Two days of building the behind-the-scenes automation that makes everything else work. The unglamorous stuff that saves hours every week.
Live Pricing Integration
Spent Tuesday morning building a workflow where Jarvis pulls live prices from Ferguson.com and populates my estimator spreadsheet automatically.
Used to be: open 15 browser tabs, search for shower bases, copy prices, paste into spreadsheet, repeat for vanity cabinets, glass doors, fixtures, trim. Twenty minutes of tab-switching for every bathroom estimate.
Now: Jarvis scrapes current prices for my standard selections list and updates the spreadsheet while I'm driving to the next appointment.
How It Works
- Product database — My go-to models and SKUs for each category
- Web scraper — Pulls Ferguson pricing automatically
- Margin calculator — Adds my markup and labor rates
- Spreadsheet update — Refreshes my estimator with current costs
Result: When I build an estimate, I'm using today's prices, not last month's. Margin protection on autopilot.
Time savings: What used to take 20 minutes of price checking now takes zero. The spreadsheet is always current.
Smart Job Folder Creation
Built a simple command that creates properly formatted job folders from my CRM data.
One input: client name or address. Jarvis pulls the info from the CRM, creates a properly named folder with the date and address, then copies my project template with all the right tabs and structure.
Sounds small. Saves 15 minutes per job and eliminates the naming inconsistencies that make files impossible to find later.
Folder Structure Template
- 01 Contract & Permits — signed contracts, permit docs, inspections
- 02 Plans & Drawings — layout, elevations, detail drawings
- 03 Material Orders — supplier orders, delivery schedules, invoices
- 04 Photos & Documentation — before, during, after photos
- 05 Communication — client emails, change orders, notes
Every job gets the same structure. Every file has a logical home. No more hunting through random folders for that one permit document.
Sales Inbox Spam Filter
Had Jarvis go through both my sales inboxes and sort the junk — fake ACH payment notices, SEO solicitations, cold pitches from estimating services, recruiting spam. All moved to junk so I only see real leads.
The best catch: "Erick Elias" from allstar-estimation.com had filled every field of my contact form with a sales pitch. Name field: "Need better estimates?" Email field: "Contact us today!" Message field: "We help contractors win more bids!"
Jarvis flagged it instantly: "Form submission appears to be spam — all fields contain sales messaging instead of contact information."
What It Learned
After processing two weeks of legitimate leads versus spam, the AI now recognizes patterns:
- Real leads: Specific addresses, actual project details, normal human language
- Spam: Generic locations, sales pitches in form fields, marketing language
- Vendor cold calls: "We help contractors," "Increase your revenue," industry buzzwords
Now it pre-sorts my inbox. Real leads get priority alerts. Spam goes to junk. Vendor pitches get tagged for later review.
Result: When I open my sales inbox now, I see actual leads — not a wall of junk I have to sort through first.
The Compounding Effect
Here's what's interesting about automation: individual pieces save minutes. But when they work together, they save hours.
New lead comes in → gets pre-qualified by spam filter → client research runs automatically → job folder creates itself → pricing pulls from live data → contract generates from templates.
The whole workflow from "inquiry received" to "contract sent" now takes 30 minutes instead of 3-4 hours. And most of that happens without me touching anything.
What's Next
Now that the basic automation is working, I'm building more sophisticated workflows:
- Material order automation — generate supplier orders from approved contracts
- Scheduling integration — crew calendars sync with project timelines
- Progress tracking — photo uploads auto-organize by project phase
The goal isn't to remove human judgment. It's to eliminate the repetitive tasks that eat up time you should be spending on work that actually requires thinking.