Build a one-sheet bid tracker with AI that flags which bids need a follow-up today, which are still waiting, and which you won or lost.
Who it is for
Contractors and small crews who send bids from a phone or laptop and lose track of which ones never got an answer.
Tools
Claude or ChatGPT to build the sheet
Excel or Google Sheets
Your last 10 to 20 bids
Steps
List your recent bids: customer, job, amount and the date you sent each one.
Ask the AI to build the tracker with the prompt below. Anthropic says Claude can create Excel files with working formulas.
Paste in your bids and check every amount and date against what you actually sent.
Each morning, filter for rows marked FOLLOW UP TODAY. That is your list.
Draft each follow-up with the quote follow-up setup, approve it and send it yourself.
Update the status the moment you hear back, so won and lost bids drop off the list.
The prompt
Build me a bid tracker spreadsheet (Excel) with one row per bid and these columns:
Customer | Job | Amount | Date sent | Next follow-up | Status (Waiting, Won, Lost) | Notes
Rules:
- Next follow-up = Date sent + 2 days for the first follow-up; I will update it after each one.
- Add a column Action that shows FOLLOW UP TODAY when Next follow-up is today or earlier and Status is Waiting, otherwise blank.
- Add a summary at the top: bids waiting, total value waiting, won this month, lost this month.
- Leave the rows empty for me to fill in. Do not invent customers or amounts.
Explain each formula in one line.
Tips
Log the bid the same day you send it, or the tracker stops being trusted.
Keep a lost-reason note; patterns show up after a month.
Sort by amount when you only have time for a few follow-ups.