Here's what 40 minutes of work used to look like versus what 60 seconds looks like now.
I had a job last week. Customer in Santa Rosa Co. AC unit not cooling. Went out, diagnosed it — capacitor failure on a 4-ton Carrier unit, five years old, still under parts warranty. Straightforward job but the customer wanted a written estimate before I touched anything.
My old process — sit down after dinner, open a Word doc, stare at it for a few minutes, write something that looked professional enough, reread it three times, send it, wonder if I should have worded it differently.
40 minutes. Every single estimate.
Here's what I typed into Claude last week:
"AC not cooling, 4-ton Carrier unit 5 years old, capacitor failure diagnosed on site, parts under manufacturer warranty so customer only pays labor, need to include warranty transfer note, customer wants estimate before work starts"
What came back in 54 seconds:
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ESTIMATE — Turner HVAC
Scope of Work: Diagnose and replace failed run capacitor on existing 4-ton Carrier central air conditioning unit. Customer unit confirmed under active manufacturer parts warranty — parts cost covered under warranty. Customer responsible for labor only. Includes system performance test post-repair to confirm proper cooling operation. Job site will be left clean upon completion.
Labor: $185
Warranty Transfer Documentation: Included
System Performance Test: Included
Total: $185
Estimated Completion: Same day, approximately 1.5 hours
Warranty: All labor warranted for 90 days from date of service.
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I changed one number and sent it.
That's it.
Every estimate I write now takes under 60 seconds. I do 4-5 estimates a week. That's 3+ hours back every single week.
The prompt that did that is in the post below — free.
Go use it.
— Mike