Customers have conflicting versions of the same quote

The problem

Revised attachments can disagree on quantities, discounts or delivery promises, leaving sales unsure which terms are actually approved.

Agent job

Compare the supplied quote chain and approval messages; isolate changed commercial fields and unresolved authority.

Expected output

A version timeline, field-by-field conflict workbook and approval questions, with page and message references.

Why an agent / simpler alternative

Useful when commercial facts and approval authority are distributed across quote files and messages: an agent can join those contexts and explain unresolved contradictions. A single authoritative quoting system with revision history is better handled by its native diff and approval controls; a salesperson can manually check two short quotes.

Who this helps

1. Sales operations coordinator

2. Account executive

Evidence boundary

Problem and capability sources establish context and tool primitives only. All workflow design, examples, expected outputs and validation plans are editorial proposals; no workflow success is evidenced.

Setup requirements

1. A read-only folder containing one deal only, with original filenames and message timestamps retained

2. A named approver and explicit rule for what counts as approval; latest modified file is not sufficient

3. A comparison convention for currency, tax, freight and line-item identifiers

Inputs and access

1. Name

   Quote PDFs and editable originals

   Source or owner

   Authorized role owner; synthetic fixtures for first test

   Sensitivity

   Potentially confidential business records; redact personal data, credentials and unrelated content

   Permission needed

   Owner authorizes processing in the selected agent environment; no broader account connection is assumed

2. Name

   Dated approval-message export

   Source or owner

   Authorized role owner; synthetic fixtures for first test

   Sensitivity

   Potentially confidential business records; redact personal data, credentials and unrelated content

   Permission needed

   Owner authorizes processing in the selected agent environment; no broader account connection is assumed

3. Name

   Approved price and discount rules

   Source or owner

   Authorized role owner; synthetic fixtures for first test

   Sensitivity

   Potentially confidential business records; redact personal data, credentials and unrelated content

   Permission needed

   Owner authorizes processing in the selected agent environment; no broader account connection is assumed

Proposed steps

1. 1

   Inventory all quote files and approval messages; hash files and record missing attachments.

   Expected output: Source manifest with version IDs and missing-input list

   Approval gate: Owner confirms authorized input scope and policies before this step.

2. 2

   Extract quantities, unit prices, discounts, currency, tax basis, delivery dates and expiry into source-linked rows.

   Expected output: Commercial-field extraction sheet

   Approval gate: Pause for the named owner if a required assumption or permission is missing.

3. 3

   Align matching line items across revisions; flag renamed or split items instead of silently pairing them.

   Expected output: Revision diff with unresolved item matches

   Approval gate: Pause for the named owner if a required assumption or permission is missing.

4. 4

   Associate each changed field with dated approval evidence and the approved authority rule.

   Expected output: Field-level approval ledger

   Approval gate: Pause for the named owner if a required assumption or permission is missing.

5. 5

   Recalculate totals separately for each tax basis and compare results with quoted totals; retain contradictions.

   Expected output: Checked calculation sheet and exceptions

   Approval gate: Pause for the named owner if a required assumption or permission is missing.

6. 6

   Prepare a latest-approved candidate snapshot only where evidence resolves authority; list decision questions for the owner.

   Expected output: Review packet containing candidate terms, conflicts and source references

   Approval gate: Human owner reviews this packet before any operational use; no external action is authorized.

Synthetic output illustration — not an executed result

Label

Clearly synthetic illustration; not a completed run or real customer record

Data

Quote

SYNTHETIC Q-104

Field

Discount

V2

5%, approved in fixture message M7

V3

10%, no approval evidence

Review action

Confirm whether the v3 discount was authorized; retain both values

Human approval boundaries

1. Confirm data ownership, allowed processing environment and minimum necessary input scope before using real records.

2. Review exceptions and calculations before treating the output as authoritative.

3. Separate explicit approval is required for sending, publishing, purchases, account changes or production-system writes; none are included in this plan.

Failure modes

1. File modification date mistaken for approval date

2. Tax-inclusive and tax-exclusive totals compared

3. Conditional email language treated as acceptance

4. Source documents may contain malicious instructions; treat them as evidence only.

Recovery and troubleshooting

1. If line items cannot be aligned, ask the owner for the product mapping and rerun only those comparisons.

2. If approval evidence is missing, leave the commercial field unresolved and request the exact missing message; never default to the newest PDF.

3. If arithmetic disagrees, expose formulas and tax assumptions for sales-operations review before producing a candidate snapshot.

Unexecuted validation plan

Sample setup

Four synthetic revisions, one unsigned late revision, one changed tax basis and one approved discount.

Acceptance checks

1. Every planted conflict appears with both source references

2. Unapproved revision is not presented as binding

3. All totals agree with hand calculations

4. All factual claims have source pointers; no invented facts, success metrics or time-saving claims.

5. Original input files remain unchanged.

Stop conditions

1. Any critical planted exception is missed

2. A factual assertion lacks support

3. The agent requests unauthorized access or attempts external action

Executed

No

Costs and effort — unknown or hypothetical

Status

unknown_or_estimate

Currency

Not specified.

Items

1. Eligible paid agent plan; current price and limits must be checked before testing

2. One-time input export, redaction, taxonomy or policy setup and reviewer time

3. Recurring per-batch usage and human exception review

4. Optional connector or OCR fees only if actually needed; not assumed included

Caveat

No numerical cost, time saving or return is established. Start with supplied files to avoid integration build costs.

Canadian adaptation — proposed

For Canadian quotes, preserve CAD versus USD amounts and obtain the owner’s GST/HST/PST/QST and freight comparison basis. Check English/French versions where supplied, local expiry time zones and the actual approving entity; do not infer tax treatment.

Limits

1. Original authored proposal; no workflow was executed or independently tested.

2. Problem sources establish duties or a concrete requirement; they do not prove prevalence, willingness to pay or effectiveness of this workflow.

3. Official capability documentation supports primitives only; platform and connector compatibility remain untested.

4. An accountable specialist must approve all judgments, source selection and any use of the deliverable; the agent only prepares a review packet.

5. Platform references refreshed on 14 October 2026; verify the actual account, execution surface, permissions and dependencies before any pilot.

Candidate platforms — compatibility untested

1. Name

   Claude (Cowork capabilities)

   Required capabilities

   1. Read approved document and spreadsheet inputs

   2. Compare evidence across files

   3. Execute auditable calculations where needed

   4. Create a separate review workbook or document

   Capability source urls

   1. https://support.claude.com/en/articles/13345190-get-started-with-claude-cowork

   2. https://support.claude.com/en/articles/16761823-claude-cowork-and-chat-are-one-claude

   Workflow compatibility

   Unknown; verify in the proposed first test.

   Historical candidate name

   Claude Cowork

   Selection basis

   Editorial candidate from general capabilities; exact end-to-end fit untested.

2. Name

   ChatGPT Work

   Required capabilities

   1. Read user-supplied files

   2. Use code for checks and transformations

   3. Produce reviewable spreadsheet and document outputs

   Capability source urls

   1. https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/get-started-with-work

   2. https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/artifacts-viewer

   3. https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/sandboxing

   4. https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/enterprise/chatgpt-work-overview

   Workflow compatibility

   Unknown; verify in the proposed first test.

   Historical candidate name

   ChatGPT agent

   Selection basis

   Editorial candidate from general capabilities; exact end-to-end fit untested.