Proposal · Workflow Automation

Quote-to-Job Workflow Automation for Lotus Design

Prepared for David Lefebvre, Owner — Lotus Design, Gatineau QC
Prepared by Derik Lawlis · Sagepar · 2026-04-27

The Short Version

Where Lotus Sits Today

3 machines, 1 owner doing all quoting, ~1 RFQ/week, jobs $10k–$80k. Turnaround time is the #1 pain. Fulcrum costs more than it saves at this volume; InFab wasn't accessible from Canada, which makes data sovereignty a real selection constraint going forward.

RFQs / week
~1
~52 / yr
Win rate
~50%
~26 jobs / yr
Job value
$10–80k
~$45k mid
Owner hours back
~150 / yr
est. 4hr → 1hr per RFQ

How It Works — End-to-End

Ten stages, every one built from documented APIs or standard Claude Code patterns. Sample content (Acme bracket RFQ) is illustrative — the agent uses your real customers and parts.

Input / Output Automated step You decide Data flow
Stage 1 · Trigger — how the agent knows to start
Three ways the agent gets kicked off
  • Manual. You double-click the agent icon when you sit down to quote.
  • Scheduled. Runs at fixed times you choose (e.g. 8am, 1pm, 4pm).
  • Inbox watch. Polls your MS365 inbox every 15 minutes; only acts on RFQ-shaped emails.
All three modes can run together. You always retain a manual start button.
Stage 2 · Detect a new RFQ
Pattern match on incoming email
Fires when subject keywords (RFQ, quote, request for quote, devis, soumission) appear together with a STEP attachment OR a drawing-shaped PDF.
Example match
Stage 3 · Extract — pull every useful piece of data
What gets captured
  • Email body, sender, subject, date, thread context
  • Every STEP file attached (any revision)
  • Every PDF drawing attached
  • Customer match against your QuickBooks customer list (auto-flag if new)
  • Quantity, lead-time language, and any notes from the body
  • Prior history with this customer (last quote, last job, win-rate)
Stage 4 · Classify — four decisions, surfaced for you
Each decision shown with its branches
Rush?
YES → flag in summary, expedite reply, suggest rush surcharge NO → standard ROM workflow
Size / scope?
SMALL → soft-jaw, fast turnaround, simpler quote logic LARGE → custom material order, longer lead, careful pricing
Customer?
REPEAT → use saved template + pricing history NEW → flag for onboarding fields (PO terms, ship address)
Risk flags?
Tight tolerances · special finish · unusual material · DFM concerns All risks listed in your summary — you decide whether to ask the customer
Stage 5 · Organize — drop everything in a folder you can open
OneDrive folder structure (per RFQ)
OneDrive/
└── RFQs/
    └── 2026/
        └── Acme-bracket-2026-04-27/
            ├── email.eml              ← original RFQ archived
            ├── bracket-rev2.step      ← STEP file
            ├── bracket-rev2.pdf       ← drawing
            └── summary.md             ← agent's plain-English summary
What's inside summary.md
  • Customer: Acme Engineering (repeat — last quoted 2026-02)
  • Rush: No (next-week ROM)
  • Quantity: 12
  • Material: 6061-T6 (in stock per QBO)
  • Risk flags: ±0.0005 callout on bore — confirm critical?
  • Suggested ROM range: $4,200 – $5,100
  • Confidence: 80%. Unsure: deburr spec on rev 2 isn't called out — assumed standard.
Stage 6 · Build drafts — both run in parallel
✉️ Outlook Draft
Lands in your normal Drafts folder. Not sent.
💼 QuickBooks Estimate Draft
Appears as a draft Estimate in QBO. Not sent.
Customer: Acme Engineering
Estimate #: EST-2026-0042 (draft)
Programming & setup — 1 × $400
CNC machining — 12 × $250
Material (6061-T6 plate) — 1 × $480
Deburr / finish — 12 × $20
Inspection — 1 × $180
Subtotal $4,300 · Tax TBD · Total TBD
Stage 7 · Notify you — single line, everything you need
One ping, summarizes the RFQ
🔔 RFQ ready · Acme bracket · ROM ~$4.5k · 1 risk flag · OneDrive › RFQs/2026/Acme-bracket-2026-04-27
Delivered as a desktop pop-up, an Outlook task, a Teams DM to yourself, an SMS — pick any combination.
Stage 8 · You review (the human checkpoint)
Your turn — same tools you use today
Nothing reaches a customer without you clicking Send.
1 · Open the folder
OneDrive › the RFQ folder. Read summary.md (1 page). Glance at the STEP if you want.
2 · Decide — ship, edit, or reject
Ship: jump to step 3.
Edit: change the Outlook draft and QBO estimate normally.
Reject: drop a note in summary.md ("redo with X") and re-run the agent.
3 · Send the email
Open the Outlook draft, hit Send. Customer gets your reply.
4 · Send the estimate
Open QBO, the draft estimate is already there. Hit Send. Customer gets the formal quote.
Stage 9 · Customer receives
📨 Reply email · from your Outlook · normal headers
💰 QuickBooks estimate · your branded estimate · normal QBO email
Stage 10 · Track & follow up — close the loop
Knows where every quote stands
  • RFQ logged in tracker.md — status: Quoted, value $4,500, sent 2026-04-27
  • Follow-up reminder set for D+5 if no customer response
  • If the customer replies, agent re-classifies the new email and updates the folder
  • When the job is won, status flips to Won and folder moves to RFQs/won/
Phase 1 keeps tracking in plain markdown. A real CRM is Phase 4 — only if you want it.

Why Every Step Is High-Confidence (>90%)

Each component leans on a documented, standard API or a well-trodden Claude Code pattern — not on speculative integrations.

StepHow it worksConfidence basis
Read email + attachments list-mail-messages, get-mail-attachment via MS365 connector Already installed on your stack; backed by Microsoft Graph API
Save files to OneDrive upload-file-content via MS365 connector Same Microsoft Graph API; works exactly like your normal OneDrive sync
Classify and summarize Claude reads email body + attachment names + your playbook Standard Claude text task; no fancy CAD parsing required at this stage
Draft customer reply create-draft-email — drafts only, never sends Official MS Graph endpoint; identical behavior to clicking "Save as draft" in Outlook
Draft QuickBooks estimate QuickBooks Online Estimate API (OAuth) Documented Intuit API; thousands of apps use this exact endpoint
You review and send Standard Outlook + QuickBooks UI You already do this every week

Human-in-the-Loop Guarantees

For a non-technical owner this matters more than the tech itself. Six promises this design makes:

  1. No outbound email is ever sent automatically. Replies always land in Outlook Drafts. You read, edit, hit Send.
  2. No QuickBooks estimate is ever sent automatically. It appears as a QuickBooks draft. You review and send like you do today.
  3. Every file lives in a OneDrive folder you can open. Folder per RFQ, named by customer + date. The agent's summary is a plain text file. No black box.
  4. You can stop the agent any time. It's a single program on your shop PC. Close it and everything stops. Nothing to cancel, nothing to call about.
  5. It only runs when you tell it to, or on a simple schedule you set. It doesn't autonomously go fishing for things to do.
  6. It writes to you in plain English. Each RFQ summary says: what it did, what it's flagging for your attention, and what it wasn't sure about.

What's Deferred Until After the Pilot

These are real and useful but I'm under 90% confidence on them today. Not in pilot scope. We revisit only if the core flow earns its keep.

Auto-DFM from STEP geometry Needs a STEP parser or Toolpath integration; output quality variable.
Toolpath API hand-off Public API not yet confirmed. Manual STEP drop into Toolpath continues for now.
Auto-balloon drawing Fragile across PDF formats. Cheaper to keep manual or use a standalone PDF balloon tool.
Cloudflare web upload form Easy to build. Customer adoption is the unknown. Better to add after the inbox flow works.
FR / EN bilingual templates Works in principle. Needs a session with you on tone before it's worth wiring.
Local-LLM fallback for ITAR / DND work Only if you confirm you have that customer mix.

The Pilot — 2 Weeks, 2 Quotes, No Commitment

  1. I wire the diagram above against your inbox.
  2. It runs on the next 2 RFQs (~2 weeks at your current cadence).
  3. You log per quote: time spent, draft accuracy, anything you had to correct, customer reaction.
  4. After the second quote you decide: keep, expand into the deferred items, or stop.

Fulcrum stays running through the pilot. Nothing gets cancelled until you've seen it work.

Open Questions Before We Build

  1. Any ITAR / aerospace / DND work in the mix?
  2. QuickBooks Online or Desktop?
  3. OK running the agent on your shop PC (Windows/Mac), or would you rather a hosted dashboard?
  4. Fulcrum cancel terms / contract end date?
  5. What's the exact InFab product name so we can verify what specifically blocked you?
  6. Customer mix — what % of correspondence is in French?

Want to do the pilot?

Reply to this and I'll get started. Two weeks, two quotes, no commitment.

Either of us can stop it any time.

Derik Lawlis · Sagepar · dalawlis@gmail.com · +1 514 213 7720