Painting Contractors
Connect your estimating software, CRM, crew schedules, and accounting so you can see which estimates, crews, and job types actually make money. Cass & York builds custom AI-assisted document processing and software integrations that compare quoted hours, actual labor and progress payments, with human review for uncertain records.
Residential and commercial painting contractors running several crews or several locations, including companies that use subcontracted crews and operators that grew through acquisition.
Show Us Your Workflow[01] Where systems separate
Where the numbers stop matching.
- 01Production rates in the estimate are never compared with the hours crews actually spent on the job
- 02Subcontracted crews are paid by the job while employee crews are paid by the hour, so crew cost is compared by hand
- 03Deposits collected at signing sit in accounting without a clear link to the job they belong to
- 04Lead paint records for homes built before 1978 are kept in folders instead of tied to the job file
- 05Interior work in winter and exterior work in summer are planned against crew capacity in separate spreadsheets
- 06Every acquired location brings its own estimating templates, production rates, and chart of accounts
[02] The software in place
The systems we usually find.
Most painting companies already run good estimating and CRM software. The gaps sit between the estimate, the crew's time, and accounting.
Estimating and sales
PaintScout
Production rate estimating and proposals built for painting contractors. We compare its estimates with what each job actually cost.
CRM and job management
DripJobs
A painting CRM with a sales pipeline, deposits, and job costing. We connect it to accounting and to other locations.
Field service platform
Jobber
Quotes, crew scheduling, and invoicing at painting companies, and often still running at locations a larger operator acquired.
Photo documentation
CompanyCam
Before and after photos tied to each job, useful when a customer questions prep work or a touch up.
Accounting
QuickBooks Online
Where deposits, payroll, subcontractor payments, and paint purchases land, usually without the estimate detail.
[03] Questions worth answering
Numbers painting company owners ask for that no single system can answer.
- 01Estimated versus actual hours
- Labor hours in the estimate against hours recorded on the job, by crew and job type, so production rates are adjusted with real data.
- 02Gross profit by job and crew
- Revenue minus labor, subcontractor pay, paint, and sundries, which needs payroll, purchasing, and the estimate in one place.
- 03Close rate by estimator and lead source
- Estimates sent, estimates signed, and the dollar value of each, joined to the lead source that brought them in.
- 04Backlog in crew weeks
- Signed work waiting to be scheduled, converted into crew weeks so you know when to sell harder and when to hire.
- 05Employee crews against subcontracted crews
- Cost per job and callback rate for each crew model on comparable work.
[04] What we build
Keep your estimating software. Build what's missing around it.
Estimated versus actual hours is the usual first report, since it needs the estimate, crew time, and payroll in one view. We build that connection and add from there.
01
Estimate to actual job costing
Dashboards & Reporting →02
Crew and subcontractor cost comparison
Dashboards & Reporting →03
Deposit and progress payment reconciliation
Systems Integration →04
Lead safe work records tied to jobs
Document Intelligence →05
Sales pipeline to revenue reporting
Dashboards & Reporting →06
Combined reporting across acquired locations
Unified Data Platforms →07
AI-assisted processing of painting estimates, crew timesheets and materials receipts, with validation and exception review before updating source systems
Document Intelligence →
[05] In practice
What this looks like in practice.
Are our production rates right
The owner suspects some estimates are thin but can't prove which ones. We match estimated hours from the estimating software against time entries and subcontractor invoices on completed jobs, by crew and job type.
Lead paint paperwork on request
A homeowner in a house built before 1978 asks for proof of lead safe practices months after the job. We tie the Renovate Right acknowledgment, the certified renovator assigned, and the completion checklist to the job record so the file can be found from the job.
Deposits in, jobs out
Deposits are collected weeks before a crew starts. We match each deposit and progress payment in accounting to the signed estimate, so the controller sees what is earned, what is held, and what is still owed.
[06] Relevant work
Work that shows how we approach it.
[07] A practical starting point
Connect the systems. Unify the data. Build the workflow.
01Connect
Pull estimates, signed proposals, and crew schedules from your estimating and job software, plus payroll, subcontractor payments, and paint purchases from accounting.
02Unify
Match customers, jobs, and crews across systems, agree on how labor and materials are counted against each estimate, and flag jobs that don't reconcile.
03Build
Deliver the job costing report, crew comparison, or sales dashboard your team asked for, with every number traceable back to the estimate and the job.
[08] Questions
Painting Contractors: common questions
Do we need to replace PaintScout, DripJobs, or our current software?
No. PaintScout or DripJobs keeps producing estimates. We connect them to crew time and accounting so estimated hours from production rates can be compared with what each job really took.
Can you combine reporting across painting companies we acquired?
Yes. We map each location's jobs, crews, and estimating categories to shared definitions so margin and close rate can be compared and rolled up.
How do we compare estimated hours to actual hours on painting jobs?
We pull estimated labor from your estimating software and actual time from time tracking, payroll, or subcontractor invoices, then match them job by job. Variances are shown by crew and job type so production rates can be updated.
Can you keep EPA lead paint (RRP) records organized by job?
Yes. We link the records your team already collects, such as the Renovate Right acknowledgment, the certified renovator assigned, and the completion checklist, to each job. EPA requires firms to keep these records for three years, and linking them to the job makes them easy to find for that period.
Can you compare subcontracted crews with employee crews?
Yes. We bring payroll, subcontractor payments, and job revenue together so cost per job and callbacks are measured the same way for both crew types.
Can AI automate painting estimates, crew timesheets and materials receipts for painting contractors?
Yes. Cass & York can build a workflow that extracts structured details from painting estimates, crew timesheets and materials receipts, matches them to records in PaintScout and DripJobs and accounting, and flags missing or ambiguous information for staff review. The integration can compare quoted hours, actual labor and progress payments without requiring replacement of your existing core systems.
[09] Start with the process
Show us the workflow your existing software can't handle.
You don't need a technical specification. Walk us through the process, the systems involved, and where your team is losing time.
Book a Workflow Call →