Prepared by Sierrix · Sample
Your Copilot Plan: Greenway Landscaping & Snow
12 people · Microsoft 365 Business Standard · No Copilot seats yet
The short version
- Biggest opportunity: quotes. Dana writes about 20 a month in spring, each from scratch, about 45 minutes apiece.
- Estimated time saved: about 22 hours a month across Dana and the office manager (estimate, math below).
- First step: a 2-seat Copilot Business pilot for Dana and Priya, reviewed after 90 days. About $62 a month including Cowork.
What we heard
“Spring is chaos. I’m writing quotes at the kitchen table at 10 at night.” Greenway does residential and small commercial landscaping, plus snow removal in winter. Priya, the office manager, answers about 40 emails a day, many of them “when is the crew coming?” Crew schedules live on a whiteboard and in group texts. Invoicing is in QuickBooks. Files are in OneDrive, mostly Dana’s.
Your Copilot today
You have Microsoft 365 Business Standard, so everyone already has Copilot Chat for free. It can draft and rewrite anything you paste into it, and in Outlook it can work with your own inbox. It can’t see your OneDrive files or past quotes on its own; that needs a paid seat.
Quick wins with what you already have
Open Copilot Chat (copilot.cloud.microsoft) and try these:
- “Rewrite these job notes as a friendly quote cover letter for a homeowner. Keep it under 150 words: [paste notes]”
- “Write a short, polite text I can send when rain pushes a job back a day, with a line asking them to reply if the new day doesn’t work.”
- “Turn this list into a one-page spring-cleanup checklist for a new crew member: [paste list]”
Recommended
Copilot in Outlook (Microsoft-built, paid seat)
Catch up on long threads and draft replies for Priya’s inbox. Start here before any custom agent.
Time saved: 30 minutes a day × 21 working days = about 10.5 hours a month (estimate). Cost: included in the seat.
Quote Builder (our Starter Pack agent)
Builds quotes from your current price list and standard terms, flags anything not on the list, and ends with a “before you send” checklist. Dana always reviews.
Time saved: 20 quotes × 30 minutes saved = about 10 hours a month (estimate). Cost: included in the seat. You’ll need: a dated price list, your quote template, and a few recent quotes you liked.
Cowork tasks (optional add-on)
- Monday briefing (light): the week’s calendar and unanswered customer emails, every Monday at 7 AM. About $5.81 a month (4.3 runs × 135 credits × $0.01). Saves about 1.5 hours a month.
- Quote follow-ups (medium): drafts a personal follow-up for each quote not yet accepted, for Dana to approve. About $20 a month (4 runs × 500 credits).
You set a monthly cap, like a prepaid phone plan. Cowork stops when it hits the cap, so there are no surprise bills. We’d suggest a cap of about $39.
Beyond Copilot
Missed calls while on site. Copilot doesn’t answer phones. A call-answering or voicemail-to-text tool would cover this; your real report names one or two current options with prices checked on the vendor’s own site.
Your 30/60/90-day roadmap
- Days 1–30: start the 2-seat pilot, move quote files from Dana’s OneDrive into a shared SharePoint library, use Copilot in Outlook daily. About $36 a month.
- Days 31–60: set up Quote Builder with your price list; turn on the Monday briefing. About $42 a month.
- Days 61–90: add quote follow-ups; decide whether to keep, grow or drop the seats. About $62 a month.
Estimated monthly cost
| 2 Copilot Business seats ($18 per seat in the first year with Microsoft’s current promotion, normally $21) | $36 |
| Cowork credits (estimate) | $26 |
| Call-answering tool | see real report |
| Total (estimate) | $62 |
Copilot Business is an annual commitment. Your existing Microsoft 365 subscription is not included above.
Want us to set it up?
Our Starter Pack Setup turns on the recommended Copilot features, builds and tests your Quote Builder, sets up a shared “Company Knowledge” library, and trains your team in one session. In a real report, this section has the price and a link to book a follow-up call.