Quote in English, even when the job runs in Chinese

The work is excellent. The email is the problem.

You can price a bathroom's tiling to the square metre in your sleep. You know exactly what the waterproofing, the substrate prep and the mitred edges are worth. None of that helps at 9pm when the quote has to go out in polished written English, and every sentence takes five minutes and still reads stiff.

The cost isn't just the evening. A quote that reads rough gets treated as rough — some customers quietly mark down the price they'll accept, or pick the builder whose paperwork looked more established, even when your work is better. Your English is fine for running a site; the written-formal register is a different skill, and it's the one the quote gets judged on.

Say it how you actually talk

With TradieCue, you speak the note in whatever comes out — Mandarin, English, or the mid-sentence mix every bilingual tradie actually uses:

The customer-facing document comes out in professional English regardless of what mix went in. The prices are exactly the ones you said — Prices come from the user and stay editable. Timmy structures the work and wording; it does not invent amounts.

Missing details get asked, in the flow you started

When an important detail is missing (a price, a customer, a scope item), Timmy asks rather than making it up. If your note names the tiles but not the customer, or gives a lump price without saying whether GST is on top, Timmy asks — questions asked in your language, “which customer is this quote for?” level simple: who's it for, what's the amount, is that inc. or ex. GST. Nothing gets invented to fill a gap, because a guessed detail in a quote costs you either money or trust.

You're still the one who checks it

This matters more, not less, when the draft crosses languages. Nothing is sent automatically. Every quote, variation and follow-up is a draft the user reviews, edits and shares themselves. Before sending, read the English draft yourself and confirm:

• The scope says what you meant — the Mandarin phrase for “waterproofing included” came through as exactly that — included — with nothing added or dropped in translation.
• Every amount matches what you said, and the GST treatment is the one you intended.
• Names, address and timing are right.

The draft is fully editable, so fix anything that's off before it goes anywhere. Timmy does the register and the structure; the facts, scope and amounts stay your responsibility to verify.

The manual alternative

The usual workarounds all have a tax. Writing it yourself costs the evening and still reads stiff. A translation app converts your words literally but doesn't know a quote needs line items, GST and terms — you get translated sentences, not a document. Asking a relative with better written English to “fix it up” works until they're busy, and puts your pricing through someone else's phone. All three add days between the walkthrough and the quote, and slow quotes lose jobs in any language.

Speaking the note the way you actually think — Chinese, English or both — and reviewing a structured English draft turns that evening into a few minutes. The capability behind it is bilingual job notes on top of voice-to-quote; the same flow covers variations and payment follow-ups, not just quotes. For what a strong English quote should contain, see how to write a professional trade quote.

Common questions