Lumber yards

Automated quoting for lumber yards

The list arrives on your yard's WhatsApp, with species, section and length tangled in the same text. Tablia reads it item by item, finds each piece in your catalogue and returns the quote for the salesperson to check.

The customer asks three lumber yards and buys from whoever answers first. How many quotes does your yard leave for later because the salesperson is still building the previous one?

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São José Lumber Yard

online

  1. Good morning! I need a quote for the back roof.

  2. Good morning! Send the list right here — text, a photo of the paper or a file.

  3. 20 rafters 2x4 3m 30 battens 1x2 3 metres 12 pine boards 12in x 3m 8 fibre cement sheets 2.44 2 flush door 32in with frame 1 exterior lockset

  4. Got it. That is 6 items — I am checking them against the yard's stock now.

  5. Quote #M4C1 is ready. 5 of the 6 items available; I marked the exterior lockset as missing.

    📄 quote-M4C1.pdf

  6. Can the rafters be eucalyptus?

  7. They can — we have the 2x4x3.00 in eucalyptus. Here is version 2 of #M4C1; the previous one is now superseded.

    📄 quote-M4C1-v2.pdf

Illustrative conversation. Store, items and codes are examples.

A roofing list, exactly as it arrives

Notice that no line on the left states the selling unit, and that almost all of them carry two measurements in the middle of the text.

Store WhatsApp

Good morning! I need a quote for the back roof, here is the list:

20 rafters 2x4 3m

30 battens 1x2 3 metres

12 pine boards 12in x 3m

8 fibre cement sheets 2.44

2 flush door 32in with frame

1 exterior lockset

07:12

What Tablia read

  • 20 pcrafter 2x4 3mPINE RAFTER 2X4X3.00
  • 30 pcbattens 1x2 3 metresPINE BATTEN 1X2X3.00
  • 12 pcpine boards 12in x 3mPINE BOARD 12IN X 3.00
  • 8 pcfibre cement sheets 2.44FIBRE CEMENT SHEET 2.44X1.10
  • 2 setflush door 32in with frameFLUSH DOOR SET 32IN W/ FRAME
  • 1 pcexterior locksetNot found in your catalogue

5 of 6 items found. Whatever is missing goes to the salesperson with the customer's original wording — nothing disappears from the quote quietly.

Illustrative example. The list and the catalogue names are fictional.

Three numbers on the same line, and only one is a quantity

This is where exact-text search fails in a lumber yard — and the error does not show up in the quote, it shows up on site.

20quantity
raftersproduct
5x6section
3m longlength

Read it quickly and you deliver three rafters. Search by identical text and you deliver twenty in the wrong size. And the species — pine, eucalyptus, cedar — often does not even appear on the line, though it changes the price.

Sawn timber does not come back

Getting a measurement wrong in a lumber yard is not a budget discrepancy. It is a second delivery run and a customer on the phone.

One sheet, four families

A job list mixes timber, roofing, hardware and doors. Each with its own way of being measured.

Two vocabularies

The carpenter writes it one way, the engineer another, and your catalogue a third.

How Tablia reads the list

  1. 01

    It separates item from quantity

    The list is read line by line, and the number that is a quantity is kept apart from the one that is not.

  2. 02

    It keeps the measurement in the item name

    Section and length stay attached to the item. Neither turns into a quantity, and neither is lost.

  3. 03

    It infers the unit nobody wrote down

    Nobody writes “piece” on a job list. The unit comes from the item and from the context of the other lines.

  4. 04

    It searches by meaning

    “Pine rafter 2x4 3 metres long” finds the PINE RAFTER 2X4X3.00 in your catalogue. Alternative names for the same product are searched too.

  5. 05

    It flags what it could not find

    An item your store does not carry goes to the salesperson with the customer's original wording, instead of vanishing from the list.

The list can arrive as

PDFJPGPNGXLSXXLSDOCXCSVtexthandwritten

Handwriting is the only one that does not go in — returning a wrong quantity that looks right is worse than refusing the file.

Your catalogue works as it is

What you upload

The stock file your yard already uses, in CSV, XLS or XLSX. Tablia recognises the code, description and price columns with the help of artificial intelligence, and you check the mapping before it takes effect. Abbreviations, old codes and descriptions that changed from one salesperson to another do not block the search.

What it does with what it could not find

The item appears to the salesperson with the customer's original wording, flagged as not found. It does not pick a lookalike in its place and does not delete the line. The decision is your team's: add the item, offer an equivalent, adjust the quantity or say the yard does not carry it.

The quote only goes out after the salesperson checks it

Nothing is sent to the customer automatically. The salesperson reviews item by item, adjusts quantities, swaps products, sets the price and decides when to send.

Tablia is a copilot: it takes on the typing and the searching, and hands the decision back to whoever knows the customer and the job.

Tablia takes on

  • Reading the list, in whatever format it arrives
  • Inferring the unit nobody wrote down
  • Looking up each item in your catalogue
  • Flagging what it could not find

You decide

  • The quantity of each item
  • Swapping the product
  • The price
  • When to send

Questions from people who run a lumber yard

Does Tablia understand the measurements my customer writes?

Yes. In “20 rafters 2x4 3m long” it separates what is a quantity from what is a measurement: the 20 becomes the quantity, while the 2x4 and the 3m stay part of the item name. The search then looks for that item in your catalogue by meaning, not by identical text.

What if the customer does not write the unit?

They almost never do. Tablia infers the unit from the item and from the context of the other lines — twenty rafters are twenty pieces, not twenty metres. The inference appears on screen next to the item, and the salesperson corrects it if they disagree, before the quote goes out.

Does Tablia convert cubic metres into pieces, or square metres into boxes?

No, and it is better to say so now than in the demo. It reads the measurement the way the customer wrote it and keeps it in the item name. Converting volume into pieces depends on each yard's cutting pattern, and that sum stays with the salesperson.

Do I have to tidy up my catalogue before starting?

No. You upload the stock file your yard already uses, in CSV, XLS or XLSX, and Tablia recognises the code, description and price columns with the help of artificial intelligence — you check the mapping before it takes effect. Abbreviations and names that vary from one salesperson to another do not block the search.

What happens to an item my lumber yard does not carry?

It appears to the salesperson flagged as not found, with the customer's original wording beside it. Tablia does not pick a lookalike in its place and does not delete the line. The decision is yours: add the item, offer an equivalent, or say the yard does not carry it.

In what format can the customer send the list?

PDF, a photo in JPG or PNG, a spreadsheet in XLSX or XLS, a document in DOCX, CSV or typed text. The only one that does not go in is a handwritten list: Tablia does not accept handwriting, so it never returns a wrong quantity that looks right.

Does the quote go to the customer on its own?

Never. Nothing is sent without the salesperson. They review item by item, adjust quantities, swap products, set the price and decide when to send. Tablia takes on the typing and the searching; the decision stays with whoever knows the customer and the job.

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Bring a real job list

In the demo we use a list your yard received this week, against your own catalogue. It is the fastest way to find out whether Tablia can handle what you sell.

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