Supplier estimate arrives. Customer quote ready for review without retyping.
Retyping a multi-line supplier PDF is slow and introduces errors at every step. IBIOS reads the PDF, extracts every line item with AI confidence scoring, and builds a customer-facing quote for staff to review, adjust and confirm before it is sent.
What does retyping supplier estimates into quotes actually cost?
A supplier estimate lands in your inbox. It is a PDF — sometimes a well-formatted table, sometimes a scanned letter, sometimes a mixture of both. It has a long list of line items. Staff open a spreadsheet, open the PDF, and start typing. Product code. Description. Quantity. Unit price. Repeat for every line.
Halfway through, a customer calls. The spreadsheet sits open. When staff return, they find their place again. One quantity gets transposed. One product code gets a digit wrong. The quote goes out with a bath suite priced well below what it actually costs. The margin on that job is gone before installation begins.
This is not exceptional. This is a Tuesday afternoon in many bathroom businesses. The cost is not just in time — it is in the errors that manual transcription inevitably introduces, and in the quotes that simply do not get sent because there is no time to type them all up.
How does IBIOS turn a supplier estimate into a customer quote?
From PDF upload to customer-ready quote — a step-by-step account of what happens inside the system.
Upload the supplier PDF
Staff drag the supplier estimate PDF into IBIOS — or photograph it with the mobile app. The file is linked to the relevant job record immediately.
AI reads every line item
The AI processes the document and extracts each product description, quantity, and unit price. It matches recognised product codes against your catalogue and fills in full descriptions where available.
Confidence scores applied
Each extracted line receives a confidence score. High-confidence items proceed directly. Any item where the AI is uncertain — ambiguous codes, unclear pricing — is individually flagged for staff attention.
Margin calculated automatically
IBIOS applies your supplier discount rates to calculate the cost per line. A sell price is suggested based on your standard markup. Staff with cost visibility see the full margin breakdown before confirming.
Customer quote generated
Staff review, adjust if needed, and confirm. IBIOS generates a branded Word document — ready to send to the customer. The quote is logged against the job with a version number and timestamp.
What changes for the business
The time saving compounds quickly. Every quote that no longer needs retyping frees staff time for follow-up calls, showroom conversations, and job planning rather than typing. And because the extraction is reviewed before sending, the price errors that erode margin on manual quotes stop appearing.
Questions about supplier estimate processing
How does IBIOS handle supplier PDFs with non-standard layouts?
The AI reads the document structure rather than expecting a fixed template. It identifies line items, quantities, unit prices, and descriptions by understanding the content — not by matching column positions. Layouts that mix tables, bullet lists, or free-form text are all handled. Where the layout produces ambiguous results, those items are individually flagged for staff review rather than silently guessed.
What happens if a line item confidence is low?
Any line item the AI is uncertain about receives a visible confidence indicator in the review screen. Staff see exactly which field is in question — typically a product code, a price, or a quantity — and can correct it before the quote is sent. The rest of the extracted data is unaffected. Low-confidence items are never silently accepted or sent to the customer.
Can IBIOS pull supplier cost prices into the margin calculation automatically?
Yes. When a line item is matched to a product in your catalogue, the system uses the supplier-specific cost price — including your negotiated discount percentage — to calculate margin automatically. You see cost, sell price, and margin per line before the quote leaves the building. Margin visibility is role-gated, so staff without the relevant permission see the quote totals without the underlying cost data.
How is the customer quote formatted after extraction?
Once you approve the extracted line items, IBIOS generates a customer-facing Word document using your company letterhead. It includes your contact details, the job reference, an itemised list of products with descriptions and prices, and your payment terms. The document is ready to email or print without further formatting work.
Can I edit the extracted line items before sending?
Yes, every extracted line item is fully editable before the quote is confirmed. You can adjust descriptions, quantities, and prices, add or remove lines, and apply a manual markup. The AI extraction is a starting point for review, not a locked document. Once you are satisfied with the quote, you confirm it and the document is generated from the final figures.
Stop retyping supplier PDFs by hand.
IBIOS reads, extracts, and reviews supplier estimates for you. Early access by waiting list.