What to put in your price list so your receptionist can quote from it

Repeating a number you've already published is reception. "Our call-out is $120" is a fact, and any Giday receptionist on any plan will state it word for word if it's in your business knowledge.

Working out what someone's job will cost is quoting, and that is a different job. On the Busy plan and up, your receptionist can give a price over the phone, and it does it one way only: from a list you approved, item by item, never adding two numbers together, never adjusting one to fit a different job, never guessing. If the thing the caller wants isn't on the list, it takes the details as a message for you to price. That rule is what makes it safe to let a receptionist talk money at all.

You type it the way you'd say it. Any of these lines work:

• Lock rekey: $140
• Lock rekey - 140
• Lock rekey $140 includes first 15 minutes
• $140 Lock rekey

One item per line. Up to a hundred lines. A line it can't read as money is skipped rather than turned into a number said down the phone, so a heading like "Residential" is simply ignored.

Add a duration to the end of a line and the receptionist books that much time:

• Lock rekey $140 30 min
• Full house rekey $390 2 hr
• Colour and cut $220 1h30

Without a duration, every booking takes your default slot length. With one, a two-hour job blocks two hours and the next caller is offered the slot after it. That is what stops a tap washer and a hot-water replacement being booked into the same hour.

Every quote is hedged, in words that fit your kind of business. You can pick the wording or let the receptionist choose from your trade:

• A plumber's caller hears "that's an estimate based on what you've told me — Dave will confirm the exact price on site before any work starts."
• A workshop's caller hears "that's a guide price — we'll confirm it once we've had a look at it."
• An accountant's caller hears "that's an indicative fee — the final figure depends on the scope, and we'll confirm it in writing."
• A clinic's caller hears "that's our standard fee for that item — the exact amount can vary, and reception will confirm it when you arrive."

The same hedge goes on the text message if the caller agrees to one. Nobody is told a number is final when you haven't seen the job.

1. Your call-out or minimum. It's the first thing most callers ask. Put it in your business knowledge as a plain fact so any plan can state it, and on the list so a quote starts from it.
2. Your five most common jobs, with durations. Not the exotic ones. The five you do every week are the five that get booked without you.
3. A "from" price for the ones that vary. "Blocked drain from $180" is honest, and the hedge does the rest. Leaving a common job off because its price varies means the caller gets a message instead of a booking.

Quoting is yours to turn on and off from the dashboard, no waiting on us. One control, three positions: quote from the list; state published fees only; say nothing about price at all. If you switch it off, the receptionist takes a message for you to price, which is also what it does on every plan below Busy.

• Invent a price, estimate one, or add two together.
• Apply a price to a job the list doesn't cover.
• Say a number is final.
• Quote in restricted mode. A health practice's receptionist states published fees only and never advises.

If it's already texted a caller about a price on a call, it doesn't do it twice. The plans are on the pricing page; the trade version of all this is on tradies.