Case study · November 2026
A painter's quotes, from an hour to five minutes.
For Robo, who runs a residential painting business in Perth, I built a phone app that he uses while he walks the job. He taps through the rooms, takes photos and talks, and by the time he leaves the house his quote is ready to send, along with a room-by-room record of the job.
Time to produce one quote
over an hourabout 5 min
- The business
- A residential painting business in Perth’s southern suburbs, quoting interior and exterior work on homes. Run by its owner, Robo.
- The team
- Robo, who does every site visit and every quote himself. I built the app with Claude, and refined it with him over several versions.
- The challenge
- Quotes were written by hand on site, then typed up from notes and memory later. Each one took over an hour to write out and send, and there was no record of the job beyond the quote itself.
- What was built
- A phone app that sets up the job in a few taps, records photos and spoken notes room by room, and produces the quote as an editable Word file in Robo's own layout, plus a PDF summary of every room with its photos, both emailed to him.
What was built, and who does what
Robo wanted something simple and dependable on site: one question per screen, big buttons, plain words and nothing to type except the address, so there is little room for error with a brush or a ladder in hand.
| The step | What the app does | What Robo does |
|---|---|---|
| Set up the job | Finds the street from the phone’s location, then asks one question per screen: inside, outside or both, how many bedrooms, bathrooms and toilets, which other rooms, and which surfaces are being painted | Taps the answers and types the house number |
| Walk the house | Shows every room as a big button, in any order, and ticks each one off as it is done | Walks the job the way he always has |
| In each room | Takes photos with the rear camera, records what he says and shows the words it heard, so he can see it is working. Keeps everything on the phone until there is signal | Takes photos and talks through the work: coats, products, prep, access |
| Prices | Adds up any room prices and extra charges, such as paint and materials or ladder hire, and works out the GST | Enters a price per room or a total, or leaves prices for later |
| The quote | Claude turns what he said into a faithful summary and quote lines for each room. The app writes the Word quote in his existing layout, groups matching rooms (“3 Bedrooms”), builds a PDF summary with every room’s notes and photos, and emails both to him | Checks the quote, fills in the client’s details and sends it |
| Invoicing | Can be connected to Xero, so the invoice is raised straight from the quote | Chose to keep invoicing himself, so it was not connected |
Inside the app
These screens use a made-up example job, a three-bedroom house, not one of Robo's.
“I used to write everything down on paper at the house, then spend over an hour that night turning my notes into a quote. Now I just walk through taking photos and talking, and the quote is ready in about five minutes. I've also got a proper record of every room, with photos, to look back on.”
What lands in his inbox
Two files for every job: the quote, ready to check and send, and a summary that keeps the photos and his notes for each room.
Results
As at 10 November 2026, after the first week of use.
- Time to produce a quote
- Over an hour before, from handwritten notes and memory; about 5 minutes now. Robo’s own estimate.
- Quotes produced
- More than 10 in the first week
- Record of each job
- New: a PDF for every job with each room’s photos, notes and work lines. Before, there was only the quote.
- Live since
- November 2026, on Robo’s phone
- Feedback
- Robo is very impressed after his first week with it
How it was approached
Built around his day, not a screen
Early versions let him talk freely through the whole house and asked follow-up questions out loud. On site, a predictable checklist worked better, so the app became one question per screen and a list of rooms he can do in any order.
His layout, his words
The quote is a copy of the layout his customers already know, and the AI only writes down what he said. It never invents coats, products or prices.
Nothing lost on site
Photos and recordings stay on the phone until they have uploaded, so a dead spot in a back bedroom never costs him a room.
Made to be adapted
The rooms, surfaces, extras and quote layout are settings, not hard-wired. The same app can be reshaped for an electrician’s circuits and fittings, a plumber’s fixtures or a landscaper’s garden beds.
Connected only where he wants it
The app can be linked to Xero to raise the invoice from the quote. Robo prefers to handle invoicing himself, so it was left out, and it can be added at any time.
What this means for your business
Most trades still quote the same way: notes on site, typing at night. This app can be adjusted for other trades with very little work: electricians, plumbers, landscapers, builders and anyone who measures up a job and then writes it up. Their own checklist, their own quote layout and wording, and their own extras. Capture the job once, on site, in the way you already work, and let the quote, the record and, if you want it, the invoice follow from it. I’d measure the time before and after, on your own quotes.