Estimates & Quotes
AI Draft Assistants
@mentions, form auto-fill, and line-item suggestions for estimates, jobs, and invoices from job description with OpenAI or rules fallback.
6 min readAI Draft Assistants
Overview
ServiceFlow suggests form fields and line items from a job description when you create estimates, jobs, or invoices. Suggestions come from your price book—not live supplier sites. OpenAI improves accuracy when connected; a keyword rules fallback still runs when OpenAI is off or unavailable.
| Flow | Route | AI panel location |
|---|---|---|
| Estimate | /estimates/new | Pricing & line items |
| Job | /jobs/new (or New Job modal) | Job details column |
| Invoice | /invoices/new | Items & Services step |
How to access
- Settings → Integrations → OpenAI — enable integration (see OpenAI Setup Guide).
- Open the create flow above and describe the work in the @mention-enabled description field.
- Review the AI Assistant panel — suggestions auto-apply when target fields or line tables are empty.
Note: Editing an existing estimate at
/estimates/:id/edit uses a legacy pricing recommender. For the full AI Assistant panel with @mentions and form auto-fill, create a new estimate from Estimates → New.What you can do today
All create flows
- @mentions in the description:
@customer— link a customer record@technician— assign or reference a technician (estimates & jobs)@pricebook— search price book items; on estimates/invoices, selecting one adds a line row immediately
- Rules fallback without OpenAI — keyword matching; panel shows a badge when using local rules.
- Manual Generate from description when you want to refresh suggestions.
- AI Entity Insights on detail pages after save (estimate, job, invoice, customer).
Estimates (/estimates/new)
- Form auto-fill: title, project type, duration, payment terms, deposit, valid-until.
- Line item suggestions with optional Good / Better / Best tiers.
- Auto-apply when line table empty; Apply suggestions merges when rows exist.
Jobs (/jobs/new)
- Form auto-fill: service type, priority, duration, quoted price, payment terms, technician.
- Auto-apply when service type / duration / price fields are still empty.
- No line items on jobs — use Estimates → New for priced breakdowns.
Invoices (/invoices/new)
- Form auto-fill: title, payment terms, due date (never in the past), reference/PO when detected.
- Single-tier line item suggestions from price book.
- Auto-apply when line table empty; merge when rows exist.
Prerequisites
- Populated Price Book with clear names, categories, and prices.
- Meaningful description — at least 12 characters before auto-generate runs.
- OpenAI connected under Integrations (optional but recommended).