Create an estimate from a worksheet or a conversation (AI)

What this does

AysOps AI can turn the place where you priced a job into an estimate. Start from any of these:

A worksheet: an Excel file (.xlsx), a CSV file or a Word document (.docx).
A conversation where the prices were discussed: an email thread, a chat or your notes from a call (pasted in, or as a .txt, .pdf or saved email .eml file), or a meeting transcript (a .vtt file, or a Zoom, Google Meet or Microsoft Teams meeting you already imported into AysOps).

The AI suggests the lines and the sections, and you check and change everything before an estimate is created. Every price is taken from what is written in your file or conversation; the AI never makes up an amount. How the estimate looks is up to you: every line, a total for each part, or one line for the whole job.

Before you start

Your company needs AysOps AI turned on. Without it, the From a worksheet (AI) option does not appear.
A file can be up to 20 MB. Files with macros are refused. A conversation can be up to 300,000 characters (a very long meeting may be over that).
Each AI step has a small cost, which is shown on the button before you press it.
In a Word document, prices in a table (item, quantity, price or amount in their own columns) work best. An item written as a sentence works too, as long as its quantity and price are both written on that line. If each part ends with a line such as “Main bath total: $15,940.28”, AysOps checks that total against the lines above it, and a total for the whole job against everything above it.
To start from a meeting, import its transcript first: open the appointment and click Get transcript (see Zoom or Google Meet and Microsoft Teams).

Steps

Go to Estimates and click From a worksheet (AI). Or, on a customer, open the Estimates tab, click New estimate, then From a worksheet (AI). The page is called Estimate from a worksheet.
Choose the Customer, or leave it as Choose later. (From a meeting, leaving it lets the meeting’s own customer be used.)
Under Where the pricing is, choose one:
- Upload a file: drop a worksheet (.xlsx, .csv, .docx) or a conversation (.txt, .vtt transcript, .pdf, .eml email).
- Paste text: paste an email thread, a chat or your notes, and give it a Name if you like.
- From a meeting: choose a meeting transcript you already imported.
Then click Continue. A conversation is read a little differently from a worksheet: see Start from a conversation. Steps 4 and 5 are for worksheets only.
If AysOps finds possible mistakes in an Excel file, a yellow box called Possible errors found in this worksheet lists them, sheet by sheet, with the cell for each one. For example: a subtotal that leaves out some rows, a line worked out differently from the lines around it, a cell showing #VALUE!, the same tax worked out at two different rates, or the same total name used twice. This check is free and covers every sheet, even ones you do not pick. Each one says “possible”, because some are done on purpose. Fix your file and upload it again, or carry on: the AI is told about them.
If your workbook has more than one sheet, choose what the AI does with each one:
- Build from: the estimate’s lines come from this sheet.
- Check against: the AI reads this sheet to check the work, for example prices that differ from your price list, quantities that disagree, or extras and change orders missing from the totals. No lines are made from it. Every sheet starts as Check against until you choose what to build from.
- Leave out: the sheet is not sent.
If you like, type Instructions for the AI in the same box, for example “The Floor by Floor sheet is the totals sheet: check it against the price list” or “Build the Composite decking option”. They are sent with the first draft, so you do not have to wait for it. Then click Build the draft. The button shows about what it will cost; a very large sheet costs more. A large sheet can take a few minutes to read. You can stay on the page: it shows The AI is reading the worksheet… and updates by itself when the draft is ready.
Check the draft:
- Lines are grouped by section, each with its subtotal.
- If a row in your file prices more than one thing in separate columns, for example materials and labour, each becomes its own line. The second one says what it is, for example (labour).
- Check: notes point out things worth a second look. On the first draft the AI reviews your worksheet for mistakes in general, such as a total that does not add up, a line with a missing price, or a tax that does not match the rest of the file. Each note says what most likely fixes it, for example which cell to correct and to what, or which rows a total should cover. When one mistake causes several (one missing value that breaks every total built on it), it is reported once, with the cells it affects. Not every worksheet has tax, and tax rates differ from place to place, so a tax rate is only questioned when the file disagrees with itself.
- A line marked No total on the sheet has a quantity and a price but an empty total in your file. It is included at quantity × price, but your file’s own subtotals leave it out, so you are asked whether it belongs. Remove it with the bin if it does not.
- Questions: when the AI is not sure about something that could change the price or what is included, it asks you instead of guessing, and says what it assumed in the meantime. Its questions appear in the Conversation with the AI, just under the totals check.
- Checked against the worksheet’s totals shows whether the draft matches the totals in your file. A red ✗ means the draft’s lines in that part do not add up to your file’s total. Point at the ✗ (or tab to it) to see by how much, and the AI’s questions and checks about that part. Some have none: then compare those rows in your file.
To fix a line yourself, click the pencil beside it, change it and click Save. To remove it, click the bin. To rename a section, click the pencil beside its name. Your own changes are free.
To answer the AI or ask for a change, use the Conversation with the AI, under the totals check. It works like a chat: your messages on the right, the AI’s replies on the left, each with the new total and its checks folded under things to check. Type what you want in your own words and press Enter (or click Send); Shift+Enter starts a new line. Under each of the AI’s latest questions:
- Keep what you assumed writes into the box that the AI’s assumption is fine, so it stops asking.
- Answer puts the question in the box for you to finish.
Nothing is sent, or charged, until you send it. Each message is one of your 15 rounds.

Changed your mind? Click Go back to here under any earlier step in the conversation, then Go back. The draft returns to how it was at that step. The later steps stay in the conversation, so you can go back to them too. Going back is free and does not use a round.
Optional: under Notes for the customer, write what’s included and what isn’t, or click Draft with AI to have it written from the lines and your answers, then edit it and click Save notes. These become the estimate’s notes, which your customer sees when you send it.
When the draft is right, choose the customer if you have not already, and click Accept and create estimate.

What happens next

A Draft estimate is created with the lines and sections from your draft, and you are taken to the customer’s Estimates tab. Units and prices from the worksheet are written into each line’s description.
If your worksheet used a tax rate that matches exactly one of your tax rates, that rate is added to the lines. Otherwise add taxes on the estimate.
Your worksheet is attached to the estimate. Open the estimate (from the customer or from Estimates) and you’ll see Made with AI from [your file]: View the review history · Download review (PDF). The same links stay on the work order and the invoice that come from that estimate, so the record is always one click away.
The Review history keeps every step, oldest first: your instructions, each question the AI asked with your answer (or “not answered”), what the AI found, every line added, removed or changed (before and after), and the totals check at that point. Questions still open when you accepted are listed at the end. This copy is for you and your team; it is never sent to your customer.
The cost bar at the top always shows what this draft has cost so far.

Choose how the estimate looks

Your worksheet is where the numbers come from, not how the estimate has to look.

The quickest way is the How it looks buttons at the top of the draft. They are free and instant (no AI):

Every line: every line from your worksheet.
One line per section: each section becomes one line named after it, worth the total of its lines. Not available when no line has a section.
One total for the job: one line for everything. Type the name your customer will see (for example “Kitchen renovation”) and click Use one line.
Markup: type a percentage for materials, labour or other, and click Apply markup. 0 removes it.

When you ask the AI for a different look in the conversation, the buttons show Custom (from the conversation); pressing one of them replaces it.

You can switch between them as often as you like; the total stays the same, apart from any markup. For anything else, tell the AI in the conversation, in your own words. For example:

“Show just the total for each section, no breakdown.” Each section becomes one line, such as Cabinets total, worth the total of its lines.
“Make it one line for the whole job called Kitchen renovation, no sections.”
“Add a 25% markup on materials and 50% on labour.” Any percentage works. Asking again with a different number replaces the earlier markup; it is never added twice.
“Add a permit fee of $350.” The amount must be written in your message; the AI never invents one.
“Put the cabinets back line by line.” A combined line can always be split back into its lines.

A combined line shows Combines … lines; click it to see the lines inside and their amounts. A marked-up line says so, with its price before the markup. Checked against the worksheet’s totals still compares your file with the prices before any markup.

If a change lowers the total by a lot, a Check: note says by how much, so work taken out by mistake never goes unnoticed.

Your worksheet changed

If a price or a row changes in your worksheet after you started, you don’t have to start over. On the draft, beside Worksheet changed?, click Upload the revised file and choose the new file (same sheet names, Excel or CSV). It’s free: no AI is used.

Each line finds its row in the new file by its words, even if rows were added above it, and takes the new price and quantity.
Your layout, markups and any price you typed yourself stay as they are. A price you typed is kept and mentioned.
A row that is no longer in the file keeps its line with a note, so you decide whether to remove it.
New rows are listed in the conversation. Ask the AI to add the ones that belong.

You can’t use Go back to here to return to a step before a revised file, because those lines point at the old file’s rows. To use the earlier file again, upload it with Upload the revised file.

Notes for the customer: what’s included

Draft with AI reads the draft’s lines and the questions you answered, and writes a short What’s included list (one or two sentences per area of work) and, only when something is clearly left out or supplied by the customer, a Not included list. It never adds prices, your markup or anything about how you put the estimate together. It only fills the box: nothing is sent. Read it over, change anything, and click Save notes; Accept uses the saved notes. If the box already has text, AysOps asks before replacing it. Each draft is a small AI charge, shown with the draft’s cost.

Start the next one with your usual look

Beside Accept and create estimate, Start my next worksheet estimate with this look remembers how this one looks (every line, one line per section or one total, and any markup on materials, labour or other). Your next worksheet draft is then shown that way as soon as the first draft is ready, as its own step in the conversation, so Every line or Go back to here undoes it for free. Untick it to stop. Only the layout and markup are remembered, never amounts or lines.

When your worksheet has more than one option

Some worksheets price the same job more than one way, for example cedar or composite decking. The AI builds one option per estimate (the one you asked for, or else the first one) and tells you which other options it found. It also leaves out a summary sheet that only repeats the other sheets, so nothing is counted twice.

To make an estimate for another option, click Make another estimate from this worksheet. You do not need to upload the file again. Type which option to build in Instructions for the first draft, then click Build the draft. Each estimate keeps its own history and its own copy of the worksheet.

Start from a conversation instead

The prices for a job are not always in a spreadsheet. On the first screen, choose one of these instead of a worksheet:

Paste text: click Paste text and paste an email thread, a chat or your notes from a call. Lines like “Dana: we have 3 windows” keep who said what.
Upload a file: a text file (.txt), a meeting transcript (.vtt), a PDF or a saved email (.eml). A scanned PDF with no text in it cannot be read: paste the words instead.
From a meeting: click From a meeting and choose a Zoom, Google Meet or Microsoft Teams transcript you already imported from an appointment. This choice only appears if you can view files. Owners, administrators and managers see every meeting; other team members see only the meetings they held themselves. With no imported transcripts yet, it says to import one from an appointment first (Get transcript). When you click Continue, AysOps first tells you that the transcript’s text is sent to our AI provider; click Continue again to go ahead. A copy of the transcript’s text is kept with the draft; the meeting’s own file is not changed.

How the AI reads a conversation:

It only uses a price that was actually said or written. Each line shows the words it came from, so you can check it.
When a price changed during the conversation, it uses the latest price both sides agreed to, and a Check: note lists the earlier prices.
A customer’s budget, a rough guess or a “what if” price is not treated as a quote.
Work that was talked about but never priced becomes a question, never a line with no price.
A conversation has no totals to check against, so instead of Checked against the worksheet’s totals you see Where each price was said.

Stop part-way and come back later

Your draft is saved automatically after every step, so you never lose work you have paid for.

To come back to it, go to Estimates. Under Unfinished worksheet drafts, click Continue beside the file. The draft opens exactly where you left it.
To keep a copy, choose Excel, CSV or PDF beside Download on the draft and click Download. The copy has the lines so far, the comparison with your worksheet’s totals, and the full review history: your instructions, every question with your answer, what the AI found and each change, step by step. Downloading is free.
To throw a draft away, click Discard beside it under Unfinished worksheet drafts and confirm.

If something goes wrong

Not done: the AI can only change this draft. Anything else is refused, and that request does not use up one of your 15 rounds.
“This draft has asked the AI 30 times, the most one draft can”: refused requests do not use up your 15 rounds, but each one is still a request to the AI, and one draft can make at most 30 in all. You can still edit the lines yourself, then click Accept.
“The AI’s answer could not be used. Nothing changed”: try again, or say it differently.
“The AI is still working on this draft”: wait for it to finish. The page updates by itself, and nothing else can be changed until then.
The draft was changed somewhere else: reload the page before saving again.
No yellow box: no possible mistakes were found in the formulas, or the file is a CSV or Word file (they have no formulas to check). The AI still reviews the content on the first draft.
“Storage limit reached” when you start: the draft keeps a copy of your file or conversation, and your company’s storage is full. Free up space or add storage, then start again. See Storage limit reached.
You changed your mind: click Stop. The draft is no longer used. It and its file are kept for now and count towards your file storage.