AI-flagged quote. Staff review before it leaves the building.
A complex supplier quote has a few ambiguous line items. The AI flags them individually, holds the quote in review, and shows staff exactly which fields need a second look — before a single figure reaches the customer.
Why is “extract and send” not enough for supplier quotes?
AI document extraction is not infallible. Supplier PDFs vary enormously — some are clean spreadsheet exports, others are scanned letters with smudged figures, abbreviations that only make sense if you know the product range, or pricing columns that are ambiguously aligned. A system that extracts without flagging its own uncertainty will occasionally produce a wrong number, and that number will go directly to the customer.
A quoted price error on a bathroom suite is not a minor correction. If you quote well below what the supplier is charging you, you have committed to a margin-destroying job the moment the customer accepts. Recovering from that position — renegotiating with the customer, absorbing the loss, or reissuing the quote — costs time and goodwill that would not have been spent if the error had been caught before sending.
The solution is not to distrust AI extraction — it is to have the AI report its own uncertainty rather than guess silently. IBIOS does exactly that.
How does IBIOS flag uncertain quote lines before a quote is sent?
A step-by-step account of what happens from upload to confirmed, customer-ready quote.
Complex quote uploaded
Staff uploads a supplier estimate with mixed formatting, abbreviations, or partially illegible pricing. IBIOS begins extraction immediately.
AI extracts all line items
The AI reads the full document and extracts every line — product codes, descriptions, quantities, and prices. Items it can read clearly are marked high-confidence and proceed without interruption.
Low-confidence items individually flagged
Where the AI is uncertain — an ambiguous product code, a price that could be read two ways, an illegible quantity — that specific field is flagged. Other lines on the same quote are unaffected.
Staff review screen opens
A focused review screen shows only the flagged items, with the original PDF text alongside the extracted value. Staff correct or confirm each one.
Quote confirmed and sent
Once all flagged items are resolved, the quote is confirmed. IBIOS generates the customer-facing document. The review is logged in the audit trail, so flagged prices are checked before they reach the customer.
The outcome
Flagged
uncertain line items picked out individually on complex quotes
Reviewed
low-confidence quotes are held for review before send
Caught
doubtful prices are checked by staff before customers see them
The review step does not slow the process down much: checking a few flagged items is quick once you can see the original text next to the extracted value. What it prevents is the far longer conversation of renegotiating a price with a customer who has already accepted a wrong figure and is wondering why the bill has changed.
Questions about quote review and confidence scoring
What confidence threshold triggers a review flag?
IBIOS uses a configurable threshold, so any line item where the AI's certainty falls below it is individually flagged. You can raise or lower this per your workflow. A stricter threshold means more items go to review; a looser one means only genuinely ambiguous items are flagged. The setting is adjusted in your account configuration without any code changes.
Can I override a flag and send anyway?
Yes. A flag is a prompt to review, not a lock. Staff with quote-approval permission can inspect the flagged item, accept the AI's reading if they are satisfied, and confirm the quote. The override is recorded in the audit log — the system notes that the item was flagged, who reviewed it, and what decision was made. This creates a clear record without blocking your workflow.
Does the AI learn from manual corrections over time?
IBIOS records every manual correction made during a review session. Over time, patterns in your specific supplier documents — recurring product codes, house styles, pricing formats — inform the extraction. Repeated corrections to the same supplier's layout reduce the frequency of flags on that document type. This improvement happens within your account data, not through a shared training pool.
What does the review screen show the staff member?
The review screen shows the original document alongside the extracted data. Each flagged item is highlighted, with the specific field that triggered the flag — for example, "product code unclear" or "price ambiguous: decimal point unclear". Staff see the source text from the PDF next to the extracted value, so they can make a direct comparison without opening the PDF separately.
Is the customer notified there has been a delay?
No. The review workflow is entirely internal. From the customer's perspective, they receive the quote when it is ready. IBIOS does not send any notification to the customer about extraction or review steps. If your internal SLA requires you to inform customers of expected turnaround, that is managed through your normal communication — IBIOS does not interfere with it.
Related features
Quote Studio reads a supplier PDF or a photo of a handwritten form into quote lines in about 60 seconds, then matches them to your own products. See also IBIOS for tile showrooms and the quoting software guide for UK trade businesses. IBIOS (Integrated Business Intelligence & Operations System) is made by IBIOS Limited (NI743167), Northern Ireland. Access is by waiting list; there is no free trial.
AI extraction with a human check built in.
IBIOS flags what it is uncertain about so your team can verify before the quote leaves the building. Early access by waiting list.