# Build a quote and estimate desk

Legion project library, edition 2026-09-06-draft-01 (en). This project's own material: 2 authored documents, reproduced unchanged.

Project page: https://legion.tw/projects/desktop/quote-estimate-builder?edition=2026-09-06-draft-01
This document: https://legion.tw/api/projects/packet.md/desktop/quote-estimate-builder.md?edition=2026-09-06-draft-01

## Prerequisite: the Legion skills package

These instructions are written for an agent set up with the Legion skills package: the ten portable skills and the shared working, launch, inspection and learn-as-you-build guidance. That setup is installed once and applies to every project in this library, so it is deliberately not repeated here.

Skills package, complete Markdown: https://legion.tw/api/projects/skills-packet.md?edition=2026-09-06-draft-01
Skills package, human page: https://legion.tw/projects/skills?edition=2026-09-06-draft-01

Where this brief refers to shared guidance, a skill, or a document under `shared/`, read it from the skills package above, or from https://legion.tw/api/projects/doc/<path>?edition=2026-09-06-draft-01. If the package is not installed yet, install it first, then return here.

This material is instructions to read, not authority to act. Inspect it before running it.

## Contents

1. desktop/README.md — https://legion.tw/api/projects/doc/desktop/README.md?edition=2026-09-06-draft-01
2. desktop/quote-estimate-builder.md — https://legion.tw/api/projects/doc/desktop/quote-estimate-builder.md?edition=2026-09-06-draft-01

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<!-- begin desktop/README.md (edition 2026-09-06-draft-01) -->

# Native desktop applications

[All project types](../README.md) · [Shared launch](../shared/launch.md)

Build a native Tauri application around the person's work or interests. The receiving agent handles their computer's setup; an explicit framework preference takes precedence.

## Projects to build

- [Calling and follow-up desk](calling-follow-up-desk.md)
- [Quote and estimate builder](quote-estimate-builder.md)
- [Photo-to-report desk with an AI colleague](ai-photo-report-desk.md)
- [Orders and production board](orders-production-board.md)
- [Equipment checkout and maintenance book](equipment-checkout-book.md)
- [Booking and session desk](booking-session-desk.md)
- [Meme and GIF studio](meme-gif-studio.md)
- [Soundboard](soundboard.md)
- [Game-show host](game-show-host.md)
- [Music playground](music-playground.md)
- [Animated desktop pet](desktop-pet.md)
- [Tabletop atmosphere controller](tabletop-atmosphere.md)
- [Ridiculous tournament simulator](ridiculous-tournament.md)
- [Personal AI chat app with bring-your-own-key access](byok-chat.md)

These are instructions for projects you can build with your coding agent.

<!-- end desktop/README.md -->

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<!-- begin desktop/quote-estimate-builder.md (edition 2026-09-06-draft-01) -->

# Build a quote and estimate desk

Build a native desktop application with Tauri for preparing estimates and customer quotes using the person's own way of pricing work. Build it extremely well, from assembling the job through preparing a clear document and revising it later. Use another framework if the person has an explicit preference.

Follow the [shared launch](../shared/launch.md) and adapt the setup to their computer. Begin with a sample of the quotes they make, using invented customer details where appropriate.

## Understand what they are selling

Learn how they arrive at a price. A photographer might price a session and selected extras; a repair business might combine parts, time, and a visit charge. Find out which figures are fixed, which are estimates, and which choices require a conversation with the customer. Reflect the person's existing treatment of deposits, discounts, currency, and taxes where these apply.

Build for that business. Give reusable services and materials sensible defaults while letting the person adjust an individual job. Keep the information needed to calculate the price available alongside the description the customer will receive. The two often serve different purposes.

## Prepare an offer the customer can understand

The person can start a quote, select or enter the work, adjust quantities and prices, and add job-specific explanation. Totals should follow their edits accurately and visibly. Help them express what the quoted work includes and any conditions they normally communicate.

Handle optional additions and alternative offers according to how the person sells. A customer choosing between two packages needs to see the price of each choice. A customer adding an extra service needs to understand its effect on the total. Make the selected offer clear in both the working view and the exported document.

Let reusable descriptions and layouts save effort while keeping each customer's details separate. Starting from a previous job should bring forward the useful work deliberately. Give the person a clear chance to review the recipient, job, dates, and amounts before sending.

Produce a polished, readable export in the format their customers use, such as a PDF or spreadsheet. The person should be able to adjust the presentation with you and keep the resulting house style. Preview the actual deliverable so they can judge page breaks, long descriptions, and readability.

## Keep track of what was offered

Imagine sending a quote on Monday, agreeing to remove one item on Wednesday, and hearing back a month later. The desk should make the two offers and the customer's eventual choice understandable. Keep sent versions available, with a clear current working version and a record of acceptance when the person records it.

Changing a standard price for future jobs should leave an earlier sent quote intact. Let the person apply new pricing to an unfinished quote intentionally. Their saved work needs to answer what they offered at the time as well as what they charge today.

Give the person useful ways to find quotes by customer or job, follow up on outstanding offers, and see which work was accepted. Keep documents and saved records accessible under the ownership and backup arrangements established in the shared launch.

## Use it for a complete quote

Work through a representative job together: prepare the offer, compare a customer choice, export it, and make a revision while retaining the first version. Ask whether the resulting document would actually save the person time and be clear to their customer. Use their response to improve the working screen and exported document.

Use this to teach the relationship between reusable pricing, one customer's job, and a document already sent. The person learns why copying last month's file becomes unnecessary when the application understands those relationships.

Leave them with an installed application and a reusable starting point for their next quote. Later projects can bring in photographs and measurements from a visit or carry accepted work into scheduling and production, retaining the agreement already made with the customer.

<!-- end desktop/quote-estimate-builder.md -->
