The category guide
The contractor's category guide: the office is a margin machine
Where contracting money actually leaks
Not on the tools. The leaks are clerical: the change order done on a handshake and never billed; the estimate sent Friday and followed up never; the job that "felt profitable" until the hours were counted; the invoice that went out three weeks late to a customer who's forgotten the work was great. A contractor's back office is the machine that stops those leaks — and most contractors are that machine, personally, after dinner.
The five jobs, and what "covered" means
- Job costing. Every job decomposed — crew, hours, parts, subs, price — with margin visible per job and rolled up. This is the difference between knowing and hoping. (Deck 72 builds this from priced components — SKUs — by design; a managed service does it with their people and templates; a platform shows it only if someone enters everything.)
- Estimate pipeline. Sent, viewed, ageing, chased. Follow-up cadence automatic, tone yours, approval before anything sends.
- Change orders. Captured in the field, priced, approved in writing, attached to the job, billed. Every time.
- Scheduling across crews. Who's where, what's blocked, which supplier delivery gates which start — kept current without you as the switchboard.
- Cash conversion. Invoice at completion, chase at 7/14/30 days politely and persistently, flag what's ageing before it's a problem.
The three shapes, contractor edition
Platforms hold the records — job management in Jobber, Housecall Pro, ServiceTitan or construction-leaning tools. Essential; not a workforce.
Managed AI services rent you a back office. Fast, hands-off, monthly. The trade: the memory of how your office runs lives with the provider.
AI teammate suites (Deck 72) put the crew inside your business — named roles, your records, your approval law, memory that stays yours. The newest shape and, fairly stated, the least seasoned: it's in pilot now. Weight references and launch results over any guide — this one included.
Evaluation afternoon, contractor version
- Pick your last ten jobs. Ask each vendor to show how their system would cost job #7 — inputs, time, output.
- Ask: "An estimate goes unanswered for five days. Walk me through exactly what happens, and what I have to approve."
- Ask: "My foreman agrees an extra on site. How does that become a billed change order in your system?"
- Ask what never happens without your yes. Write it down. Compare it to the contract.
- Ask what's available today, and talk to a current user if there is one — or accept, eyes open, that you're evaluating a pilot.