Coral Shark

Quote preparation workflow

Get customer quotes prepared without rebuilding each one from scratch

Direct answer

Collect the required job details once, prepare the standard draft consistently and stop anything unusual for pricing or approval. The safest quote automation prepares routine work rather than deciding the price.

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Separate preparation from pricing.

Quoting often looks like one task but contains several different jobs: gather facts, check completeness, prepare a standard structure, interpret unusual scope, decide price, approve commitments and send. Only some of those are routine.

Human boundary: price, discounts, unusual scope, risk and contractual promises should not be handed to an automation merely because the surrounding preparation can move faster.

Minimum facts before preparation begins

  • Customer/job identity sufficient for the quote.
  • Service/product type and requested scope.
  • Location/date/quantity or other inputs genuinely required by the business.
  • Known exclusions or exceptional conditions.
  • A clear route for “missing” rather than guessed values.

If the minimum-facts set is not stable, HOLD the automation and define it first.

Measure exceptions before building the happy path.

Sample representative recent quotes and record standard vs exception, why it was exceptional, whether the exception could have been detected from available information and what human judgement was required. Unknown exception rate stays UNKNOWN.

CaseStandard?Detectable?Human judgement
Routine repeat serviceYesYesPrice approval
Unusual scopeNoUsuallyScope + risk + price
Missing specificationNoYesRequest evidence

A controlled quote-preparation sequence

1

Capture required facts once.

2

DETERMINE whether the minimum set is complete.

3

INTERPRET messy source text only where necessary; preserve the source.

4

Prepare the standard draft deterministically.

5

Stop incomplete/exceptional cases.

6

Human DECIDE on price, scope and commitments.

7

ACT by sending only the approved quote with duplicate/retry controls.

What to measure

  • Quotes per period and active preparation time.
  • Pricing-judgement time separately from preparation time.
  • Standard/exception rate and rescue burden.
  • Missing-information loops.
  • Rework and duplicate/incorrect-send incidents.

What not to claim

Do not claim that all quote time is automatable. Do not convert released owner time into cash unless the financial effect is evidenced. A useful early result may simply be fewer preparation minutes and clearer exception routing.

See the Capacity Is Not Cash model →