Give your agent your prices so every quote matches

A web designer asks her agent to draft a quote for a family dentist: a new five-page site and a monthly care plan. The draft looks good. It's polite, well organised and quick. Then she reads the numbers. The site is priced at what she charged two years ago. The care plan is at a figure she has never used. And there's a line for logo design, which she doesn't offer.

The agent didn't do anything strange. Nobody had told it her prices, so it filled the gaps with what seemed likely. It's a common gap in AI agents for client work, and an easy one to close.

The fix is dull and it works. Write your prices in one file your agent reads every time it drafts a quote. List each package, what it includes, the extras and your rules. Tell the agent to quote only from that file, to show which line every price came from, and to flag anything that isn't on the list instead of guessing. Then read the draft before it goes out.

How do I make AI quotes use my real prices?

Three pieces, in this order:

1. A price list the agent can read, written for a reader who knows nothing about your business.
2. Quoting rules that tell it what to do with the list, including what to do when something isn't on it.
3. A check by you before any quote reaches a client.

Most wrong quotes come from missing the first piece. The agent is working from its general sense of what websites cost, from an old conversation, or from a quote you pasted once for a different client.

Why does an agent get prices wrong?

Because it's built to be helpful with what it has. Ask for a quote with no prices in front of it, and it will produce one that looks reasonable. That's the problem: it looks reasonable, so it's easy to miss.

There's also memory. Each new session with your agent starts fresh. Anthropic's documentation for Claude Code says exactly this, and describes CLAUDE.md files as the way to give it lasting instructions: it reads them at the start of every session. If your prices only ever lived in a chat, they're gone next time.

The same thing happens with client facts, and the cure is the same: a written source the agent reads and you've checked. AI wrong facts in client work covers that side.

What should the price list include?

Everything a new assistant would need to write a correct quote without asking you. For each item:

Column	What goes in it	Example
Name	What you call it on a quote	Five-page website
What's included	In plain words, as the client will read it	Up to five pages, contact form, set-up on the client's own hosting
What's not included	The things people assume are	Copywriting, logo design, online shop
Price	Your price, with currency and whether tax is included	Your figure
Rules	Deposits, minimums, anything that changes the price	Half up front, half at launch

Then add a short section of general rules:

• Currency and tax. Which currency, and whether prices include tax.
• Deposits and payment terms. How much up front, when the rest is due.
• Discounts. Whether you give any, and who decides. Most people should write "none unless I add one".
• Things you never offer, so the agent doesn't invent them. Logo design, for example.
• The date you last changed the list.

If you're still settling your prices, start with how much to charge for a website and website change request pricing, then write down what you decide.

Where should the price list live?

In one plain text file, in the folder your agent works in, with a clear name like prices.md. One file, one version. Don't keep a second copy in a spreadsheet that drifts out of date.

Then make sure the agent reads it every time. With Claude Code, Anthropic's documentation says a CLAUDE.md file can bring in other files with an @ followed by the file's path, and those files are loaded at the start of the session along with it. A line in your CLAUDE.md such as "Quote only from @prices.md" means the list is in front of the agent whenever it drafts. If your agent reaches your business records through an app instead of a folder, the same idea applies through a connection standard such as MCP, explained in plain words: the price list is one record the agent reads, not something it remembers.

What rules should the agent follow when quoting?

Write them down next to the price list. Short and specific works best; the same documentation notes that the more specific and concise your instructions, the more consistently Claude follows them.

A set that works for many one-person agencies:

1. Use only prices from the price list. Never estimate a price.
2. Name the price list line for every item in the quote, so I can check it.
3. If the client asks for something that isn't on the list, add it as "Needs a price" and leave the amount empty.
4. Don't offer discounts, free extras or rush fees unless I've written them into this request.
5. Always include the deposit and payment terms from the list.
6. Say what's not included, using the list's wording.
7. Put the price list's date at the bottom of the draft.

Rule 3 does most of the work. An agent that says "I don't know" when it doesn't know is far safer than one that fills the gap.

How do I check a quote before it goes out?

Read it against the list, line by line. It takes a few minutes and it's the part you can't hand over.

• Every item matches a line on the price list, with the same price.
• Nothing is marked "Needs a price" when it goes out.
• The deposit and payment terms are there.
• What's not included is written down.
• The client's name, business and the pages or services match what you agreed on the call.

Then send it yourself, or approve it in whatever tool sends it. Your agent drafts; you decide. Approving what your agent sends describes that step in more detail.

How do I keep the price list current?

Change it in one place, then tell the agent nothing else. That's the whole point of the file.

When you put your prices up, edit the file, change the date at the top, and add a line at the bottom saying what changed and when. Quotes already sent stay at the old price; the date on each draft tells you which list it came from. Once a year, or whenever you change what you offer, read the list from top to bottom as if you were a client. If anything is unclear to you, it'll be unclear to your agent too.

Where Volant fits

Volant is built to have your agent draft offers from your own prices and the facts you've checked. When the client pays, Volant marks a payment as received only when Stripe confirms it. Quotes, deposits and payments in one place shows how an offer moves from draft to paid.