Engineering better ways of working
Redesigning a process · Quoting

The quote already exists inside the estimate.

The schedule of works, the clarifications, the figures — all built once when the job is priced, then re-entered by hand in four separate places before the client ever sees the quote. On the right, the process we have designed to replace it.

Places the same details are re-entered
4→0
All four already exist in the estimate before anyone opens the quote document.
Steps between pricing and sending
7→3
The pack assembles itself from the estimate that has already been built.
Time to produce a quote
~2 hours→~30 minutes
Two hours is your estimator's own figure for today. In the design the pack is built in seconds — the half hour that remains is a person checking and tailoring it before it goes out.
Who still checks every quote
Your estimator→Your estimator
Deliberately unchanged. The judgement stays with your team.

These figures count the steps drawn below — what the redesign removes on paper, not a measured saving. The right-hand process is a design, not a system that is running.

Today  How it runs now
Designed  How we would design it
Your estimator

Prices the job — builds the schedule of works, clarifications and figures, in the estimate.

Your estimator

Prices the job — exactly as now. Nothing changes here.

— Then, into a separate quote document
Your estimator

Re-types the schedule of works.

Already in the estimate
— Hands the finished estimate over
System

The quote pack builds from the estimate — read once and assembled into the branded pack: schedule of works, clarifications, figures and all.

The whole re-typing column, designed out
Your estimator

Copies the clarifications across.

Already in the estimate
Your estimator

Copies the box wording, word for word.

From the supplier's quote
Your estimator

Keys the figures in again.

Already in the estimate
Your estimator

Formats and assembles the pack.

Your estimator

Checks and sends.

Your estimator

Checks, tailors and sends — reviews it, adds anything job-specific, sends.

Your call
What the design keeps: Your estimators still price every job, and still check and tailor every quote before it goes out. The judgement stays with your team — only the re-typing is designed out.
Re-typing the same detailsDone by the system, by designA human decision we deliberately kept

The pack builds itself in seconds. The half hour that is left is your estimator checking it — which is the part worth keeping.

23 Works · Engineering better ways of working steve@23works.co.uk 23 Works Ltd · Company number 16893455 · Registered in England and Wales · Registered office: 26 Waterloo Road, Pudsey, LS28 7UW