Skip to content
Use case 07 · Pre-Sales / Tendering

Customer-ready fire protection quotations

A workflow that turns an approved internal estimate into a branded client offer — drafting scope, validating commercial terms, checking that exclusions are present and routing approval before anything is issued. Internal cost rows never cross into the customer document.

Get the requirements document See the flow
Runs standaloneUploads and manual entrySales lead signs
Workflow 07 · demo runAwaiting sign-off

Sales leadA technically sound estimate becomes an inconsistent offer the moment scope, exclusions, delivery terms and approval status are copied across by hand.

  1. Set up the offerSales lead
    QueuedWorkingDoneSign-off
  2. Draft the scopeAutomated
    QueuedWorkingDoneSign-off
  3. Check exclusionsAutomated
    QueuedWorkingDoneSign-off
  4. Route approvalApprover
    QueuedWorkingDoneSign-off
  5. Issue and versionSales lead
    QueuedWorkingDoneSign-off
Stopped for the sales lead to sign
  • Who uses itSales lead, commercial approver
  • Lifecycle stagePre-Sales / Tendering
  • Buyer groupTrack B · Estimating & Commercial
  • RequirementsBRD v0.1, sent as written
At a glance

What goes in, what comes out

Goes in
Approved estimate
Client and project
Commercial terms
Customer-Ready QuotationsFive steps · one approval gate Sales lead signs
Comes out
Branded quotation
Checked exclusions
Issue history
What it does

Customer-Ready Quotations, step by step

Five steps, one decision point. The last step is a person, every time.

  1. 01
    Sales lead

    Set up the offer

    Client, project, validity and commercial terms established once.

  2. 02
    Automated

    Draft the scope

    Built from the approved estimate rather than retyped from it.

  3. 03
    Automated

    Check exclusions

    The workflow raises the exclusions the offer does not yet carry.

    Every exclusion present?

    Yes Ready for approvalNo Missing exclusion added
  4. 04
    Approver

    Route approval

    A commercial approver signs before issue, not after.

  5. 05
    Sales lead

    Issue and version

    A branded quotation with an issue history, so revision three is not mistaken for revision two.

  6. Output

    What lands at the end

    A branded customer quotation with line values, scope, exclusions, assumptions, validity and a complete issue history.

Who’s involved

Sales leadCommercial approverClient

What you get

  • Branded quotation
  • Checked exclusions
  • Issue history

In the wireframe

A reviewer spots a missing exclusion for permit fees, adds it, and issues a branded quotation without exposing internal cost rows.

Use case diagram

Who does what, and who signs

Automated steps prepare the evidence. People make the calls.

Swipe to see the whole diagram

Use case diagram: Customer-Ready Quotations People: Sales lead, Commercial approver, Client. Steps: 1 Set up the offer; 2 Draft the scope; 3 Check exclusions; 4 Route approval; 5 Issue and version. Sales lead approves the final step. Customer-Ready Quotations«workflow, built with DeX»«inputs»01 Set up the offer02 Draft the scope03 Check exclusions04 Route approval05 Issue and versionSales leadCommercial approverClientSales lead«approves»«documents»Approved estimate, …
Automated step Done by a person Approval gate Takes part Leads to
What changes

Why this costs you time today

A technically sound estimate becomes an inconsistent offer the moment scope, exclusions, delivery terms and approval status are copied across by hand. The missing exclusion is the one that becomes a variation argument.

Task
Today
With this workflow
Building the offer
Copied across by hand
Generated from the approved estimate
Exclusions
Remembered, or not
Checked as a list before issue
Internal cost rows
Risk of leaking into the PDF
Never cross into the client document
The line we do not cross

What this software will not do

Life-safety work. These limits are written into the requirements, not added as a disclaimer.

Specific to this workflow

It does not price the work or decide commercial terms. It carries an approved estimate into a consistent client document and stops it going out unapproved.

It does not decide compliance

The software assembles evidence, retrieves source clauses and shows conflicts. It does not determine whether anything complies. A named engineer does.

It does not stand in for an authority

An approval recorded in the software never implies consent from an AHJ, Civil Defence, building control or a building surveyor.

Nothing leaves without a named reviewer

Every output carries who approved it. Anything unverified keeps a draft marker until someone signs it.

It does not do sealed engineering

Hydraulic network calculation, definitive sprinkler layout, sealed design, BIM geometry authoring and final cost estimates are all out of scope by design.

Your standards, not ours

NFPA, EN, BS, ISO, FM, UL, LPCB and Civil Defence appear in the requirements as examples. None is assumed to apply to your projects until you say so.

~1/10of traditional build time
~30%of traditional cost

That is a claim about how fast Colakin builds software with DeX, and it is supported by delivered projects. It is not a claim about what any of these fifteen workflows will save your business. The requirements deliberately leave that to a pilot, measured against your own baseline.

How an engagement runs

From a question to a pilot, in five steps

Nothing hidden behind a discovery call. Stop at step one and keep the document.

  1. 01

    You ask for the requirements document

    The full BRD for the workflow you care about, sent as written.

    Same day
  2. 02

    A ten-minute wireframe walkthrough

    A clickable prototype of that one workflow.

    10 minutes
  3. 03

    The Fire Fit Check

    Five questions: fit, hours lost, who approves spend, whether your documents can be shared, and timing.

    One call
  4. 04

    A scope built on your rules

    Your standards, your document formats, your approval gates.

    Within a week
  5. 05

    A pilot against your own baseline

    One workflow, your data, your engineers.

    Q1
Same buyer, same week

Also in Estimating & Commercial

Each one stands alone. Take one first, then decide whether a second earns its place.

05 · Estimating & Commercial

Quantity Take-Off & BOM

A bill of materials where every line shows its sheet and zone.

Traceable BOMSheet and zone per lineExclusions
Open the workflow
06 · Estimating & Commercial

Estimation & Costing

Every rate carries its source, so price changes explain themselves.

Internal estimateRate sourcesMargin assumptions
Open the workflow
04 · Estimating & Commercial

Product & Equipment Selection

Certification scope as a hard filter, not a footnote.

Side-by-side comparisonCertification scopeReviewed shortlist
Open the workflow

All fifteen workflows

Questions

Customer-Ready Quotations: questions

Can internal cost rows leak into the client document?
The customer quotation is generated as its own document from the approved estimate. Cost build-up, rates and margin stay on the internal side.
How are exclusions handled?
As a checked list rather than a habit. The workflow raises exclusions the offer does not carry, which is where most variation arguments actually begin.
Does it use our branding?
Yes. Templates are set up to your own quotation format during scoping.
Can we see what changed between quotation revisions?
The issue history carries each version, so a client conversation about 'the last one you sent' has a definite answer.
Next step

Ask for the Customer-Ready Quotations requirements document

The business requirements document as written, including what it refuses to do. No brochure, no drip sequence.

  • The requirements document, usually the same working day
  • A ten-minute wireframe walkthrough with the people who specified it
  • No claimed percentage saving — your pilot measures it

Request the document

One working day. A person replies, not a sequence.

We use this to reply, nothing else. No list, no newsletter.