From a WhatsApp request to a quote draft in Lexware Office: less retyping in the evening

It's 8:40 p.m., your toolbox is sitting in the hallway, and the day's WhatsApp requests are waiting on your phone. For every quote, you retype the name, address and description into Lexware Office. Some are missing the postal code, so you ask and pick it up again tomorrow.

This post gives you a message that gets every detail in one round, and shows how a request lands in Lexware as a draft without any retyping.

What desk work costs the trades

Retyping is only one part of the desk work. In the first quarter of 2023, 10,630 businesses in Germany took part in a survey by the German Confederation of Skilled Crafts (ZDH). 56 percent said the growing bureaucracy costs them a lot of time.

According to the ZDH, that time is missing from the actual work, and jobs take longer. In the finishing trades, which include electricians, plumbers, painters and tilers, 67 percent of businesses reported longer turnaround times because of bureaucracy (ZDH special survey, July 2023).

Bureaucracy here means regulations plus the duties to provide proof and keep records. Quotes aren't even part of that count.

The details a quote needs from the customer

A quote you send is binding on you. That's what § 145 BGB, the German Civil Code, says: anyone who offers someone else a contract is bound by that offer, unless they have ruled this out.

So it pays to have everything that changes the price before you start working out the numbers. For most jobs, that's 6 things:

• The name as it should appear on the quote. For a rented property, ask whether the tenant, the landlord or the property manager gets the quote.
• The address of the job site with postal code, plus the billing address if it's different.
• What needs doing, with measurements, materials and what's already there: make and age of the boiler, size of the bathroom, which floor, and whether there's an elevator.
• 2 or 3 photos, one close up and one of the whole room.
• When it needs to be done by, and on which days someone is home.
• Whether you need to come by first. If you want to charge for a detailed cost estimate, say so up front. Under § 632(3) BGB, a cost estimate is presumed to be free of charge.

Ask for everything in one message

Each round of follow-up questions often costs a whole day, and after any round the customer might stop replying. So ask for everything at once.

The template is polite and formal, the way trades businesses usually write. Adjust whatever is in square brackets.

Hello, and thank you for your request. So that we can write you a quote, we still need:

1. your name as it should appear on the quote
2. the address where the work will be done, with postal code
3. what needs to be done, ideally with measurements and materials
4. 2 or 3 photos, one close up and one of the whole room
5. when the work needs to be done by

As soon as we have these, we'll get back to you within [2] business days. Kind regards, [Name], [Business]

The list works in any country and with any software. In Deskwoot, on the Startup plan and up, you save the message as a canned response and insert it into any reply, on WhatsApp too.

Creating a quote in Lexware Office: the 6 steps

Lexware Office is invoicing and accounting software from Germany. According to Lexware's help center, this is how you create a quote there:

1. Click Belege (documents) at the top.
2. Click + Neuer Beleg (new document) and choose Angebot (quote).
3. Choose the recipient from your contacts or enter them by hand.
4. Add line items, either from the item catalog or with a name, quantity and unit price.
5. Check the layout in the preview.
6. Click Abschließen (finalize). The quote's status is then Offen (open), and you can send it by email.

Draft, validity and acceptance

If you only click Speichern (save), the quote stays a draft. According to Lexware, the Gültig bis (valid until) field can't be turned off, and on its page about quotes, Lexware advises always stating how long a quote is valid.

Once the customer accepts, Lexware says one click turns the quote into an order confirmation or an invoice.

Where the retyping happens

Step 3 and the text in step 4 are the evening's retyping. The name, address and description have been in the chat all along, just not in Lexware.

From WhatsApp chat to quote draft with Deskwoot

Deskwoot is our product, a shared inbox for WhatsApp, the live chat on your website, email and other channels (connect WhatsApp). As of October 2026, it connects to Lexware Office.

That cuts out the retyping in steps 3 and 4: the name, address and description go from the chat into Lexware as a draft. Everything else the connection shows is in the launch post. For quotes, there are 2 ways.

With Fynn: the customer confirms, Lexware gets the draft

Fynn is the AI assistant in Deskwoot. Once you switch on Turn quote requests into drafts on the Lexware Office page, Fynn collects the name, the address with postal code, a description of the work and the preferred dates whenever someone asks for a quote.

Then he sums it up, something like this:

Here's what I've noted: replace the shower tray and redo the grout, bathroom approx. 90 x 90 cm. Address: Lindenstraße 12, 79098 Freiburg. Preferred date: from the middle of November, mornings. Contact: Anna Becker. Is that right? If so, reply Yes, and I'll pass it on to our team.

What's in the draft

Only after the yes does Deskwoot create the draft in Lexware. It consists of one text line headed "Anfrage vom" (request of) and the date, which holds the description, the details and the preferred time frame.

It contains no prices, and neither the customer's email address nor their phone number. Those stay in Deskwoot. Depending on the case, the draft looks a little different:

• If the contact isn't linked to a customer in Lexware, the quote goes to the name and address only, and Lexware creates no customer record.
• If Lexware lists your business as a small business under § 19 UStG, the German VAT exemption for small businesses, the draft is created without VAT.
• If the customer's language in Deskwoot is English, the draft is in English.

Where Fynn stops

After that, Fynn tells the customer that the team will get back to them with the quote and hands the conversation over to your team. He never commits to a price, a date or an arrival time for new work.

In each conversation, he creates at most 1 draft in 24 hours, and at most 30 a day across the whole workspace. Beyond that, your team takes over.

Fynn can't see photos, but your team sees them in the conversation. Deskwoot turns voice messages from WhatsApp and Telegram into text so Fynn can answer them (more on that).

On WhatsApp, Fynn's first reply has a line above it with "Fynn, the AI assistant of" and your business name. That way the customer knows they're chatting with an AI (here's what it looks like).

The easiest way to see how this comes across to the customer is to try it yourself: send a quote request from your personal phone to your WhatsApp inbox. Then delete the test draft in Lexware.

Without Fynn: one click in the conversation

Would you rather chat with the customer yourself? On the Details tab of every conversation, the Lexware Office section has a Create quote draft button.

It opens a dialog with Short description, Request text, Address and Valid until, which is set to 30 days from today unless you change it. You fill it in with the details from the chat, and Create draft sends it to Lexware.

This works on every Deskwoot plan, the free one included.

The next morning

You open Belege in Lexware, pick the draft, add line items and prices, and finalize it. That's steps 4 to 6 from above, without the retyping.

Why the price stays with the business

What a replacement costs often depends on what's behind the panels. You see that on a site visit and sometimes in the photos, but rarely in a chat message at 10 p.m.

That's why Fynn doesn't name a price for new jobs, and the draft reaches Lexware without prices.

When the work costs more than estimated

Even a cost estimate that isn't binding doesn't give you carte blanche. If it becomes foreseeable that the work will significantly exceed it, § 649(2) BGB requires you to tell the customer without undue delay.

If the customer cancels because of that, subsection 1 entitles you only to payment for the work already done, plus your expenses. The more you know about the site before you name the first number, the less often this happens.

Invoice questions in the chat: what Fynn answers and what stays with the office

The second kind of message that piles up in the evening: "Is my invoice paid yet?", "When is my payment due?", "How much do I still owe?"

With the second toggle, Answer invoice and quote questions, Fynn takes over part of that. For this, he needs access to orders under Settings > Bots > Data Access.

What Fynn tells the customer

• If the customer gives the number of an invoice or quote and the postal code of the address on it, Fynn tells them the status, total, due date and amount still open, and for a paid invoice the payment date too.
• Once the customer has confirmed who they are, for example through a link Fynn sends to their email address, they can also ask about their invoices and quotes from the last 12 months without a number.
• If the number and postal code don't match, Fynn says nothing about the document. He never talks about other customers' documents, and he never shows drafts.

What Fynn hands to your team

• Payment plans, payment reminders and fees
• Discounts and disputes over an invoice
• Corrections, cancellations and copies of invoices
• Bank details and tax questions
• A payment the customer has made that still shows as open

Why payment reminders belong in the office

Payment reminders have legal consequences. Under § 286(1) BGB, a reminder sent after the due date puts the customer in default.

Without a reminder, they're in default no later than 30 days after the due date and receipt of the invoice. For private customers, though, that only applies if the invoice specifically points out this consequence (§ 286(3) BGB). If your invoices don't include that notice, add it.

Every legal section cited in this post is German law. Austria and Switzerland have different rules. This is general information, not legal advice.

What you need and what it costs

On the Lexware side

You need Lexware Office XL. According to Lexware, the Public API that Deskwoot connects through is available from this version up.

Lexware's pricing page lists it at a regular €32.90 a month plus VAT (as of October 2026).

On the Deskwoot side

• The connection to Lexware Office comes with every plan, including the free Hacker plan, at no extra cost. With it, your team sees invoices and quotes next to the chat and creates drafts with one click.
• Fynn comes with the Startup plan and up, at $4 per team member a month, or $3.20 a month when you pay annually.
• That includes 50 AI conversations a month. Each one after that costs $0.07 from a prepaid balance.
• A conversation counts once a month, no matter how often Fynn replies in it or how many voice messages Deskwoot turns into text in it (how billing works).

How to connect Lexware Office

1. In Lexware Office, create a key under Erweiterungen > Weitere Apps > Public API (extensions > more apps > Public API).
2. Enter it in Deskwoot under Settings > Integrations > Lexware Office.
3. Enter the expiry date. Lexware keys are valid for 24 months at most. With that date, Deskwoot reminds your admins by email 30 and 7 days before the key expires.
4. On the Lexware Office page, switch on what you want Fynn to do, and save. Both toggles start off, and Fynn only follows them once an admin has saved the settings once.

The full walkthrough is in the help article Connect Lexware Office.

How to get started

Start tomorrow with the template above, whatever software you use. For one week, count how often you still have to ask follow-up questions after sending it.

If you'd then like to stop retyping the requests too, create a workspace in Deskwoot, connect Lexware Office and use Create quote draft to turn the next request into your first draft.

The trial runs for 7 days on Enterprise, with no credit card and up to 30 seats, yours included.

After that, you choose a paid plan or keep working on the free Hacker plan. There you keep the Lexware Office connection and the draft button. Only Fynn needs a paid plan.

There's more for trades businesses on the Deskwoot for the trades page.