ChatGPT for tradies: 10 prompts that actually save time

ChatGPT is genuinely good at one job for a tradie: writing the words you don't want to write. Quote wording, chase-up emails, review replies, job ads. It cannot see your jobs or your prices, so you type those in each time. Here are ten prompts worth copying.

Every prompt below is in the page, complete. No email address, no "download the full list", no booked call. Copy the one you need, swap the bits in [BRACKETS] for your details, paste it in, done. The free version is enough for all of this.

What ChatGPT is actually good at for a trade business#

It writes and it summarises, and that is the honest scope. It does not know your business, your rates, your customers or what happened on site today, so every prompt below works by you telling it the details and letting it do the wording. That trade is worth making, because for most tradies the wording is the part that gets put off until 9pm. Why the details problem matters more as you grow is the subject of our honest guide to AI for tradies; this page is the free, useful bit you can do tonight.

The ten prompts#

Getting work#

1. Turn rough notes into quote wording. The highest-value prompt on this page. It writes the words only; the prices stay yours, because it has no idea what anything costs and will invent numbers if you let it. Pricing is a separate skill, and it's covered here.

You are helping an Australian tradie write a quote. Turn these rough notes
into a clear scope of work a homeowner will understand: [PASTE YOUR ROUGH
NOTES]. Write a short scope paragraph, a list of what's included, a list of
what's excluded, and one line on roughly how long the work takes. Plain
English, short sentences, no marketing talk. Do not add any prices; I'll
add those myself.

2. The email that goes with the quote. Send the quote the day you saw the job, with two lines of decent wording attached.

Write a short, friendly email to send with a quote for [JOB TYPE] to
[FIRST NAME]. Three sentences at most: thanks for having me out, the quote
is attached and what it covers in a few words, and I'm happy to answer any
questions. Sound like a tradie, not a salesperson. No exclamation marks.

3. Follow up a quote that went quiet. Most quotes die of silence, not rejection. One nudge, no desperation.

Write a short follow-up text about a quote I sent [NUMBER] days ago for
[JOB TYPE]. Friendly, no pressure, one easy question at the end so replying
is simple. Under 40 words. Don't apologise for following up.

Getting paid#

4. The first, friendly overdue reminder. Assume they forgot, because they usually did.

Write a friendly first payment reminder for invoice [NUMBER] for
[JOB TYPE], due [NUMBER] days ago. Assume the customer just forgot. Two or
three sentences, include the amount [AMOUNT] and how to pay
[PAYMENT DETAILS], keep the tone light.

5. The firmer second reminder. Still professional, no legal threats. If it goes past this, you want the full escalation ladder with timing, and that lives in how to chase a late invoice in Australia, so this prompt stays in its lane.

Write a firmer second reminder for invoice [NUMBER], now [NUMBER] days
overdue, after a friendly reminder got no reply. Professional and direct,
no legal threats, no apologising. State the amount [AMOUNT], ask for
payment or a reply by [DATE], and offer a quick phone call if something
about the invoice isn't right.

Dealing with people#

6. Reply to a bad review without making it worse. Never answer one angry; paste it here instead.

Write a public reply to this review of my [TRADE] business:
[PASTE THE REVIEW]. Acknowledge their specific complaint without admitting
fault or making excuses, stay calm, offer to sort it out directly, and
keep it under 60 words. No corporate phrases.

7. Explain a variation in plain English. The message that stops the argument about the bill before it starts.

Help me explain a price variation to a customer. Original job:
[WHAT WAS QUOTED]. What we found: [WHAT CHANGED]. Extra cost: [AMOUNT].
Write a short message explaining in plain English why the extra work is
needed and why it wasn't in the original quote, and ask them to approve
it before we continue. No jargon, no defensiveness.

8. Write a job ad that doesn't sound like every other job ad.

Write a job ad for a [POSITION] for my [TRADE] business in
[SUBURB OR REGION]. Cover what the working week actually looks like, what
they need ([TICKETS OR LICENCES]), and what makes this a decent place to
work. Honest tone, no "rockstar" or "fast-paced" talk. Under 150 words,
ready to paste into a job site.

Admin and thinking#

9. Turn a ramble into a job list. Works on a voice-note transcript, a photo of your notepad transcribed, or a brain dump typed with two thumbs.

Turn this into a tidy job list: [PASTE YOUR NOTES OR TRANSCRIPT]. One line
per job with the client name, the task, and anything that sounds like a
date or a price. If something is unclear, mark it with a question mark
rather than guessing.

10. Boil a long spec or builder's email down to your bit.

Summarise this into what I actually have to do and quote for as the
[TRADE]: [PASTE THE EMAIL OR SPEC]. Give me the tasks that are mine,
anything that affects my price or timing, the questions I should ask
before quoting, and any deadlines. Ignore the parts that aren't my trade.

Three things it gets wrong (and one you must not do)#

It invents specifics. Ask it for a price, an Australian Standard or a council rule and it will answer confidently, and sometimes wrongly. Check every number, and never let it near a compliance question.

It defaults to corporate. Left alone it writes like a bank. The prompts above all tell it to write plainly for that reason; keep doing that in your own prompts or your customers will notice the change of voice.

It remembers nothing about your business. Each chat starts blank, which is why every prompt has you pasting the details in. It cannot tell you which invoice is overdue, because it has never seen your invoices.

And the one rule: do not paste a customer's personal details, their address, or anything from an ID document into a public chatbot. It is a public tool, and their details are not yours to share with it. Job types and amounts are fine.

Getting more out of it (one setting worth changing)#

Open the settings and find the custom instructions, then tell it once who you are and how you write: "I run a small [TRADE] business in Australia. Write in plain Australian English, short sentences, no corporate talk, no exclamation marks." Every answer after that starts closer to your voice, and you stop repeating the same style instructions in every prompt. Two minutes, once.

Where this stops being enough#

The fifth time you type the same client's details into prompt 4, the bottleneck has changed. It is no longer the words. It is that nothing knows your jobs, so you are the database, and you are re-entering it by hand every time. That is the point where getting your records into one place pays for itself, AI or not. Chippie's free tier covers 20 jobs a month at chippieapp.com, and its assistant answers from your actual jobs and invoices instead of a blank page. Easy to skip, there if it helps.

FAQ#

Is ChatGPT free for business use?

The free version handles everything on this page. Paid tiers exist and give you more headroom, but for wording quotes, reminders and replies, free is enough. Start there and only pay if you hit its limits in real use.

Can ChatGPT write a quote?

It can write the wording of a quote well: scope, inclusions, exclusions, terms. It cannot price the job, because it knows nothing about your costs, and it will make a number up if you ask. Here's the full picture on AI and quoting.

Will it get my prices right?

No. It has no idea what you charge or what materials cost this month, and it does not warn you when it is guessing. Give it the numbers you have already decided and let it handle the sentences around them.

Is it safe to put customer details in?

Keep names, addresses, phone numbers and anything from an ID out of public chatbots. Describe the job without identifying the customer ("a bathroom reno client, invoice 30 days overdue") and the prompts all work the same.

Which is better for a tradie: ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini?

For the ten jobs on this page, the difference does not matter. All three write a clean email and a tidy job list. Pick whichever you already have on your phone and spend the energy on the records instead.