How are the hours worked out?
For each job, the check multiplies how many come through by how long each takes. Weekly counts are multiplied by 4.33, the average number of weeks in a month. So 70 orders a month at 15 minutes each is 17.5 hours.
How is the cost worked out?
The hours are multiplied by your hourly cost and rounded to the nearest pound. The starting rate is £19.67, the ONS median hourly pay for full-time employees in April 2025, before employer costs such as National Insurance and pension. Use your own figure if you have one.
How are the jobs ranked?
The job that takes the most hours comes first, with two exceptions. Estimating and quote approval never come first, because the price and the sign-off stay with your people. A job that needs customer drawings or orders moves down if those can't go into an AI tool. The plan says when a job has moved, and why.
What does the plan ask you to settle first?
Up to three things, picked from your answers in this order, and a line on who checks each AI draft if the first doesn't cover it:
- 01A named person signs off every quote. This comes first when quotes go out with whoever is free.
- 02Part numbers and revisions are written one way, and enquiries arrive in one shared inbox, so everyone matches the same thing.
- 03There's an agreed AI rule, if people already use AI without one, and drawings stay inside your systems if they must.
- 04You've checked what your ERP or quoting software already does before buying anything new.
How does the four-week trial work?
Time the first job for two weeks before changing anything. Then one person runs the trial on real enquiries and orders, another approves every output, and after four weeks you compare the hours and how many drafts needed correcting. If you gave a quote turnaround, time that too. Carry on only if the job is quicker and the work is as good.
Why doesn't the plan show a saving?
Nobody knows it until the trial has run. The plan shows what each job costs now, so the saving you take to your board is one you measured yourself.
Why is quote turnaround asked separately?
The days a quote takes to go out aren't the sum of the job times. Much of it is an enquiry waiting for a drawing, a supplier price or a signature, so the check keeps the two apart and the trial times both.