Equipment prices rarely cover the full project scope. Installation, configuration, commissioning and site visits may only emerge after a request reaches the assignee. A bot that collects just the product and deadline creates a task with incomplete inputs.
On 23 October, KMVSG tested a short cost-estimate request pilot in Bitrix24. This stage delivered a questionnaire, a saved draft and verified creation of one task with explicit involvement of technical specialists.
Request bot
Collect the inputs before estimating costs
- 01Questionnaire
- 02Draft
- 03Confirmation
- 04Task
- An unknown cost remains a question for the assignee.
- Technical work is identified separately in the request.
- Confirmation is linked to a single created task.
Ask whether technical input is needed
In the original version, technical staff were already project members and task observers. However, the requester was not asked whether their work was needed, and the result template did not identify technical costs. Having a specialist on the participant list did not resolve that gap.
The short flow gained a tenth question: technical assessment needed, not needed, or needs clarification. Work descriptions include the scope, location and timing of installation, configuration and commissioning. “Needs clarification” preserves uncertainty for the next assignee.
Let users resume a draft before creating a task
A user can pause the questionnaire, return to it and review the summary. Until confirmation, it remains a draft that can be refined without creating more project tasks.
The live integration test covered all ten questions, saving and resuming a draft, reviewing the summary and confirming it. Testing used a separate state database and an explicitly labelled control request. Production drafts were not populated with test answers.
Read the created task back
A successful API response is insufficient. Read the task back and compare its project, assignee, stage, dates and required observers with the confirmed summary.
The pilot created one task in the correct project, with both technical specialists listed as observers. Replaying the dispatcher checked the same task without creating another. The description included the technical question, the assignment procedure and cost categories. No orders or payments were created.
Separate request collection from cost calculation
The result template separates goods, labour, site visits, travel expenses and consumables where applicable. Work already included in a price must not be added again as a separate line. Unknown costs keep the estimate preliminary.
At this stage, the bot prepares a task and a clear workflow. A numerical cost calculator and automatic stage restrictions are not implemented. The coordinator assigns the responsible employee and technical specialist, who records the assessment, scope, timing and confirmed cost.
Test team roles under their own accounts
Control-task creation was tested under the owner’s personal authorization context. At the time of testing, the coordinator and technicians had not completed the shared workflow through the application: they need to connect their own accounts and process an agreed request.
This acceptance boundary concerns the application integration; it does not imply that users lack normal access to the task in Bitrix24. The next stage is assignment and a technical assessment by the actual participants. Until then, the result is a pilot for collecting requests and creating tasks.
Quick checklist
- Ask a separate question about technical work
- Keep incomplete data without substituting zero
- Show a summary before confirmation
- Read the created task back
- Test repeated confirmation on the same request
- Run the team workflow under individual accounts
Links and source code
This article covers: Bitrix24 request bot, Cost estimation, Technical work, Request draft.