# Estimating flow

An estimate is a few jobs that run one after another in your Field24 account: a measured takeoff, a review of it, pricing, a review of the pricing, and an optional proposal. Your assistant starts each one, checks on it, and brings you the results. It never measures or prices anything itself.

## What happens

1. **Project.** Your assistant creates a project for the job and adds your plans, drawings or photos to it. See [Files](https://field24.ai/docs/mcp/files.md).
2. **Takeoff.** Field24 reads the plans and measures every item in the scope you asked for, row by row, by CSI division.
3. **Takeoff review.** Field24's reviewer checks the takeoff against the plans. Corrections backed by the plans are applied without waiting on you; you're asked only what the plans don't settle, each with a suggested answer.
4. **Pricing.** Field24 prices the reviewed takeoff from your price book first, then local store prices and market labor rates.
5. **Pricing review.** Field24's reviewer checks the prices, and its corrections are applied the same way.
6. **Proposal (optional).** Field24 builds a branded, e-signable PDF. Your assistant can also write a proposal in the chat from the priced rows instead.

Your assistant doesn't ask for your location, units or materials before starting: a written scope is enough. If plans arrive with no scope, it asks one thing: all trades, or a specific scope?

## How long it takes

| Job | Usually takes |
| --- | --- |
| Takeoff | 15 to 30 minutes |
| Takeoff review | about 10 minutes |
| Pricing | up to 15 minutes |
| Pricing review | about 5 minutes |
| Proposal | about 10 minutes |

You don't need to keep the chat open. Your assistant checks every few minutes, gives you a one-line update, and picks up where it left off when you come back. A job that is still running after four hours is stopped; ask your assistant to pick it up again.

## What you get back

- **A takeoff** you can review and edit row by row on the Field24 review page, with the assumptions the estimator made and the questions that most affect the price.
- **A priced estimate**: unit and extended costs for every row, a bare cost and a suggested total with waste, contingency and margin, and the exclusions.
- **A proposal**: a branded PDF your client can e-sign, as a download link.

## What you can ask next

- "Change the drywall to 500 SF" or "remove the vanity": your assistant edits the row directly.
- "The corridor walls are rated" or any answer to the estimator's questions: it's sent to the takeoff, which is re-measured.
- "Re-price the framing" after a change: only those rows are priced again.
- "Use my rate of $65 an hour for drywall labor": saved to your price book and used from then on.
- "Stop the takeoff": the job stops; nothing is deleted.

## For client builders

Every job runs through one tool, `field24_agent`: `create` starts a job and returns at once, `status` reads it, `follow-up` sends answers or corrections to the same job (or resumes it after a retryable failure), and `abort` stops it. The calls for a priced estimate, in order: `create_project`, then `add_project_files` or `get_project_upload_urls`, then `field24_agent` with type `takeoff`, `takeoff_review`, `pricing`, `pricing_review` and optionally `proposal`, checking `status` between each. Never wait inside a turn: check `status` again after a few minutes. Full details are in the [Tool reference](https://field24.ai/docs/mcp/tools.md).

Index of all Field24 docs for agents: https://field24.ai/llms.txt