The quote you sent three weeks ago - and never chased.

You send a quote. The client goes quiet. You mean to chase it - you really do - but there's a job to finish today, and by the time you remember, three weeks have gone and it feels awkward to bring up. Meanwhile the quote sits there, neither won nor lost, just forgotten.

That gap - between "sent" and "actually followed up" - is where a lot of real work quietly disappears. Not because the price was wrong. Because nobody chased it.

Phase 1 - the quote, then a quiet watch

1. Drafts the quote. From your notes or a voice memo after the site visit, or a quick quote-builder walkthrough if starting from a blank page is the part you dread. Either way, you're checking a draft, not staring at nothing.

2. You send it, in your own words. A draft ready for you to check and send - same rule as everywhere else on this site. Nothing goes out under your name unseen.

3. It watches for the reply. Quietly, in the background - not "did I send it," but "has anything actually come back since."

Phase 2 - chasing it politely, so you don't have to

4. Quiet for a while? It reminds you. A polite follow-up, drafted and ready - timed sensibly, not the next morning, not silence forever either. It reminds you it's due and waits for your confirm, same as every draft on this site - a gentle "just checking this landed OK," never a hard chase. And because it's watching every quote you've sent, not just the ones you happen to remember, nothing quietly slips through the cracks.

5. A yes gets picked up fast. The moment a client actually replies, it tells you straight away, however you actually want to hear it - WhatsApp, text, even a call, if that's what cuts through when you're on a job. By default, it drafts the reply and waits for you, same as everywhere else on this site. If you'd rather not glance at every one, you can authorise one specific, pre-agreed reply - something like "Thanks, we've got your message, I'll call you this evening" - to go out on its own. The moment it does, it also puts that callback straight in your diary, so the promise it just made on your behalf is a real task waiting for you, not just words sent into the void. Anything that commits to a price, a date, or the job itself still always waits for you.

6. From there, it's your call how far it goes. Add it to the diary, confirm the build days, flag what needs ordering - as much or as little as you want handed to it. Once the job's done, the same discipline that watches for a quote reply can watch for payment landing too - see the invoices example for that half of it.

Why the chase stays polite, and the decisions stay yours

It would be easy to have this hassle a client every few days until they answer. I don't build it that way - a quote that's genuinely gone cold doesn't need pestering, it needs one honest nudge and then leaving alone. And nothing that actually commits you - a price, a start date, an order placed with a supplier - ever happens without you saying yes first. The agent chases and prepares. You decide.

Worth saying plainly: this is shown as a simple version. The same pattern can be built simple or pushed a lot further - more quotes tracked, more follow-up stages, more of the admin around a job prepared for you - depending on what your business actually needs.

Wondering if this needs new software first? Usually not - here's how that actually works.

What the £199 buys, and what it doesn't

The Working Diagnosis buys the plan for your version of this - how you currently quote, how long you actually leave before chasing, and where you want to sit in the loop. Not the build itself. The report is yours to keep either way. If we go further, the £199 is credited off the first invoice.