Getting Started & Estimate Workflow Guide

A step-by-step walkthrough for using the Build It Pros platform — from signing up through sending an estimate a customer can review, request changes on, or accept. Tap any section below to expand it.

Part 1: Signing Up & Day-One Setup

1.1 Create your account

  1. Go to builditpros.com/trial/.
  2. Fill out the trial application:
    • Company name
    • Your name, email, and phone
    • Primary service area / city
    • Business address (optional — Street / City / State / ZIP)
    • Website (optional)
    • ROC number — if you’re a licensed contractor, replace the pre-filled “Not a licensed contractor” text with your license number. If you leave it, it stays as-is.
    • Service checklist — check every category of work you take on. This becomes the dropdown list customers pick from on your request form, so be thorough.
    • Notes (optional)
    • SMS opt-in checkbox, if you’d like text notifications in the future
  3. Submit. Your account and company are created instantly — there’s no waiting for approval.
  4. Check your email for a welcome message with a set-password link.

This step matters more than it looks. Clicking the set-password link and creating your password does two things at once: it sets your login, and it verifies your email address. AI-assisted estimate scoping (Part 4) stays switched off until this is done. If you can log in but “Scope with AI” isn’t available yet, this is almost always why — check your inbox (and spam folder) for the welcome email.

1.2 Your web address

Your company gets its own slug — a short version of your company name — used in all your customer-facing links:

  • builditpros.com/your-company-slug/request-an-estimate/ — your request form
  • builditpros.com/your-company-slug/company-profile/ — your public profile page

The slug is generated automatically from your company name at signup. If you’d like it changed, contact Build It Pros support — this isn’t a self-service field.

1.3 Log in

Go to builditpros.com and click the Client Dashboard link, then sign in with the email and password you just set. You’ll land in your dashboard. Your working area is the Estimates menu on the left (with a submenu for Projects just above it).

1.4 Initial setup checklist

Before sharing your request link with any customers, work through these settings. All of them live under Estimates → Settings.

1. Business Information
What to do: Enter your business name, tagline, phone, email, address (Street/City/State/ZIP), ROC number, and a logo URL.
Why it matters: Appears on every estimate, PDF, and customer email — and powers the map on your public profile page.

2. Project Types
What to do: Enter one service per line (e.g. “Drywall Repair,” “Deck Building”).
Why it matters: This is exactly what populates the dropdown on your public request form.

3. Estimate Defaults
What to do: Set your estimate number prefix (default EST), default markup %, and confirm these look right.
Why it matters: Applied to every new estimate automatically.

4. AI Estimation
What to do: Set your Estimation Services Base Fee — the flat fee added as a line item whenever AI scopes an estimate.
Why it matters: This is your only AI-related setting; the underlying AI connection itself is managed by Build It Pros, not per-company.

5. Company Profile
What to do: Write a short bio and add any social links (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube) you want public.
Why it matters: Populates your public profile page at /your-slug/company-profile/.

6. Vehicles (optional)
What to do: Add each work vehicle you want to estimate fuel cost for: name, fuel type, MPG, mark it Active.
Why it matters: Required first step for fuel-cost estimates — a vehicle has to exist here before it can be selected on any job (see Part 5).

7. Fuel Cost (optional)
What to do: Set a markup % on top of fuel cost, if you added vehicles above.
Why it matters: Internal job-costing only.

Click Save at the bottom of the Settings page after each round of changes.

1.5 Your trial and subscription

At the top of the Settings page, a Your Subscription panel shows your trial countdown. When you’re ready to continue past the trial (or anytime you want), click Start My Subscription there — this takes you to a secure Stripe checkout to add your payment method. You’ll see your subscription status (Active, Past Due, etc.) in that same panel going forward.

2.1 Find your link

Your slug and both of your custom URLs are always available at a glance: log in and look at the Estimate Overview widget at the top of your dashboard. It shows your Client ID / Slug, plus direct clickable links for:

  • Request an Estimate — builditpros.com/your-company-slug/request-an-estimate/
  • Company Profile — builditpros.com/your-company-slug/company-profile/

You don’t need to type these out from memory — just copy them straight from that widget whenever you need them.

2.2 Share it

Use this link anywhere you’d normally point a prospective customer:

  • Your website’s “Get a Quote” or “Contact” button
  • Email signature
  • Business cards / yard signs / vehicle wraps (as a short link or QR code)
  • Text messages and social media posts
  • Your Build It Pros public profile page (/your-slug/company-profile/) also has a Request a Free Estimate button that links here automatically

2.3 What the customer submits

When a customer opens the link, they fill out:

  • Name, email, phone
  • Street address (optional), city (required), state (locked to Arizona)
  • Project type (from your Project Types list in 1.4)
  • Project description
  • Preferred timeline
  • Up to 5 photos

On submit, you get an email notification and the request appears in your dashboard automatically — nothing further to do to “receive” it.

  1. Go to Estimates → Requests. New requests show a badge count next to both Estimates and Requests in the left menu.
  2. Click a request to open its detail page. You’ll see:
    • Customer contact info, city/county, and address
    • The photos they submitted
    • Scope Risk flags (if any) — amber warnings for things like permit-required work, unclear scope, or hazard keywords (asbestos, mold, etc.) worth asking about on the call
  3. Call or email the customer to qualify the job, then add a note in the Contact Log on this page. Adding your first note automatically moves the request from New to Contacted.
  4. Optional: click Suggested Call Questions for AI-generated talking points for your qualification call.
  5. If the city wasn’t recognized automatically (a manual county field will be flagged in orange), assign the correct county yourself so tax rates apply correctly.

Once a request is Contacted, you’re ready to scope it.

  1. From the request detail page (once status is Contacted), click Scope with AI.
    (Reminder: this button only appears once your email is verified — see Part 1.1.)
  2. Scoping runs in the background — you don’t have to keep the page open and wait on a spinner. The page will show a status and update automatically once it’s done.
  3. When complete, a draft estimate is created and linked to the request, with:
    • A project title and customer-facing scope summary
    • Line items grouped into sections (materials, labor, etc.)
    • Customer notes (payment terms, exclusions)
    • Admin notes (assumptions, anything unclear, upsell ideas — visible only to you)
    • A tools & materials checklist for your crew (internal only)
    • An Estimation Services line item covering your base fee (Part 1.4) plus the AI cost
  4. You can also trigger Scope with AI directly from a draft estimate in the estimate builder, or re-scope an existing draft — the Estimation Services line item updates in place rather than duplicating.

You’re never required to use AI scoping — you can build an estimate from scratch or from your Catalog at any time via Convert to Estimate on the request page.

  1. Go to Estimates → All Estimates and open the draft (or click through directly from the request page).
  2. Review and adjust:
    • Line items — drag to reorder; edit description, type, quantity, unit, or price inline. Use the Catalog autocomplete to pull in reusable parts/services.
    • Address section — click Geocode Address to drop a map pin. Below it, a Vehicle & Fuel Cost sidebar lets you pick from the vehicles you added in Settings (Part 1.4) and shows distance, drive time, and an internal fuel-cost estimate; click Recalculate after changing the vehicle. None of this is shown to the customer.
    • Notes — customer-facing notes vs. internal-only notes are separate fields; keep anything you don’t want the customer to see in Internal Notes.
    • Tax rate — confirm the correct county/city rate is selected.
  3. When it’s ready, click Save & Send to Customer. This:
    • Emails the estimate to the customer with View, Modify, and Accept buttons built right in — no account required on their end
    • Sends you a short confirmation email with the total and a dashboard link, as a “sent” receipt
  4. Need to make a change after sending? Just re-edit and click Resend to Customer.
  5. PDF and spreadsheet exports are available anytime from the sidebar: Full PDF, Summary PDF (no pricing), Job Sheet PDF (internal crew version with tools/vehicle/fuel info), and XLSX/CSV exports.

Optional: if you’d rather a customer create a full account with itemized access (the older flow), use Invite Customer to Register — this remains available alongside the frictionless flow above.

The customer’s email has three buttons: View Estimate, Modify, Accept. No login required — the link works directly (for up to 3 different devices/IPs; a 4th is blocked with a message to contact you).

View: Opens a summary — scope, sections, descriptions, quantities, and units are visible; unit prices and totals are hidden. In their place are the Modify and Accept buttons.

Modify: The customer types a free-text change request and submits it. This:

  • Moves the estimate to Revision Requested in your dashboard (shown in amber)
  • Emails you the customer’s note and a dashboard link
  • Logs the note to the estimate’s internal notes with a timestamp

Review the note, adjust the estimate, and Resend to Customer to send the revised version — status returns to Sent automatically.

Accept: The customer types their full name as an e-signature (matched softly against the name on file — a small mismatch just prompts a confirmation, it won’t block them) and submits. This:

  • Moves the estimate to Accepted (now locked — read-only, destructive actions hidden)
  • Immediately expires their view link
  • Emails them a Project Confirmation PDF (a rebranded summary with their signature and date)
  • Emails you a notification with the signature, timestamp, and dashboard link
  • Automatically creates a Project record for job tracking (see Part 7)

You can see a log of which IP addresses/devices have viewed the link on the estimate’s edit page at any time, under the collapsible IP access log.

Once accepted, the job also shows up under Projects → All Projects as a project record (numbered PRJ_YOURSLUG-0001, etc.), linked back to the source estimate, with its own status (Active / In Progress / Complete) and an internal notes field — this is where you track the job itself once the paperwork is done.

New requests / pipeline — Estimates → Requests

All estimates / builder — Estimates → All Estimates

Job tracking after acceptance — Projects → All Projects

Reusable parts & services — Estimates → Catalog

County/city tax rates — Estimates → Tax Rates

Business info, branding, AI fee, vehicles, fuel cost, company profile, subscription — Estimates → Settings

Built-in help articles — Estimates → Documentation

Questions about anything above, or about your subscription/billing, contact Build It Pros support directly — plan changes and platform-level configuration (AI connection, maps, payment processing) are managed on the platform side, not from your company’s Settings page.