You run the jobs. This runs the paperwork.
The follow-up, the change orders, the draw requests and the selections chasing — configured for remodeling on day one, so the office work stops happening at 9pm.
Eight changes. Four months. Nobody signed one.
Change orders are not paperwork, they are the margin mechanic of this trade. They commonly run ~10–15% of contract value on a major project, and the most common source of all — an allowance that quietly ran over — is the one most often absorbed without anyone logging it.
Not a projection or a guarantee. It is what eight unsigned changes on one job can add up to when nothing gates them.
- Change requested, from the field or the client
- Priced, with the same markup as the base contract
- Sent for the client’s signature
- Signed — and only now is the work released
- Logged against the job and added to the next draw request
An approval still sitting unsigned after a couple of days is an escalation, not a to-do. Priced before it’s built, a change is a decision. Priced after, it’s a dispute.
We didn’t guess at your business.
This kit was designed against how design-build remodelers really operate — a sales side that ends in two separate contracts, a production side measured in months, and a change-order process that decides whether the job keeps its margin.
The estimate that took a day to produce
Scoping a remodel is expensive. The phone screen exists so the truck only rolls for a real budget range with both decision-makers present — and so the rest go to a long-cycle track instead of the bin.
The follow-up that stops too early
Most remodeling sales need several contacts after the first meeting. A five-day drip is finished long before the customer is.
The change nobody signed
Priced before it’s built, a change is a decision. Priced after, it’s a dispute. The gate is a signature, not a notification.
The tile pick that stalled a crew
A one-week delay on a selection can widen to two or three weeks at the finish end, because it moves cabinets, then countertop templating, then trim-out, then final inspection.
The draw that sat waiting on a waiver
Progress billing is a blocked chain, not an invoice. One missing subcontractor waiver holds the whole cycle.
The client who lives in the jobsite
On a remodel the customer is standing in it. Silence reads as chaos, so the build narrates itself.
Three boards, with the stages this trade actually uses.
Not a blank CRM you have to design. Sales and design are one board because they are one conversation; production is its own board because it runs on inspections; and change orders get a board of their own, because they are where the margin goes.
Remodeling — Sales & Design
- New Lead
- Qualified / Budget Confirmed
- In-Home Consultation Scheduled
- Consultation Held
- Design Agreement Sent
- Design Agreement Signed + Retainer Paid
- Discovery / As-Built
- Schematic Design
- Design Development
- Selections / Specifications
- Construction Proposal Presented
- Construction Agreement Signed + Deposit
- Lost
Remodeling — Production
- Permit / Plan Review
- Mobilization / Site Protection
- Demolition
- Structural / Framing
- Rough-In (MEP)
- Inspections — Framing + Rough MEP
- Insulation + Inspection
- Drywall
- Finish Carpentry / Trim
- Tile / Flooring / Paint
- Fixtures & Trim-Out
- Final Inspection
- Punch List / Final Walkthrough
- Final Draw Released
- Closed / Warranty
Change Orders
- Requested
- Priced
- Sent for Approval
- Approved — Signed
- Work Released
- Rejected
Work is released on the signature, not on the conversation. An approval still sitting unsigned after a couple of days is an escalation, not a to-do.
Most contractor software stops at “won.”
We went looking for a ready-made contractor system that carried a job past the signature — a production board that runs on inspections, selections deadlines tied to the schedule, draws blocked on lien waivers, and change orders gated by a signature. Every published one we found ends at won. That gap is the reason this build exists.
Change orders, signed before work proceeds
Request, priced, sent, signed, released — and only then does the crew touch it. Change orders commonly run ~10–15% of contract value on a major project, and an allowance overage automatically becomes one instead of a conversation nobody logs.
Selections chased before they cost you weeks
Every selection carries a deadline and an owner. Reminders escalate to the client, then to you, with the schedule consequence stated in writing — so a late tile pick becomes a flagged decision instead of a surprise at the finish end. Your scheduling software still owns the schedule; this owns the chasing.
Draws that know what’s blocking them
Each draw request fires off its milestone, and the waiver status for each subcontractor is tracked and chased — so a missing conditional waiver surfaces while you can still fix it, instead of when the lender declines the release. The waivers themselves stay with whoever issues them.
Permits, narrated while you wait
Plan review is a stage owned by the jurisdiction. The follow-up aims at the permit office; the homeowner gets told where it stands so the silence doesn’t read as a stall.
Reviews asked at punch-list sign-off
Not at substantial completion. The gap between the two is exactly where a five-star becomes a three-star, and the request is suppressed while a punch item or warranty callback is open.
Compliance rails on from day one
Consent capture, STOP and quiet-hours handling, and a lead-safe gate that keys off the year the property was built — on by default, not a setting you have to discover.
Most software thinks you sell once. The best remodelers sell twice.
Plenty of contractors quote the job off one estimate. The strongest design-build shops don’t: they sell a small paid design agreement first, do the discovery, drawings and selections against it, and only then present the construction contract — because you cannot price a remodel accurately until that work is done. Two signatures, weeks apart, each with its own close rate. If you work that way, these boards already do. If you don’t, the design stages simply sit unused and nothing breaks.
The design agreement
~4–8% of projected job cost
A real contract sale with its own cadence — not a proposal reminder. It is priced, signed and paid before drawings begin, and the fee is commonly credited back against the construction contract on signing. That credit is the close mechanic, so it belongs on the proposal as a line item.
selections, pricing
The construction agreement
the build + deposit
Different objection, different close rate, different money. The follow-up cadence has to match a decision cycle measured in weeks, not one that exhausts itself in five days — remodeling has the longest consideration window of the home trades.
Both events are stages you can see, with their own follow-up. So “we close ~~70% of design agreements and ~~55% of construction proposals” becomes a sentence you can actually say about your own business. Illustrative figures.
Paid you for design. Never signed the build.
They are the highest-intent contacts in your database and almost nobody works them. Known scope. Known budget gap. They already paid you once and already trust you. When a single board collapses both contracts into “won or lost”, this segment does not exist as something you can select — which is exactly why it never gets a campaign.
They become a segment, automatically
Signing a design agreement and then not signing a construction agreement is a state the boards can see. That state has its own re-engagement track, written for someone who already knows what the project costs.
Priced work doesn’t expire quietly
Proposals age. Past your re-quote window — or the moment you flag a material escalation — the proposal is marked for re-quote instead of going back out at a number you can no longer build for.
The long tail stays warm
An unsold construction proposal goes to a cadence built for a months-long decision, not a week-long one.
Past clients return by room
Remodeling clients don’t come back on a cycle, they come back for the next room. A kitchen client is a bath prospect, and the campaign says so.
Your first thirty days.
- Days 1–3
Boards, fields and forms go live. Your project inquiry form asks project type, budget range, year built and HOA — so qualification branches before anyone drives anywhere.
- Days 4–7
Speed-to-lead and missed-call text-back switch on. Contractors average around ~42 minutes to first response; yours stops being a number you hope about.
- Days 8–14
Both follow-up cadences load — design agreement and construction proposal — along with the re-engagement track for everyone who paid for design and never built.
- Days 15–21
Production side: permit narration, selections watch, draw requests and the change-order signature gate.
- Days 22–30
Payments connected, review and referral flows tested against a real punch list, and your back catalogue segmented by room for phase-two work.
Every automation ends at a payment. So we own that part too.
A design retainer, a construction deposit, a signed change order and five progress draws are all payment events. They run on Square rails, which means the deposit link goes out with the signature instead of a week later, and card acceptance on a six-figure remodel stops being a conversation about ~3%.
Design retainer, collected at signature
The agreement and the payment are one moment, not two.
Deposits and draws on a schedule
Milestone-triggered, with the waiver chase attached.
Signed change orders stop getting forgotten
Approved work is logged against the job and carried into the next draw request, instead of living in somebody’s memory.
Dual pricing on the invoiced lane
The customer sees both prices and chooses, with the cost in plain sight — a cash-discount mechanic printed on the invoice, not a surprise at the end.
Two plans. Month to month.
- All three boards, configured
- Project inquiry form and intake routing
- Speed-to-lead and missed-call text-back
- Both follow-up cadences
- Reviews and referral flows
- Compliance rails on by default
- Everything in Core
- Production board with permit and inspection narration
- Selections deadline watch tied to the schedule
- Change-order signature gate and allowance overage capture
- Draw requests with lien-waiver chase
- Design-no-build re-engagement and phase-two campaigns
Fair questions.
Is this just a generic CRM with a contractor sticker on it?
The stage names above are the first test — they are the boards your account actually opens with. The second is the part you can’t buy: a production board, selections tied to the schedule, waiver-blocked draws and a change-order signature gate. Every published competitor we could inspect stops at won.
I already run Buildertrend. I’m not ripping that out.
You shouldn’t. Project management stays where it is. What this owns is everything before the contract and everything about getting paid — intake, qualification, both follow-up cadences, the re-engagement segment and the payment events. Where a construction-management tool is authoritative, it stays authoritative.
My clients pay by check. Dual pricing doesn’t apply.
Then it costs them nothing — check customers pay the cash price, the price they pay today. What changes is speed: the retainer invoice fires on signature instead of on memory, draws go out on milestones, and the deposit clears next day. And the homeowner who wanted to put a $40,000 kitchen on a card and got told no stops being a no.
We don’t sell design agreements. We quote the job.
Then the sales board runs as one conversion and the design stages sit unused — nothing breaks. The letter of intent works the same slot if a client arrives with finished drawings. The reason the two-contract shape is the default is that it is what the strongest design-build operators do, not because it is required.
There’s a change on a job right now that nobody has priced.
It will get built either way. The only question is whether it gets invoiced. Board now and the next one goes out with a signature line on it.
Automate With Us provides software and configuration services. Figures shown are published industry research or illustrative examples — they are not projections, guarantees, or representations of the results you should expect. Individual results depend on your market, pricing, capacity and execution. Processing costs vary by card mix and volume; the ~3% figure is illustrative and your effective rate will differ. Payment processing is provided through Square and is subject to Square’s approval and terms. Text-message and email sending are subject to carrier and regulatory registration. Permitting, licensing, lien and lead-safe obligations remain yours; the compliance rails in this kit assist with process and are not legal advice. Terms · Privacy