How to write an automation brief a freelancer can actually quote

The difference between an automation project that gets three sharp quotes within hours and one that sits unanswered for a week is almost never the budget — it is the brief. Freelancers bid on work they can picture. Here is the five-part brief that makes your project biddable, written for owners who do not know the technical vocabulary.

1. The trigger: what starts the process

Not 'I need automation' but 'when a customer fills in my contact form' or 'when an order is marked paid in Shopify'. One sentence, naming the app and the event. If you know the trigger, you are already ahead of most briefs we see.

2. The steps: what should happen next, in plain language

Write it like instructions for a new hire: 'add their details to my spreadsheet, then send me a Slack message, then if they mentioned pricing, also email them the rate card'. Bullets are fine. Do not worry about what is technically possible — that is the freelancer's job to flag.

3. The tools you already use

List them by name: Gmail, Google Sheets, Xero, WhatsApp Business, Shopify, Notion — whatever is in the process today. This one list cuts quote time dramatically, because the builder instantly knows which connectors are involved and whether anything needs an API key.

4. Volume and timing

How often does this happen — five times a week or five hundred? And is there a deadline? Volume changes the architecture, and honest numbers prevent the classic failure where a cheap build chokes in month two.

5. What done looks like

One sentence: 'I will know this is working when a test form submission lands in the sheet and pings my phone within a minute.' This becomes your acceptance test — and on an escrow platform, it is what releases the payment. Vague definitions of done are where projects go to die.

A complete example, in under 100 words

When someone submits my website contact form, add them to my Google Sheet 'Leads', send a notification to my Slack #sales channel, and if they selected 'pricing enquiry', email them my rate card (attached). Tools: WordPress form, Google Sheets, Slack, Gmail. About 30 enquiries a week. Done = test submission appears in the sheet and Slack within 2 minutes.

That brief will get real, comparable quotes within hours. If writing even this much feels like a barrier, our project form can draft it for you — describe the need in one sentence and AI fills in the category, skills and budget range. You stay in control of the final text; the point is you never start from a blank page.