Paint and coatings

Automated quoting for paint stores

The painting list arrives with colour, brand and finish jumbled together — when they are written at all. Tablia reads it item by item, discards whatever does not match the specification and returns the quote for the salesperson to check.

The customer asks three stores and buys from whoever answers first. How many quotes does your store redo because the right colour came out in the wrong brand?

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Colour & Co. Paints

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  1. Good afternoon! I am painting a whole flat, can you quote it?

  2. Good afternoon! Send the list right here — a photo of the paper, a spreadsheet or typed.

  3. 8 matt acrylic white 5gal Brand A 4 satin acrylic serenity blue 1gal 2 wall filler 5gal 6 acrylic sealer 5gal 1 lambswool roller 9in 3 masking tape 2in

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

  5. Quote #TC77 is ready. 5 of the 6 items; I marked the Brand A serenity blue satin as missing.

    📄 quote-TC77.pdf

  6. For that blue, Brand B is fine.

  7. Done. Here is version 2 of #TC77 with the Brand B satin; the previous one is now superseded.

    📄 quote-TC77-v2.pdf

Illustrative conversation. Store, brands and codes are examples.

A painting list, exactly as it arrives

Notice that the brand appears on one line only, the finish on two, and the container sometimes in litres, sometimes in gallons.

Store WhatsApp

Good afternoon! I am painting a whole flat, here is what I need:

8 matt acrylic white 5gal Brand A

4 satin acrylic serenity blue 1gal

2 wall filler 5gal

6 acrylic sealer 5gal

1 lambswool roller 9in

3 masking tape 2in

07:12

What Tablia read

  • 8 galmatt acrylic white 5gal Brand ABRAND A MATT ACRYLIC WHITE 5GAL
  • 4 cansatin acrylic serenity blue 1galNot found in your catalogue
  • 2 galwall filler 5galPVA WALL FILLER 5GAL
  • 6 galacrylic sealer 5galWATER-BASED ACRYLIC SEALER 5GAL
  • 1 pclambswool roller 9inLAMBSWOOL ROLLER 9IN W/ HANDLE
  • 3 unmasking tape 2inMASKING TAPE 2IN X 55YD

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.

The right colour in the wrong brand is a return

In a paint store the specification is not a preference: it eliminates. That is why a diverging candidate is discarded instead of accepted as similar.

4quantity
acrylicproduct
satinfinish
serenity bluecolour
1 galcontainer

Swapping satin for matt changes the sheen of the whole wall. Swapping one brand's blue for another's changes the shade. In both cases the customer does not complain about the quote: they complain after painting.

Colour is not an approximation

Forty blues in the catalogue, and only one is what the customer saw on the neighbour's wall.

Brand eliminates

Someone who asked for Brand A will not take Brand B. A request with the brand written down admits no quiet substitute.

Tin, gallon, litre

The container changes the price and almost never comes written the same way twice in a row.

How Tablia reads a painting 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 volume of the tin.

  2. 02

    It keeps the specification attached to the item

    Colour, finish, base and container stay attached to the product, instead of becoming loose text.

  3. 03

    It discards what diverges

    A request for blue paint does not take white paint. A request with a brand written down does not take another brand. The diverging candidate leaves the list instead of being offered.

  4. 04

    It searches by meaning

    “Matt acrylic white 5 gal Brand A” finds the item in your catalogue even with an abbreviated description. Alternative names for the same product are searched too.

  5. 05

    It flags what it could not find

    A colour your store does not have in stock goes to the salesperson with the customer's original wording, instead of becoming a similar colour.

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 colour catalogue works as it is

What you upload

The stock file your store 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. Abbreviated descriptions, manufacturer codes and product-line names that changed do not block the search.

What it does with what it could not find

A colour or finish you do not have appears to the salesperson flagged as not found, with the customer's original wording. Tablia does not offer a similar shade on its own initiative. The decision is your team's: add it, propose an equivalent, check with the customer, or say the store does not carry that line.

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.

In a paint store that matters more than average: whoever knows the customer knows when the blue in the photo is the blue in the catalogue and when it is not.

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 paint store

Does Tablia understand colour and finish?

Yes. Colour, finish, base and container are stored as the item's specification, not as loose text. And they work as a filter: a request for blue paint does not get white paint as a suggestion, even if the white is the closest product on the rest of the description.

What if the customer just writes “blue”, without saying the shade?

The item is still searched by meaning, and the salesperson receives the candidates to choose from. Tablia does not invent a shade: it hands over the list of blues in your catalogue and leaves the choice with whoever will talk to the customer.

Does it swap the brand the customer asked for?

No. If the brand is written in the request, a product from another brand is discarded rather than offered. Swapping a brand is a commercial decision, and your salesperson is the one who makes it — as in the conversation at the top of this page, where the swap only happens after the customer authorises it.

Do I have to standardise my catalogue before starting?

No. You upload the stock file you already use, 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 old product-line names do not block the search.

What happens to a colour I do not have?

It appears to the salesperson flagged as not found, with the customer's original wording beside it. It does not turn into a similar colour and it does not disappear from the list. The decision is yours: add it, propose an equivalent, or say the store does not carry that line.

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.

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Bring a real painting list

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

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