AI suggestions

Document suggestions are candidates, not automatic estimate changes. Stralos keeps suggestions pending until a user reviews them and chooses what to do.

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Suggestion areas

• Takeoff: document-level drawing approval, with page classifications available as processing context. See Takeoff.
• Work Items: scope items and testing requirements.
• Project Rates: supplier quote lines extracted as project rate candidates.

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Review actions

Suggestions are displayed as a list. Each row shows a summary of the extracted values with action buttons on the right.

• Edit (on a pending suggestion) — expand the inline editor for that row to view and change the extracted fields before accepting.
• Details (on an already-accepted or rejected suggestion) — expand the row to see the recorded values in read-only form.
• Accept — create a real record and mark the suggestion accepted.
• Reject — close the suggestion without creating a record.
• Accept all (N) — appears when an area tab has more than one pending suggestion. Opens a confirmation dialog listing all pending rows. Each row shows the suggestion’s description, quantity, unit, item number, confidence, and page number so you can review values before importing. Uncheck any rows you do not want to import, then click Accept selected.
• Run area — request or re-run an area for a processed document.

On a read-only estimate (submitted, won, lost, archived, not awarded, or a saved version), Accept and Accept all (N) are disabled, and hovering them shows why. You can still open suggestions to view their details and reject them. If a bulk acceptance partially fails — for example, because a duplicate record already exists or the document is temporarily unreachable — the dialog stays open and lists each failed row by name with its error message. Rows that succeeded are accepted and removed from the list. Untick and retry the remaining rows, or close and handle them individually. Expanding a row to edit it does not discard the draft if you collapse the row again. If you have unsaved edits in any row and try to close the review panel, Stralos asks you to confirm before discarding those edits. Before accepting a work item suggestion, Stralos validates the edited fields. If you clear the description or enter an invalid quantity or rate, Stralos shows an error and stops the acceptance. Correct the value and try again. The Unit field on a review card is a picker limited to the unit list, not free text. A unit read from the document that Stralos recognises, such as m3 or LS, is matched to its unit automatically. A unit that matches none is listed under Legacy, and Accept stays disabled with “Please choose a unit from the list” until you pick one. Accept all leaves that row out.

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Acceptance rules

Some suggestions need extra user selections before they can be accepted:

• Project rate suggestions must be accepted one at a time; Accept all does not include them. Each card requires a confirmed supplier and either an existing rate item or a category for a new project-only rate. See Accepting a supplier quote line.
• Takeoff page-classification suggestions are excluded from normal pending counts and record-acceptance actions.
• The Takeoff tab appears for every eligible drawing (a processed PDF with a completed takeoff area run), even when it has no takeoff suggestions. Approve for takeoff or Reject applies to the whole document.

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Accepting a supplier quote line

When a processed document contains a supplier quote, Stralos extracts each line as a Project Rates suggestion. Accepting a line creates a project rate priced under the supplier you confirm, not necessarily the cheapest option in the Resource library. Each quote line card asks you to confirm:

• Supplier — which active supplier company the quote is from. Stralos suggests a possible Companies register match from the name printed on the quote, but never treats that extracted name as a confirmed supplier identity. You must confirm the supplier.
• Location — once you confirm the supplier, a Location field appears. Select one of that company’s active yards or depots, or leave it set to All locations for a supplier-wide price. Stralos reads the location name from the extracted quote data and pre-selects it when exactly one matching supplier-owned location exists. The helper text shows what the quote printed. You must resolve the location field before accepting — the card blocks acceptance while locations are loading or when an unavailable location is selected.
• Matched resource: which Resource library item the line prices, or whether it is a new rate for this project only (choose a category). A supplier-backed match is pre-selected. For an unmatched suggestion, select an existing item or configure a new project-only rate before acceptance.
• Work items — which work items in the estimate the quote names, each with a suggested quantity and basis.

The card also shows the quote’s own reference number when present. There is no Accept all for quote lines. Each line must be accepted individually so you can confirm its supplier. Accepting a line creates the project rate and writes attachment records for the work items you confirmed. It does not insert the rate into a work item’s cost; review and insert the attached rate from the Project Rates panel when you are ready.

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Quote validity

If the quote carries a valid-until date, the card shows a validity badge. Stralos reads ambiguous numeric dates in day-first order; a date it cannot read is shown verbatim so you can correct it before accepting. Expired quotes can still be accepted — the rate is created and shows an Expired badge on the Project Rates page. Review expired quotes before submitting the estimate to confirm the pricing is still correct.

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Read-only estimates

On a read-only estimate, Accept is disabled on quote lines too. If the estimate becomes read-only while the card is open (for example, it is submitted in another tab), accepting the line saves nothing. The card shows the reason in its conflict area, for example “This tender has been submitted, so its rates are read-only. Please use an alternative estimate to make changes.” No action is offered. If the estimate is submitted after the rate is saved but before its attachments are written, the rate stays saved but is not attached to the estimate’s work items. A warning message confirms this.

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Attachment failures

If the rate is created but Stralos cannot attach it to one or more named work items, the card stays open and shows which attachments failed. Two options are available:

• Retry — attempts the failed attachments again without creating the rate a second time.
• Accept without attaching — marks the suggestion accepted. The rate is saved and visible on the Project Rates page; attach it to the work item manually from there.

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Work item suggestions in detail

When you accept a work item suggestion, Stralos:

• Creates a new work item using the suggestion’s description, unit, quantity, item number, and clause reference.
• Places the item into the section named in the suggestion’s section hint. If that section does not exist yet, it is created automatically, with the number and title split from a numbered heading such as 4.1 Stormwater. Any missing parent sections, such as 4 Utilities, are created too. You can override the section title before accepting.
• For testing requirement suggestions, captures the frequency as a note on the work item instead of adding it to the name.

The item number is the schedule’s own row reference — for example 1.01, 3.10, or A-17 — copied exactly as printed in the document. It is preserved through the import so that tenders, RFIs, and payment schedules can continue to refer to the row by its original reference. If a row in the source document has no item number, the field is left blank rather than generated. Each suggestion can only be accepted once per estimate. Accepting the same suggestion a second time in the same estimate returns the existing work item rather than creating a duplicate. Applying the same suggestion to a different estimate is not permitted.

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Similar previous estimate items

When Stralos finds past estimate items similar to the one you are accepting, the Similar previous estimate items sheet opens before the item is created. Each past item is a card with its quantity, cost and date. Its build-up starts collapsed: select Show build-up to see the lines.

• Add to build-up copies the past item’s lines onto the new item.
• Replace build-up replaces the build-up the new item already has with the past item’s lines.
• Create without build-up creates the item without copying from any past item.

If there are no similar past items, the item is created straight away.

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Item number on suggestion rows

The inline editor for a work item suggestion shows an Item number field below the description. When the source document carries the item’s own schedule reference (such as a schedule of quantities), the AI extracts it and pre-fills this field. You can edit the value before accepting or clear it entirely.

• If you accept with a value in the field, Stralos stores that number verbatim as the item’s contractual reference and freezes it from automatic renumbering.
• If you clear the field and accept, Stralos assigns the next available number automatically based on the item’s position in its section.

Check and correct the item number before accepting: it becomes the item’s commercial identity and cannot be changed through normal editing afterwards.

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Confidence and source context

Suggestions may include confidence, page number, possible duplicate flags, unmatched-rate flags, and source excerpts. Use these as review aids, not as a substitute for checking the tender document.

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After an approved change

When an assistant change is approved, the estimate page refreshes in place. Work items, project rates, margins, and workbench calculators all update without a full reload, and any editors or drawers you have open are kept on screen. If a background refresh fails for one area — for example, a network error while re-reading project rates — that area keeps what it was already showing and displays a brief notice beside it. The notice appears in the same place as the data it could not replace, not as a modal or a toast that might be hidden behind an open drawer. Close any open editor and recheck the affected area, or reload the page to force a fresh read.

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Good practice

• Review high-impact pricing and scope suggestions one at a time.
• Edit incomplete fields before accepting.
• Reject anything that is ambiguous or not relevant to the tender.
• Leave a suggestion pending only when the team deliberately needs more information.