Tradespeople
Direct answer
Trades playbooks cover the missed call, the quote, the overdue invoice, and the receipt in the van. A phone agent may take a message. It may not price the job or promise an arrival. Supplier research stays a list of pages you open. The quote you send is a separate draft you check against those pages.
Plumbers, electricians, builders, and other mobile trades lose work when the phone rings mid-job and lose evenings to paperwork.
The expensive mistake in a trade is a promised arrival time or a price the agent invented. The playbooks here keep both of those with you. A message-taker can collect the address. It cannot tell someone you will be there at eight.
Receipts live in the van, not in a desk drawer. Capture them the day you pay. If you pay subcontractors in construction, the Construction Industry Scheme is a separate question from "which supplier is cheapest", and these guides do not operate it for you.
Playbooks that fit
- File organisationChatGPTOne sitting for the tree, then files as they arrive£0 on the free plan/mo
A client folder layout in Google Drive
Organise client files by creating a short folder tree in Google Drive and moving files yourself. ChatGPT can propose names from a list you type. Google's own help says names should be short and meaningful, and that you need permission to move a file. The free ChatGPT plan was listed on 25 October 2026. This has not been live-tested.
- Research for quotes and suppliersGrok15 minutes to save the prompt, then the time you spend checking linksabout £0–£23/mo
A Grok research brief for supplier quotes
Give Grok a fixed brief for supplier research: three companies, their websites, and a price only when that price is printed on the page you are given. Open every link before you trust a figure or put it in a quote. Estimates are not allowed. Not live-tested yet.
- Research for quotes and suppliersChatGPTOne sitting per company, with the sites open£0 on the free plan/mo
A one-page lead brief from pages you opened
A lead brief is a short note on a company you are about to contact, built only from pages you opened. Companies House lists some company details for free. ChatGPT may arrange those notes and must mark anything without a page. It does not replace the supplier-quote guide. This has not been live-tested.
- Meeting and job schedulingChatGPT30–45 minutesabout £0–£15/mo
A scheduling agent that does not touch the calendar
Set up a free Google Calendar appointment page so people book a real gap in your diary, then use ChatGPT only to draft the reply that sends the link. Do not let an agent create events from incoming email without you. This has not been live-tested.
- Lead capture to a CRMZapier45–75 minutesabout £0, or about £15 if you need multi-step Zaps/mo
Capture leads in a sheet with a two-step Zap
Send a short enquiry form into a Google Sheet with a two-step Zapier automation, which fits the free plan. Reply yourself the same day. Add people to a marketing list only if they ticked a box that was not pre-selected. This has not been live-tested.
- Automate invoice chasingMake1–2 hours if the built-in reminder is not enoughabout £0, or about £7 if you outgrow the free plan/mo
Chase overdue invoices with Make drafts
Turn on the reminder feature inside the accounting software you already pay for. If that wording is too blunt, use Make to create Gmail drafts for overdue invoices and send them yourself. Do not let an automation mark invoices paid. This has not been live-tested.
- Data entry from PDFs and formsClaudeAbout an hour for the sheet, then a file at a time£0 to try, or about £15 for Pro monthly/mo
Data entry from PDFs and forms with Claude
Data entry from a PDF or a form is a row you check, not a file the model files. Claude can read the page into a sheet. If a figure is unclear, the cell stays blank and the original stays attached. The row is not your statutory record. Nothing here has been live-tested.
- Receipts into bookkeepingChatGPTOne sitting for the folders, then one photo at a time£0 on the free plan/mo
File receipt photos in Drive, without posting the books
File a receipt by putting the photo in a dated Drive folder and one checked line in a sheet. ChatGPT may propose the filename from the supplier, date, and total you type. Do not upload the photo. The free ChatGPT plan was listed on 25 October 2026 with no paid price in the text. This has not been live-tested.
- AI receptionist and missed callsLindy1–2 hours, plus test callsabout £38–£60 before call minutes/mo
Missed-call answering for trades with Lindy
A Lindy phone agent can take a missed-call message for a tradesperson: name, number, address, and the job. It must not quote a price. Only buy a number if customers in the UK can dial it without an international code. This page has not been live-tested.
- Automate email triageChatGPTOne sitting, before you rely on it£0 on the free plan/mo
Outlook inbox triage with rules and a ChatGPT draft
Inbox triage in Outlook means rules that file newsletters and invoices, then a ChatGPT draft you paste and send yourself. On 25 October 2026 the ChatGPT pricing page listed a free plan and did not print a paid price in the text. This is the Outlook path. The Gmail guides are separate. This has not been live-tested.
- Social post repurposingClaude20–40 minutes for the first note, then lessabout £0–£15/mo
Repurpose one work note into social posts with Claude
Take one true note about finished work and ask Claude for a Google Business post, an Instagram caption, and a short LinkedIn post. You approve every word and you only use photos you have the right to publish. Nothing is auto-posted. Not live-tested yet.
- AI receptionist and missed callsSmith.aiHalf an hour to read the pricing tableabout £113 a month for 75 real calls/mo
Smith.ai answering service: what a call costs
Smith.ai's answering bill is a bundle of real calls, not a flat receptionist wage. On 25 October 2026 Free was $0 for 25 real calls and Pro started at $150 a month for 75. Extra calls and spam rules change the invoice. Read them before you divert. This buying guide has not been live-tested.
- Quote and estimate draftsChatGPTAbout an hour to make the template, then minutes a quote£0 to try, or about £15 if you pay for Plus/mo
Trade quote drafts with ChatGPT
A trade quote should start from notes you took and from supplier pages you opened, not from a model's memory of prices. ChatGPT can lay the lines into your template. It must leave a blank where you have no figure. You check VAT, the day, and the total, then you send it. This has not been live-tested.
- Receipts into bookkeepingClaude30 minutes to set up, then about half an hour a weekabout £0–£15/mo
Turn receipt photos into checked bookkeeping rows
Photograph each receipt and, once a week, ask Claude to read the date, supplier, and amounts into a row you check before typing it into your bookkeeping software. Always check the VAT. Do not give an agent write access. This has not been live-tested.
Questions
Which guide is the phone one?
The Lindy playbook, if a UK number exists. Smith.ai is the other message-taker, with the same rule about prices and visit times.
Can an agent write my estimate?
It can fill a template from notes you took on site. You check every line and you send it. That is the quote playbook, not the research one.
What about CIS and tax?
The UK notes point at the official pages. These guides do not operate the Construction Industry Scheme and do not file a return.