QuoteClerk AIQUOTECLERK AI / COMPARISON
AI quoting vs a spreadsheet: which one fits your quoting
A good spreadsheet template with a price lookup is enough for a merchant who receives a few clean lists with product codes and has one price level. It starts to cost real time when lists arrive as emails, PDFs and photos, in the customer's words, and each account has its own prices, breaks and dates. QuoteClerk AI reads those lists, matches them to your own catalogue, prices them by fixed rules and flags anything uncertain, and a person on your team approves the draft.
How the spreadsheet method works
Many branches quote from a workbook someone built years ago. One tab holds the price list exported from the merchant system. The quote tab has a code column, a quantity column and a lookup that fetches the description and price. Someone types or pastes the customer's lines in, fixes the ones the lookup cannot find, adjusts for the account, saves a PDF and emails it.
It is cheap, everyone understands it, and the person who built it can change it in minutes. Those are real strengths, and for some businesses nothing more is needed.
Where the spreadsheet holds up
- Lists arrive with your own product codes, for example repeat orders.
- One price level, or a handful of accounts you can adjust by hand.
- A few lists a week, so the typing is a small part of the day.
- One person quotes, and knows every exception.
If that describes your branch, keep the spreadsheet. A new tool is not worth it for a problem you do not have.
Where it breaks
- Words instead of codes. A lookup needs an exact key. "15mm copper 3m" is not a code, so every such line is a manual search.
- Lists that are not tables. An email body, a PDF schedule or a photo of a handwritten list has to be typed into the sheet first.
- Several price levels. Account prices, group prices, category discounts, quantity breaks and price dates turn the lookup into a chain of nested formulas, or into memory.
- Stale prices. The price tab is as current as the last time someone pasted the export in.
- No trail. When a customer queries a price a month later, the workbook rarely says which price was used and why.
What a draft from your catalogue changes
The customer's list is read as it arrives: XLSX, CSV and TSV files, PDFs of up to 10 pages including scanned pages, PNG and JPG photos, or the text of an email. Each line is matched to your own catalogue, directly by your code where the line has one, otherwise by comparing its words with your catalogue data and showing ranked candidates. Each matched line is priced from your own price data for that customer, in a fixed order with breaks and dates.
Anything uncertain is flagged with the reason: no clear match, a unit that does not fit, a tie between prices, a missing or expired price. For photos and handwriting, text recognition comes first. Uncertain lines are flagged for a person to check. A person on your team then approves the draft, and it comes out as an A4 PDF with your logo plus a UTF-8 CSV that opens in Excel. Each export is recorded, so the question "why this price" has an answer later.
Side by side
| Spreadsheet template | QuoteClerk AI | |
|---|---|---|
| Lists with your codes | Fast | Fast, matched directly |
| Lists in the customer's words | Manual search per line | Ranked candidates from your catalogue, a person picks |
| Emails, PDFs, photos | Typed in by hand | Read as they arrive; uncertain lines flagged |
| Account, group and list prices | Formulas or memory | Fixed order from your own price file |
| Quantity breaks and dates | Usually by hand | Applied line by line |
| Record of which price was used | Rarely | Recorded per export |
| Output | Whatever the template makes | PDF plus CSV; no Excel workbook writer |
| Cost | Staff time | Published monthly fee |
What "AI" means here
It is fair to ask. The reading of photos and scans uses text recognition. Matching compares words with your catalogue data, and pricing follows fixed rules you can read and check. No language model decides a product or a price. That is on purpose: a quote is a commercial promise, so every step should be explainable and every doubtful line should go to a person.
Pricing
Starter is £390 a month for up to 20 requests, and Team is £790 a month for 3 users and up to 200 requests, both with no setup fee. The full rollout is £1,290 a month for up to 500 requests and 10,000 line items, or £3,900 a month for up to 1,500 requests and 30,000 line items, plus £5,950 onboarding including the £1,490 paid pilot. How the paid pilot works ↗
Frequently asked questions
Should I replace my quote spreadsheet?
Only if lists in customers' words, files and photos, or several price levels take real time each week. Otherwise keep it.
Can I still get the quote into Excel?
Yes, as a UTF-8 CSV that opens in Excel, next to the PDF. There is no XLSX writer.
Does it read handwritten lists?
It reads PNG and JPG photos by text recognition. Uncertain lines are flagged for a person to check.
Does a language model choose products or prices?
No. Matching compares words with your catalogue data, and pricing follows fixed rules.
Where do the prices come from?
From your own price file, exported from your merchant system as XLSX, CSV or TSV.
Is anything sent without approval?
No. A person on your team approves every draft.
