Drafted for you

Drafted for you writes a draft quote for each new request that comes in, and one from a site walk: photos of the job and what you say is changing. Either way it is waiting for you to check and send instead of starting from nothing. Nothing it drafts is ever sent to a client until somebody in your business sends it.

It is on Professional, and it uses your AI allowance.

Turn on drafted quotes for new requests

The owner turns it on, under Tools → Drafted for you → Settings:

1. Switch Quotes for new requests on. It is off until you turn it on.
2. Choose Drafts a day: at most this many drafts are made in a day, from 1 to 50. It starts at 10.
3. Save.

Each new request then gets one draft: a request from your public page, your lead address, Thumbtack, the API or a call your phone assistant answered. A booking isn’t drafted, because it is already work at a price. A lead you type in yourself isn’t drafted either. A manager can open the same page and see what is switched on, but only the owner changes it, because every draft uses the AI allowance the owner pays for.

What a draft is made from

Only your own records: what the request says, or what your site walk’s photos and words show; what the client had done by you before; your Price Book’s priced items; your calculators; what is measured at the place; and how long your own finished jobs of the same kind took. An item you haven’t given a price yet is left out, so nothing is drafted at $0: that part of the work is estimated instead. Every price on a draft is your own: your Price Book’s, or, for what the book has no item for, your labor rate and target margin on the AI’s estimate of the hours and materials. For that estimate the AI is told your business’s city and state. It is never shown the requester’s name, email, phone or address, or what anything costs you.

Check a drafted quote and make it a proposal

Each draft waits in For you as Quote drafted: and the person’s name, with its title, its total and its margin. Everyone who makes proposals sees it; the margin is shown only to people who see prices and costs. The same drafts are listed in the morning’s My Day email.

Open the draft to read it:

• what the person asked, and where the request came from;
• the lines, each one an item from your Price Book at your price;
• Estimated — not in your Price Book: what the work needs that your Price Book has no item for, each marked AI estimate. The AI estimates how many, the hours and what the materials cost to buy where you are; your labor rate and target margin price it. Add to Price Book makes one your own item, so the next draft prices it from the book;
• Needs a price: anything it couldn’t estimate;
• the total, and the margin against your target, marked Under your target when it is;
• What it assumed, to check, and Ask before sending, for the customer.

Make it a proposal turns the request into a client, as converting a lead does, and opens a draft proposal with the scope, the lines, each estimate as a line you can change, still marked AI estimate, and a Needs a price line at nothing for anything left to price. An estimate’s mark goes when you change its hours or materials, or press Keep this estimate; Add to Price Book is there too. Your client never sees the mark. If you send with estimates still marked, you’re asked first. Nothing is sent before you send it.

When one of your calculators fits the work

If you use Calculators, a draft can run one of yours: a deck, a repipe, a basement. The draft shows Worked out by the calculator’s name, the figures it ran on and the lines it worked out, priced from your Price Book. Its lines are in the draft’s total.

A figure the request didn’t give is the calculator’s own default, marked (its default). Check those first. When you make it a proposal, the calculator is run onto the proposal on the same figures, and you can change any of them there as on any calculator run.

Put a draft away

Put away, on the draft or under it in For you, takes it off the list. The request stays exactly as it was, on your Leads page, for you to answer however you like.

When a request is too thin to draft

A request that says too little, such as just a name or a hello, isn’t drafted. For you shows Couldn’t draft: and the person’s name, with what they wrote. Answer them from Leads, then put the item away.

Take a site walk

At the job, open the client’s or the lead’s page and choose Start a site walk under Site walks:

1. Take a photo, or Add from library: up to 12. Take the unit, its label up close, what is around it and how it is reached. The label matters: its make, model and year are read from it.
2. Under What’s changing, press Speak and say it, then Stop, or type it.
3. Press Draft it.

If the page reloads or you come back to it before you press Draft it, it is the same site walk: the photos you took are still there, and so are the words you typed on that phone.

You can leave the page once it is sent. The photos are read and the quote is drafted in the background, from your own Price Book. It waits in For you like any draft, and you get a notification on your phone when it is ready. Its page shows What the photos showed: beside each photo, what it was read as, with the one that best shows the work marked, and what was measured from them. The quote is built on that reading, so check it. Any photo that couldn’t be read is also in Ask before sending.

Every walk stays on the client’s or the lead’s page under Site walks, newest first, with where it stands: not sent yet, drafted and its total, couldn’t draft, made into a proposal, or put away. Open one to pick it up where you left it or to see its draft. A lead’s walks are on the client it becomes, too.

To change a walk, the photo you forgot, a bad one, or words to put right, open its draft and press Change this walk. Take off removes a photo, after you confirm, from the walk and from your storage; take more as before, correct what’s changing, then press Draft it again. The new draft replaces the old one, waits in For you again, and uses your AI allowance again. If someone else changed the walk’s photos while you had it open, you are told and shown it as it is now before anything is drafted. A walk made into a proposal isn’t changed: change the proposal, or start a new walk for the same client.

When you make it a proposal, the photos go on the proposal, and your client sees them on its page under Photos of the site. They are on the proposal’s Overview as Site photos. While the proposal is a draft, Take off removes one your client shouldn’t see. Once it is sent, the photos stay as they were sent.

Anyone who makes proposals can take a site walk: an owner, a manager, or an estimator. A site walk needs a photo or some words, or there is nothing to draft.

Save a label from the photos as the client’s unit

When a site walk’s photos show a unit’s label, the draft lists what was read from it: the make, model, serial and the year it was made. Check it against the label. If you keep track of your clients’ equipment, Save as the client’s unit opens the equipment form filled in from the label, with the installed date taken as the year it was made. Choose what kind of unit it is, correct anything, and save. Nothing is added until you do.

A site walk for a lead offers this once you make it a proposal, when the lead becomes a client.

Show the client what the finished work could look like

On a site walk’s draft, What it could look like redraws one of the walk’s photos as the finished job would look: the same room, with the new tank, the counters or the sink in place.

1. Under Draw it from, keep the photo marked (best shows the work), or choose another.
2. Press Show what it could look like. Before you press it, the page says how much of your AI allowance one uses: about as much as a site walk.
3. It takes about half a minute, and you can leave the page. It appears on the draft beside the photo it was drawn from, marked AI concept.

Each press draws another, and every one is kept on the walk, newest first. If one couldn’t be drawn, it says so; press Try again. The AI is sent only that photo, the draft’s description of the work and your trade. It draws plain fixtures with no brand on them. A concept is a picture to talk over, not a promise: the finished work will differ.

Your client sees a concept only if you choose it. Press Put on the proposal. Before the draft is a proposal, the concept goes on when you make it one, and Take off the proposal changes your mind. After, it goes straight onto the draft proposal, and you take it off under Site photos on the proposal’s Overview, where it is marked AI concept. Your client sees it on the proposal’s page under What it could look like, with the caption A concept made by AI from a photo of your site. The finished work will differ. It isn’t in the PDF or the email. Once a proposal is sent, it shows what was sent: a revision can add one.

If there is no Show what it could look like, SMG Tools hasn’t set up the model that draws concepts yet. If the button can’t be pressed, the page says why: this month’s AI allowance is used up, or your storage is full.

When a site walk can’t be drafted

If the site walk page says it can’t be drafted right now, it says why before you take a photo: SMG Tools hasn’t set up the model that reads photos yet, your plan doesn’t include AI, or this month’s AI allowance is used up.

If a site walk is sent and something goes wrong while it is drafted, For you says it couldn’t be drafted, and so does the notification. Open it and press Draft it again: its photos and words are kept.

See what it has used this month

Every draft counts against your AI allowance, and so does a site walk: reading its photos and drafting its quote are each counted, and so is each concept of the finished work. The settings page shows how many drafts were made this month and the AI tokens they used. Profile → Billing shows the same figure under your AI tokens, beside the rest of the month’s use.

Drafted for you can use a stronger AI model than the rest of SMG Tools. A token from a costlier model counts as more of your allowance, in proportion to its price, so the allowance always means the same amount whichever model used it. Your allowance starts again with your billing month.

When drafting stops for the month

When this month’s AI allowance can’t cover another draft, drafting stops until the allowance starts again with your billing month. For you says Drafting stopped once; put it away when you have seen it. Requests still arrive on your Leads page as always.

When it says drafting isn’t set up yet

If the settings page says Drafting isn’t set up yet, SMG Tools hasn’t set up the AI model that drafts. Nothing is drafted until it has, even with the switch on. The page says the same of site walks while the model that reads photos isn’t set up. Neither needs anything from you.