'd never take costs you a reply, a follow-up and sometimes an argument. Put the jobs you won't take first, so those leads never reach step three.
Which leads should get a quote on their own?
Not all of them. A simple split works. Here's a sample you can change to fit your trade.
| Lead looks like | What happens | Who decides |
|---|---|---|
| Standard job, inside your area, fits your rules | Quote goes out with a booking link | You, once, when you write the rules |
| Fits your rules but has an add-on or an odd detail | Quote is prepared and waits | You, one tap |
| Outside your area or a job you don't take | Marked as a no, no price goes out | Your jobs-I-won't-take line |
| Needs eyes on site: big job, damage, unclear photos | Held for you before any number goes out | You |
Auto-send is a setting, not a requirement. Start with every quote waiting for your approval for the first couple of weeks. When the quotes keep coming out right, move the standard jobs to auto-send.
Automation does the repeatable work: catching the request, applying your price rules, sending the booking link and following up. You keep the decisions: a yard with a drainage problem, a window job with hard water etching, a customer asking for a discount, a price change for the season. Those belong in the hold row.
Workely does this pricing step with lead capture and pricing from your own rules. It gets the quote ready with a link to book, and you approve it or turn on auto-send. Leads that don't fit your rules wait for your OK.
What does a slow quote cost a window cleaning crew?
Say a request for 30 windows comes in at 7:40 on a Friday evening. Your rule is $8 per window, so 30 times $8 comes to $240, plus $30 for screen cleaning, for a total of $270.
Suppose you send that quote Monday at 8:00, and the homeowner booked another company on Saturday morning. You lost $270. If your crew loses four of those in a month, that's $270 times four, which comes to $1,080 per month.
That's the arithmetic of a lost job. It's also why the quote and the booking link belong in the same message: a homeowner who's ready on Friday night can book on Friday night. Put your own price per unit, your usual add-on and the number of leads that land after you've stopped for the day into the same formula.
Can you automate quotes in Excel, Word or Power BI?
Partly. Each tool does one piece of the work, and none of them answers a lead.
| Tool | What it does well | What stays manual |
|---|---|---|
| Excel | Holds your price table and adds up a total from size and add-ons | Reading the request, typing the numbers, sending the result |
| Word | Keeps the layout and wording of a quote the same every time | Filling in the fields and emailing the file |
| Power BI | Shows how many quotes went out and which ones booked | Writing the quote, replying, following up |
Those tools are fine for a price sheet you build yourself. If you're working out how to automate quotes beyond a spreadsheet, the gap is the first reply and the follow-up. A file can't answer a written request on a Friday evening.
Workely sends follow-ups automatically until the lead books, and keeps every lead, quote and booking in one list. You can read more on follow-up and records.
Your next step
Write the rules sheet before your next job, even if you never buy anything. That's how to automate quotes without giving up control of your prices: your rules come first, and the software only follows them.
If you want the rest run for you, Workely prices the lead from your rules, gets the quote ready with a link to book, and follows up until the lead books. It's $149 a month with a 30-day free trial, and we set it up with you. Start at Workely pricing and the free trial.