Give your whole team the same estimating brain: set up a shared AI project with your cost codes and past jobs that drafts a budget from a salesperson's scope notes, then test it against a job you already priced by hand: AI agent prompt
A fast estimate is only useful if it's close to the one your best estimator would write. Qualified Remodeler (Oct 8, 2026) profiles Mathew Meskimen of MCG Homes, a remodeling company in Fernandina Beach, Florida, with 32 employees and $6.03 million in 2025 remodeling revenue, and a finalist for the 2026 Fred Case Award. MCG chose Claude as its main business AI and built shared projects for estimating, sales qualification, HR, procedure searches and construction standards, so every employee can use them without recreating prompts. The ballpark tool lets a salesperson describe a scope and property, compares it with MCG's past jobs and market data, checks whether the client's budget is realistic, and drafts a budget with the company's cost codes, allowances, labour, subcontractor and material categories plus contingencies that reflect project risk. The projects include instructions, limits and company data so the AI asks for missing information. In a test against an estimate prepared the usual way, Meskimen says eight hours of work took about 30 minutes and the result came within five percent. That's one reported comparison. Contractors, renovation teams and agents who prepare repair or renovation budgets for sellers and investors can set up the same thing, as long as a professional checks every estimate before a client sees it.
The prompt
1. Export 20 to 50 past jobs with their final costs broken into your cost codes (labour, subcontractors, materials, contingency) and a short scope description for each. 2. Create a shared project in Claude or ChatGPT, upload those jobs and your current price list, and add these instructions: "You draft budgets for [company] in our cost codes. Start from the client's budget if given. Compare the scope with our most similar past jobs and show which ones you used. If any information is missing (size, finishes, access, permits), ask for it instead of guessing. Mark every number as an estimate for staff review." 3. Take a job you already priced by hand last month, paste in only the original scope notes, and compare the AI's draft with your real estimate line by line. 4. If the totals aren't within a few percent, add the missing past jobs or rules to the project and test again. 5. Once it passes, share the project with your sales team and keep a rule that a senior estimator signs off every number.
Fill in the blanks, then copy
This prompt has 1 [bracket] to fill in. Type your details below and the prompt updates as you go. Your answers stay in this browser and are reused on other prompts with the same blanks. Nothing is sent to us.
Example values are fictional, just to show how a filled-in prompt reads. Replace them with your real details.How to use it
- Copy the prompt above.
- Replace every [bracket] with your own details (use the fill-in-the-blanks box above, which remembers your answers for the next prompt).
- Paste it into Claude Projects, JobTread, ChatGPT and review the answer before you use it.
Works with: Claude Projects, JobTread, ChatGPT, spreadsheet
Real-world example: qualifiedremodeler.com/2026-fred-case-award-finalist-making-ai-practic
Featured in: AI prompts to summarize meetings, notes, documents and reports · AI prompts for writing SOPs, reports, policies and checklists
Before you use it: what to check
Check yourself
- Check every figure, price and total against your own records before anything is sent, posted or booked. A person approves refunds, discounts, payments and price changes.
- Remove names, contact details, account numbers and other personal data the task doesn't need before you paste, and check your AI tool's data and training settings.
- Check names, dates, numbers and any claim against your own source material before you use the answer. AI can misread or invent details.
Using an AI agent? Download this prompt as a SKILL.md agent skill with these checks built in, or get the .zip for Claude.ai. How to install skills.
Want to make this prompt even better? Grade it with the free prompt grader or build your own with the AI prompt generator.
32 copy-paste agent prompts (PDF) plus 5 new prompts every week.
Get it free