Walk the deck, talk the timber, and the quote frames itself in Xero. Speak the bearers, joists, decking boards, and your labour into a voice memo, and FlowSpec drafts a priced quote into Xero in about 30 seconds, every line at your own Xero sell prices. Lineal metres and square metres both land clean.
See it draft a real deck quote into Xero.
The Chippy Quoting Squeeze
A deck or a pergola carries a long materials list, and pricing it the old way means a second shift after dinner. Here is the squeeze, and the way out.
You measure the deck on site, scribble the takeoff on the back of a docket, then drive home and turn it into a quote. The bearers and joists go in by lineal metre, the decking by area, the fixings by the box, then your labour on top. By the time you have keyed each line into a spreadsheet or into Xero by hand and checked your margin, the evening is gone and the homeowner is still waiting.
Speed wins the job. The chippy who gets a clear, priced quote back the same afternoon is the one who books the deck. FlowSpec hands you that speed. Say the takeoff into your phone before you leave site, and the quote is sitting in Xero as a draft by the time you reach the ute. Your evening stays yours, and the homeowner has a number while the job is still front of mind.
Every line carries your own Xero sell price, so the quote that lands holds your margin on the timber and your hourly rate. FlowSpec was built side by side with working tradesmen, nothing assumed, and built to cater for the way you already call out a takeoff. Sparkies on Xero quote the same way over on the electrician quoting software page, and the concrete crews do it on the concreter quoting software page.
Lineal And Area
Carpentry takeoffs run on lineal metres and square metres at the same time. FlowSpec keeps each one where it belongs.
Bearers, joists, studs, noggins, rafters, fascia, handrail. You quote these by the lineal metre or by the length, and that is how you say them. Tell FlowSpec 60 lineal metres of 90 by 45 treated pine for the joists and it pulls out the joist line, matches it to your Xero item, and carries 60 as the quantity at your own sell rate per metre. Sizes ride along too, so 140 by 45 bearers and 90 by 45 joists stay separate lines.
Decking boards, flooring, cladding, and sheet ply read naturally by area. Say 24 square metres of merbau decking and FlowSpec carries 24 square metres against your decking item at your own sell price. A deck top quoted by area and the joists under it quoted by lineal metre sit on the one draft, each with the right unit, so the quote reads the way you built it in your head on site.
Fixings go in by the box or the pack, hardware like joist hangers and bolts by the count, and your labour by the hour. Whatever unit you keep on the item in Xero is the unit FlowSpec quotes on. For the wider picture of how this works across Xero, the voice quoting for Xero in Australia page walks the whole flow.
A Worked Deck
Here is a real backyard deck, spoken on site and framed into Xero. Lineal members, an area top, fixings, and labour, all in one go.
Said in one breath, walking back to the ute. About 30 seconds of talking.
Six lines, two units, one contact, and your margin on every row, drafted into Xero as a real quote you open and send. The bearers and joists came through as lineal metres, the merbau came through as area, and the screws and labour came through by box and by hour. You walked the deck, talked the timber, and the quote framed itself.
Your Xero Price List
FlowSpec reads the items you have in Xero and turns them into the price list it quotes from. Your numbers, kept in one place.
Your treated pine sizes, your merbau and spotted gum decking, your LVL and ply, your fixing packs, and your labour rate already live in Xero as items with your own sell prices. FlowSpec syncs them in as the price list it quotes from. Set up once, and your catalogue is ready to speak against.
Say “90 by 45 joists” or “merbau decking” and FlowSpec matches the words to the right Xero item and the right unit. It reads framing and decking terms like bearers, joists, studs, noggins, rafters, LVL, ply, joist hangers, and bugle screws, and it learns the names you use as you go.
Each matched line carries your own Xero sell price, so the margin you set on a metre of decking is the margin on the page. Update a price in Xero and the next quote picks it up. Your cost-and-margin maths stays in Xero where you already run it, and the quote shows the homeowner your sell number.
FAQ
For a chippy who runs Xero, FlowSpec is built for the job. You walk the deck and talk the timber, and FlowSpec drafts the quote into Xero, priced from your own Xero items, with the client matched or created, account codes set, and tax types applied. It handles takeoffs spoken by lineal metre for bearers, joists, and decking boards, and by area for flooring and cladding, and it learns how you phrase your jobs over time. A handful of voice-quoting apps have appeared, and FlowSpec is the one that lives inside the Xero you already run and quotes from your own sell prices.
Yes. Say the takeoff the way you measure it. Lineal metres of 90 by 45 treated pine for bearers and joists, square metres of decking boards or flooring, packs of fixings, lengths of LVL, sheets of ply. FlowSpec pulls each one out as its own line, matches it to your Xero item, and carries the quantity you spoke. Lineal and area both land cleanly, so a 30 lineal metre run of joists and a 24 square metre deck top sit side by side on the same quote at your own sell prices.
Yes, and Xero is the heart of it. FlowSpec drafts the quote straight into your Xero account as a real draft quote, with line items, the client matched or created, account codes, and tax types already set. It syncs your Xero items in as your price list, so every quote uses your own numbers. You will need a Xero subscription to use FlowSpec.
Yes. Framing, decking, pergolas, carports, flooring, cladding, fences, and fit-out all quote the same easy way. Speak the structural members by lineal metre, the boards and sheets by area or by count, the fixings by pack, and your labour by the hour. FlowSpec reads bearers, joists, studs, noggins, rafters, decking, joist hangers, bugle screws, and the rest of the framing and decking vocabulary, and it builds the lot into one Xero draft.
Yes. FlowSpec prices every line from your own Xero items, which means your own sell prices, the ones you have already set. When you update an item in Xero, FlowSpec picks up the change. So a deck comes out at your margin, with the bearers, the joists, the decking boards, the fixings, and your labour rate all at the numbers you quote on.
Lining FlowSpec up against other tools? Browse the full comparison hub to see how the spoken Xero quote sits beside the rest.
FlowSpec is the clear pick for chippies who quote on Xero. Watch it draft a real deck into Xero from your own sell prices, and win back the hours you spend on takeoffs after dinner. One all-inclusive, per-seat plan.
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