Courses › AI for Small Business Owners › Lesson 7: Quotes, invoices and records
Lesson 7 of 8 from the course AI for Small Business Owners (in preparation). It is still being tested with real people. Check every step against your own work.
What you will be able to do
Draft a quote and a follow-up message from your own price sheet, and keep simple records of jobs, payments and material costs. About 20 minutes.
Step 1: Start from your price sheet
Use the sheet from lesson 3 or our free templates. Every price in a quote must come from your own sheet.
Step 2: Draft the quote
Here is my price list: [paste]. Here is the confirmed job: [paste]. Draft a quote listing each item, quantity, unit price and total, using only the prices in my list. If a price is missing, write “price needed” instead of guessing.
Step 3: Check every figure
Recalculate the totals with a calculator or spreadsheet. AI makes arithmetic mistakes. Send the quote only when the numbers are right and the customer agrees what is included.
Step 4: A polite follow-up
Write a short, polite follow-up message to a customer who has not replied to a quote I sent [number] days ago. Do not pressure them, and do not offer a discount. Mention that the quote is valid until [date].
Step 5: Keep simple records
One sheet with a row per job: date, customer reference, what was done, amount quoted, amount paid, balance, and material costs. Keep it up to date weekly. Do not paste customers’ bank details into an AI tool.
Practice
Produce one quote and one follow-up for a real or imagined job, and add the job to your records sheet.
Measure it
Time a quote the old way and the new way, and count the errors you caught.