Get a roof estimate out from the aerial

The Crewtavo - Roofing app adds a Roofing section to the menu. It walks one roof through six steps on one page: Measure, Estimate, Range, Site visit, Schedule and Invoice. Each step uses the same quote, job and invoices as the rest of Crewtavo, so nothing is typed twice.

Tip

Don’t see Roofing in the menu? An owner or admin can open Apps, choose Crewtavo - Roofing and choose Install. Any business can install it, whatever its trade, and Paving too: your trade in Settings → Company only picks your starter prices and terms. Uninstall takes Roofing out of the menu and keeps every estimate, package and price range. See Install and manage apps.

Before you start: roof packages

A roof package is what goes on a kind of roof: the shingles or metal by the square, what’s always on it, and quick adds, one-tap extras for the estimate. Open Roofing → Packages and click Set up the standard packages to get Architectural shingle, Designer shingle and Standing-seam metal, with the roofing services they need added to your price list at starting prices to change to your own.

Click a package to change it:

• Price a square: Set it yourself, or Follow ABC prices (your ABC Supply materials plus labor and the rest, plus your markup), so new estimates price at today’s materials. If the roof has a material your ABC branch has never priced, it shows A square, held: the price stays where it was instead of leaving that material out, until the branch prices it or you replace it. See ABC Supply.
• Always on this roof: the services every roof of this kind gets, like tear-off, drip edge, ridge cap and a dumpster. Measured ones fill in from the roof; others start at a count you set, like 3 pipe boots. Each shows your cost and margin.
• Quick adds: tap a service to make it a one-tap button on the estimate, like chimney flashing, rotten decking or a skylight.
• On its card: Highlights and a one-line Warranty, which the homeowner reads when you offer the package as one of two or three options. See Offer Good, Better and Best options.

Price ranges, beside the packages, sets how much room the range leaves on top (15% to start) and what it rounds to. Owners and admins can change it.

1. Start a roof estimate

1. Open Roofing and click New roof estimate.
2. Under Who’s it for?, pick the client, or type a new name and create them.
3. Pick the Property, or choose Add an address.
4. Under What kind of roof?, pick a package. Your default is already picked. To offer two or three side by side, like Good, Better and Best, click Offer as an option on the others.
5. Click Measure the roof.

The measuring map opens at the house. Where OpenStreetMap or the street map has the building, its outline is already drawn as the roof.

2. Measure the roof

The Roof card at the top of the panel beside the map has four steps, each ticked off as you go.

1. Outline the roof. Outline the building adds the outline of the building in the middle of the map; Draw it lets you click each corner yourself. Building outlines follow the walls, so drag the corners out to the drip edge (often 1 to 2 ft). Draw a porch, garage or dormer at another pitch as its own area.
2. Set the pitch. Set the pitch opens the pitch picker: pick a common pitch, read it free from lidar where the US has flown it, or measure it with a phone. See Measure yards and roofs.
3. Mark the edges. Pick Eaves, Rakes, Ridges, Hips or Valleys, then draw along each of those edges and double-click to finish each one. Drip edge, ridge cap, valley flashing and ridge vent price from these.
4. Save and price it. Check the Waste: about 10% for a plain gable roof and 15% with hips or valleys. Then click Save the roof, and Next: Estimate.

3. The estimate

The package goes on the estimate by itself, priced from the roof. Anything with nothing to measure on this roof (like valley flashing on a roof without valleys) is left off, and the estimate says so.

The estimate is one list:

• The roof · from the measurements: the shingles, tear-off and edges. Tear-off has − and + for layers. − takes a measured line off.
• Everything else: things you count, like pipe boots and a dumpster, each with − and +. Taking one down to nothing takes it off.
• Add to the estimate: your quick adds, one tap each, and a search of your whole price list.

Notes for the salesperson are for the team only: what the homeowner told you, the dog in the back yard. Your numbers shows the cost, profit and margin, which the homeowner never sees.

Change next to the package name starts the estimate over from another package, after asking, if you priced the wrong kind of roof. It can also take two or three packages, to offer them as options.

With options, each one is priced from its own package once the roof is measured. Pick an option above the list to see and change its lines, its materials and Your numbers. When you add something, choose Only on that option or On every option. See Offer Good, Better and Best options.

Exact material costs from ABC Supply

With ABC Supply installed, open Materials for this roof below the estimate: each line’s shingles, underlayment, drip edge and the rest, in whole bundles, rolls and pieces, at your own prices at your ABC branch. Pick a line’s materials once and every roof after is priced the same way. Each line’s cost becomes its materials plus Labor and the rest, so the cost, profit and margin use today’s material prices, on the iPad too.

Roofing also gets a Catalog tab, after Projects and Packages: ABC’s items at your branch with your price on each, what your account usually buys, and every material in your price list checked with ABC in one click. See Browse ABC’s catalog.

4. Send the range

The card beside the estimate shows the range the homeowner will see: the estimate rounded down, to the estimate plus your room on top, rounded up (an $18,304 estimate goes out as $18,300 to $21,050). With options, it runs from the lowest option to the highest plus the room on top, and the bar marks each option’s price. Pick who goes out under Site visit by, then click Send the range to the homeowner, by email, text or a link you copy.

They see the range, what’s included and what could change the price (like rotten decking at your price a sheet), and two buttons: Yes, send someone out and I have a question. With options, they see each one with its own range and can tap I’m leaning toward this one. When they say yes, the office gets a notification to book the visit, and the step says when they said yes. Their exact price never reaches their screen until it’s set on site.

Did they say yes on the phone, by text or in person? Click … said yes on the phone (before you’ve sent the range) or … said yes another way (after). In the “Did … say yes to the range?” box, pick Which one are they leaning toward? if there are options, add How they said yes if you like, and click Yes, they agreed. Nothing is sent to them; the team is told to book the visit, the same as if they’d tapped yes.

Note

Want to skip the range? Send the exact price instead sends the full estimate for them to sign online, the way any quote works.

5. The site visit, on an iPad

On the iPad, open the project and click Start the site visit. The screen fills the iPad, without the app’s menus. Held sideways, it shows what to change on the left and the paper on the right: the estimate in your document style, with your letterhead and contract, the way the homeowner will sign it. “What … will sign. It changes as you do.” Each change lights up on the paper as it lands, and tapping a line on the paper opens it to change. The price and Review and sign sit along the top.

On a narrower screen (under 1000 pixels wide, like most iPads held upright), the paper fills the screen, with the price and Review and sign along the bottom. Make changes opens the left side as a sheet over the paper, and See the estimate closes it.

The left side has three tabs:

• Add items: picture tiles to tap onto the estimate. For this roof has the package’s quick adds, then come your price list’s categories, and Search your price list finds the rest. A tile already on the estimate shows how many, with − and +.
• Line items: the estimate the office made. − and + fix anything they guessed, − takes a line off, and Found something else? adds what you find, like chimney flashing. Each change is marked Added, Changed or Taken off. Tap a line to change How many, the Price for one and the words Under the name on the estimate. Does the roof match? has Fix measurements. Below it, Your notes, with Take a photo, are for the office and crew; a note from the office shows at the top.
• Price: the range the homeowner said yes to and whether you’re inside it. Type a price under Set the price, move it with −$500, −$100, +$100 and +$500, or tap Round to a round figure or Use the estimate as it is. Your margin at today’s prices stays hidden until you tap Show margin, since the homeowner can see the screen. You changed lists every change since the office’s estimate.

With options, Line items shows each one. Tap They chose this one on the homeowner’s pick: the price is set for that one, and Review and sign waits until it’s marked.

Tip

The tiles show your own pictures. Add one to any service in the Picture column of Settings → Price list; without one, the tile shows a drawing.

Click Review and sign. Hand the iPad over: the homeowner sees the estimate in your document style, types their name and signs with a finger. If your contract asks for initials, they draw them once under Your initials and tap Add my initials on each section that asks. Your saved signature goes on your company’s line; the first time, sign once and keep Save my signature for next time ticked. If there’s an email address for them, tick Email … a copy to send them the signed estimate. Then click Sign and finish.

Signed. Nice work then offers Print a copy (to any AirPrint printer nearby). Emailing a copy and texting them a link show there too, when your Crewtavo can send email and texts. The office gets a notification, and the project moves to Schedule.

6. Schedule and invoice

Back in the office, the Site visit step shows what the salesperson changed on site, their notes and photos, and The signed estimate with both signatures, to open or print. Click Schedule the job: the estimate’s lines become the job’s scope. With options, the chosen option’s lines and the ones on every option come along. The deposit button, like Bill the 30% deposit, $5,400, makes the deposit invoice.

Under Invoice, Create an invoice opens the job’s invoice options: a deposit, progress or final invoice. Clients pay online from their link.

Projects

Roofing lists your open projects with their package, the price (or the range, while that’s what the homeowner has seen) and the stage, such as Range sent, Wants a visit or Signed. All shows lost and finished ones too.

For how Crewtavo’s roof measuring compares with EagleView and Hover reports, see Free roof measuring. Everything else Crewtavo does for a roofing company is on Roofing software.