It reads your handwriting
Photograph the notepad. We read the scrawl, including the bits you would struggle with yourself a week later.
Free · no card · built in the UK
Your notes in.
A proper estimate out.
Scribble it on a pad, type it with one thumb, or photograph the back of an envelope. TradeScribe turns it into a professional, itemised estimate you can edit and send in minutes.
No account needed for your first one
Your notes
bathroom rip out + refit
14 oak road, 3 bed semi
remove suite, take away
chase walls, new pipework
12sqm floor tiles @ £28
new combi? check flue
2.5 days me + mate
30% deposit
M. Hargreaves Plumbing
Estimate · EST-2608-4193
Thank you for asking me to look at your bathroom. Below is my estimate for stripping out the existing suite and fitting the new one.
- Remove existing suite
- £340.00
- Chase walls for pipework
- £420.00
- First and second fix
- £700.00
- Floor tiles · 12 m² × £28.00
- £336.00
Total£2,155.20
Check this: your notes said “new combi?”, so it is priced provisionally, confirm after the flue check.
Three steps, about two minutes
The paperwork is the part nobody went into the trade for. This is the shortest possible version of it.
- 01
Give us the rough version
Type it, or take a photo of the pad in your van. Abbreviations, shorthand and half-sentences are exactly what we expect.
- 02
We write the proper one
Itemised, priced from your own rates, with the exclusions and assumptions that stop arguments later.
- 03
Check it and send it
Download a Word file. Change anything you like, put it on your letterhead, send it to the customer.
Why it is different
Built by people who have read a bad estimate
Anything can generate text. The details below are what make the difference between a draft and something you would put your name on.
It matches your format
Upload an estimate you have sent before and the new one comes out in the same shape, with the same turns of phrase.
It flags what it guessed
Anything ambiguous is marked for you to confirm, rather than quietly guessed at. A wrong figure is worse than a missing one.
The maths is not left to the AI
Every total is calculated in code, not written by a language model. The numbers on your estimate always add up.
Your branding, your document
Your logo, your footer, your payment terms. Saved once and applied to everything you write after that.
Editable, not locked
A real Word document, not a PDF you cannot touch. Change a price on the doorstep if you need to.
Set up for your trade
Every trade prices differently. Pick yours to see the line items, exclusions and wording we start from.
Questions
Is TradeScribe really free?
Yes. You can write 3 estimates a month for free, and you do not need to enter a card. We will introduce a paid plan later for people who need more than that, or who want the voice notes feature, but the free tier is staying.
Do I have to create an account?
Not for your first estimate. You can try it straight away. After that a free account keeps your business details, logo and past estimates so each new estimate takes seconds instead of minutes.
Will it get my prices right?
It uses the rates and prices in your notes, and the day rate saved on your profile. It never invents one. If there is no rate to work from, the line still appears but the price is left blank for you to fill in, and no total is shown until it is complete. A made up figure on a document going to your customer is the one thing we will not do.
What format do I get back?
A Microsoft Word (.docx) file. It opens in Word, Google Docs, Pages and LibreOffice, and every part of it is editable.
Is an estimate legally binding?
An estimate is a considered guess rather than a fixed offer, so it does not bind you the way a quotation does, but the final figure still has to be reasonable. Our guide on quotes versus estimates explains where the line sits and how to word an estimate so you are not held to it.
What happens to my notes and photos?
They are sent to Anthropic’s Claude API to write the estimate, and are not used to train any AI model. We store your saved profile and estimates so you can come back to them, and you can delete them at any time.
More in the guides, including quotes versus estimates and how to price a job.
Stop writing estimates in the van at 9pm
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