Software for a roof measured before it is priced.

It is one system for the whole roofing job: satellite roof measurement, per-square estimating, a proposal the homeowner signs on a phone, deposit collection, crew scheduling, material delivery checks, and photo records for the homeowner and the adjuster. It exists because roofing starts with a measurement, not a blank form: the roof is measured before it is priced, and the crew cannot start until the materials are on site.

Generic field service software assumes a job that starts with a visit and ends with an invoice. Roofing starts earlier, with a roof measured from satellite images and priced by the square, and it ends later, with photo evidence and, on storm jobs, insurance paperwork. Our field service management software covers the shared pattern across trades: dispatch, scheduling, and invoicing. This page covers the roofing-only part: measurement, per-square pricing, deposit on signing, and the photo record. A roofer who only needs dispatch can use the generic page; a roofer whose estimate is the business needs this one.

HVAC work is diagnosed on site, then repaired or installed. Roofing work is measured before anyone climbs a ladder, priced by the square, and often paid in part before the crew arrives. The two pages share scheduling and invoicing, but the roofing workflow is measurement-first: satellite measurement, pitch and waste in the price, a signed proposal with a deposit, and photo documentation. Our HVAC field service software covers the HVAC version of the same shared pattern.

You enter the address and the roof is measured from satellite or aerial images: area, pitch, and the shape of each section. That measurement feeds the estimate directly, so the price comes from the roof itself instead of a climb and a tape measure. Measurement reports from established providers are usually ordered per report, so ask what each report costs on the plan you would use, not only the monthly fee. A person should still check the measurement before the proposal goes out: imagery can be out of date, and a wrong measurement becomes a wrong price.

A square is 100 square feet of roof. The estimate prices the job by the number of squares, with the pitch and a waste allowance built in, plus the linear feet of flashing, vents, and other accessories. Per-square pricing is what makes the same roof price the same way no matter which estimator runs it. The rule to encode is your best estimator's rule: which pitch adds waste, which accessories are priced per foot, and where the margin sits. Write that rule down before anyone prices a roof in the new system.

The homeowner signs the proposal on their phone and pays the deposit in the same step, before the job is scheduled. The invoice shows the deposit paid and the balance left, and the money goes to your own payment account, not through a platform that holds it. The deposit is what turns a signed proposal into a booked job: no deposit, no crew date. Agree the deposit percentage in the proposal terms, and make sure the crew schedule cannot take a date until the deposit has cleared.

A crew is booked only after the material delivery is confirmed. The schedule shows the crew, the job, the delivery date, and the start date together, so a missing delivery blocks the start date instead of being discovered on the morning of the job. Crews need the job on a phone, with the address, the measurements, the photos from the inspection, and a way to mark the job complete with photos. Test the schedule with a real week: three crews, one delayed delivery, one weather hold, and one job that runs long. If the office cannot rebook all three without phone calls, the schedule is not doing its job.

Every photo belongs to the job record, not to a phone: before, during, and after, with the date, the person who took it, and the part of the roof it shows. The homeowner sees the same photos the adjuster sees, so nobody has to argue about what was there. On storm jobs, the photos are the evidence for the claim and the supplements, so they need to be findable months later by job, not by scrolling a group chat. A photo without a job, a date, and a label is a picture; a photo with all three is a record.

Storm restoration is a different job from a retail re-roof. It runs canvass, inspection, claim filing, the adjuster meeting, settlement, supplements, and scheduling as separate steps, and the money arrives in stages as the claim moves. A retail pipeline hides that: a storm job looks sold when it is only inspected, and the supplement money is invisible until it is lost. Keep storm jobs on their own pipeline with their own steps, and track every supplement with its amount, its status, and its deadline. The average residential insurance roof job produces more than one supplement, and the ones nobody follows up are revenue lost, not revenue delayed.

Buy a maintained platform when it covers the operation: Roofr, AccuLynx, and JobNimbus each carry a roofing company from measurement to payment in different ways, and a small company will usually be served by one of them. Build custom when the platform breaks: your pricing rules do not fit its estimate format, your storm pipeline needs steps it does not have, or your crew count and locations have outgrown what the platform handles cleanly. Our longer guide extends this page with build costs and the buy-or-build decision for companies running ten or more crews: how to build roofing company management software. If the rules of the operation are still changing every week, wait and settle them first.

The first paid phase may cover a bounded audit, a proof of concept, a recovery plan, or a small first release. The final price depends on how deep the workflow goes, how many kinds of users it serves, what it needs to connect to, whether data needs moving over, whether phones or tablets are involved, and the condition of existing code. The agreed phase is priced in writing before it starts. Our longer guide extends this page with the cost ranges for a first release and a full platform: how to build roofing company management software.

Timing depends on scope: a bounded audit or proof of concept is a smaller engagement, while a platform with satellite measurement, storm and insurance workflows, supplier ordering, and a field app for crews takes longer. The schedule is set once the first workflow and what 'done' looks like are clear.

Yes. Takeover is a common first engagement, and it always starts with an audit: where the code lives, how your data is organized, what is tested, which outside services it depends on, who can access what, and how updates go live. Code that is understandable and fit for the next release stays; only the parts blocking reliability get replaced. AI-built prototypes from Lovable, Replit, Bolt, or v0 can be assessed as starting points. And if you already paid another vendor and have nothing working, the audit tells you which story you have before you spend more: the most expensive version is the product that looks finished, clean screens and clicking buttons, while underneath nothing is tested and the security checks run in the browser, where anyone can tamper with them, instead of on the server where they hold.

Yes, when the accounting product and the supplier offer suitable access and your controller owns the mapping. Define which system owns jobs, suppliers, materials, invoices, payments, and actual costs. Roofing adds one rule: the estimate must turn into a material order for the supplier, and the delivery confirmation must feed the crew schedule. Test duplicates, closed periods, retries, rejected postings, and reconciliation. RaftLabs builds the connection; your finance team approves accounting treatment and controls.

Yes, for explicitly designed workflows. The app stores the approved working dataset and queued changes on the phone, then syncs when connectivity returns. Crews need to see what is current, pending, failed, or conflicted, and photos taken offline must upload without being lost. Test with real roof conditions, not only an office network.

The most expensive version is the switch that loses the history: open jobs with no owner, deposits paid against estimates nobody can find, and photo records stranded in the old system. Before the switch, agree what moves over: contacts, open estimates, open jobs, deposits, supplier orders, and photo records, and what stays behind as a read-only archive. Run both systems side by side on a small set of jobs first. A switch that has to be undone on a Monday morning is worse than a slow switch.

You judge what you can see, not the code. Every checkpoint is working software you click through yourself, tested against the workflow agreed at the start: measure a real roof, price it, send the proposal, take the deposit, schedule the crew. Progress is reported in plain language: what changed, what's next, and what it costs. Because you own the code, the accounts, and the operating notes throughout, nothing about the work is locked inside our heads. Our job is to make the work checkable; your job is to check it against your business.

You own the code built for you and control where it lives, the cloud accounts, the data, analytics, and third-party subscriptions. Outside services and open-source pieces keep their own licence terms. The operating notes and handover material stay current so another capable team can take over.

Every launch includes post-launch warranty cover for defects in the agreed scope, release support, and small screen corrections. After that, work can continue as another fixed phase or an ongoing product engagement. The code and accounts stay under your control either way.