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Creating a job

A job moves through three steps before the bid goes out:

  1. Lead — a phone call's worth: who the client is, how to reach them, and the site. Optionally what they want, where the lead came from, and when you'll visit.
  2. Site visit — the job becomes a site visit as soon as you add a work area (a room or location) with something written in it.
  3. Estimating — Build the bid moves the job into the bid builder once the three requirements below are green.

All three happen on one form.

Start from Jobs → + New job, the + New job button on the empty jobs list, or Start a job on a client's page. The form goes big to small: Job (what kind, and its name), Client (who it's for), Site (where), then Work areas, the rooms or locations, each with the scope that goes in it. Below them is a row of status pills and the Build the bid button.

Job section

What kind of job? Pick Remodel or New construction — this comes first, before anything else. A new job starts as a remodel. The answer is how the bid will be organized: a remodel is bid room by room, new construction by phase. Commercial and Service call are shown as Coming soon and can't be picked yet.

Job name is what the shop calls this job — not the client's name. It fills itself in from the client and the street (for example, Carla Reyes — 1234 Oak St) until you type your own, like Kitchen remodel or Unit 4 panel. Clear it to go back to the filled-in name.

Under the job name are three optional lead fields: What they want (in the customer's words), Where the lead came from (referral, repeat customer, website or search, builder or GC, other) and Site visit (date and time).

The rhythm: it saves itself once it's worth keeping

There's no button to find. Intake saves on its own, in two steps:

  1. Until the job has enough to keep, nothing is saved. Type freely; walking away leaves no half-job in your jobs list. A panel at the bottom says "Not saved yet — It saves itself once it has: …" and names what's missing: who the client is, an email or phone, and the site address. A room isn't needed yet; that comes at the site visit.
  2. The moment it has all that, it saves itself as a lead, a couple of seconds after you stop typing. You keep typing where you were. From then on every change saves the same way, and a status line under the heading says where you stand: Saving…, Unsaved changes…, or Saved 3:12 PM. There's no save step to forget on a ladder. If you'd rather press something, Save job in that panel saves right away, and once the job exists Save at the bottom of the page waits for the server and says All changes saved · 3:12 PM. If it says Couldn't save, press it again to retry.

A saved job appears in your jobs list as a Lead, or as a Site visit once it has a work area. Reopen it any time to carry on. Nothing goes to the customer at this stage.

Client section

Who you're doing the work for. Pick New client or Existing client.

Existing client — type a name, a contact, or a street into Search clients and pick them from the list. Their contact details fill in; you can add a missing phone or email right there. Change client picks someone else. If you started from a client's page, they're already picked.

New client — first, Person or business?

  • Person (a homeowner, or anyone hiring you for themselves): Client name, then Email and Phone. The person is the contact, so there's no separate contact name.
  • Business (a builder, landlord or property manager): Business name, then Contact name — the person you deal with — and their Email and Phone. The contact name is optional for a lead: until you know who you're dealing with, the business name stands in.

Email and phone are "one of the two." The client has to be reachable: the Client complete requirement (see below) turns green only once there's a name and at least an email or a phone. The bid is sent by email, so a client with only a phone can't be sent a bid until you add one; the Email field says so. If you get to Send without it, the bid's checklist links to the client's page, where ← Back to the bid brings you straight back.

A new client is added to your Clients list when you create the job. Edits made here once the job exists update the client everywhere.

Site section

Where the work happens.

  • For an existing client with sites on file, choose one under Which site is this job at? — or A new site to type a new address.
  • Otherwise type the Address (required), City, State (two letters; defaults to UT) and ZIP. A new site is saved on the client, so the next job there can pick it.

The State feeds the pre-lien step later in the job, so correct it if the site isn't in Utah.

Work areas section

A work area is a room or location: Kitchen, Entry, Family room, Garage.

Click + Add work area. Each one has a Room or area name and an optional Notes field, for anything you want to remember that the scope doesn't say. The × removes the area, and its scope goes with it.

Photos and video attach to each work area. Under every area are two buttons: Upload from photo library (pick shots you've already taken, several at once) and Take a photo or video (opens the camera on a phone or tablet). Attachments show as thumbnails, each with an × to remove it. They're always optional. They switch on as soon as the job has saved itself; until then the area says what the job still needs (for example, the site address).

Scope goes inside each work area. Type in Add scope to Kitchen… to search your work by name or code, then click one to add it to that room. The list is the work in your catalog that's offered at the site visit — set that up under Settings → Catalog (see Catalog items, kits and work). The same item can go in two rooms; picking it again in the same room adds one more. The × on an item removes it.

Work your catalog doesn't have yet. If nothing matches what you typed, click Add as new scope (or press Enter). It goes in the room straight away, and into your catalog marked Needs review, so you keep going and somebody else finishes setting it up later: its parts, its phases, a proper code, or retiring it if it was a one-off. It never stops the bid from being sent. It's priced by your first labor rate until someone changes it.

How many. Each item has a number beside it, starting at 1. Eight outlets in the kitchen is one item with 8, not eight rows. Whoever builds the bid sees the counts in the site-visit panel, and the customer's scope of work reads "Install outlet × 8". On a remodel, the bid opens with those eight outlets already in the kitchen, as the outlet kit with its parts and a labor row — nobody types them in twice.

You don't enter hours or prices at intake. The bid puts numbers on the work.

Jobs created before scope was picked room by room show a Scope not tied to a room list. Add those items to a work area, then remove them there.

You need at least one work area and at least one scope item to build the bid.

The three requirements to build the bid

The pills above the → Build the bid button show what's still needed. All three must be green:

  • Client complete — the client's name (and, for a business, a contact name), and an email or phone.
  • ≥1 work area: at least one room or area.
  • ≥1 line item: at least one scope item, in any work area.

These are checked twice: live in the form as you type, and again on the server the moment you click Build the bid — so a half-finished job can't slip through. When all three pass, Build the bid moves the job to bidding and takes you to the bid builder. On a job that hasn't saved yet it saves it first, so there's nothing to press before it.

One thing to know for later: once a bid has been priced from this intake, the work areas and scope lock. You can still fix a contact email or phone — a wrong email usually surfaces when a bid doesn't arrive — but the scope the bid was priced on stays what it was.

What's not in v1 yet

Being straight with you about intake's current limits:

  • No dimensions. A work area is a name plus optional notes. For electrical work the scope says what goes where; room sizes aren't needed.
  • No hours or prices at intake. You say what work goes in each room and how many; the hours and pricing live in the bid builder.
  • Commercial and service calls aren't open yet. They show as Coming soon. Bid that work as a remodel or new construction for now.
  • Site addresses are typed. There's no map or address autocomplete, and intake has no second address line — add a unit or suite on the client's page. There's no separate billing address.
  • A business's other contacts are on the client's page. Intake shows and edits the primary contact only; add the property manager or the site super on the client's page.
  • No site-condition checkboxes. The old finished-surfaces / pre-1980 panel / insulated-ceiling toggles are gone. Put what you saw in the work area's Notes, and price a hard condition on the bid (more hours, or a premium on a part). Older jobs still show what they recorded.