TAILORED CREW: ONE JOB FROM START TO FINISH
Your company | All customer details and numbers are fictional
Narration: Archie (AI-generated)

What Tailored Crew helps your company do
Welcome to Tailored Crew. This walkthrough shows how your company can estimate a job, organize the crew, and compare planned costs with what the work actually costs. We will build one fictional patio and retaining wall project, starting with blank forms and finishing with customer payment and a job review. Follow the highlighted fields, and pause whenever you want to enter the example numbers. You can also watch any lesson on its own. Production pay is an optional extra at the very end.

Set up Your company
Welcome to Tailored Crew. In this tutorial, we will start with an empty workspace and build one fictional patio and retaining wall job, step by step. You can pause the video after each entry and follow along. First, open Account. Leave Account type set to Company. In Company name, type Your company, then select Create workspace. We will use fictional customer details throughout. This recording demonstrates the original workflow. The current hosted pilot also supports Google and email sign-in, with company invitations and roles. Production pay is optional, and we will cover it only after the main job workflow is complete.

Add a fictional client
Open Estimates, select Clients, then New client. The client form starts empty. For Client name, enter Taylor Morgan, followed by fictional in parentheses. Enter taylor at example dot com for the email and two zero two, five five five, zero one four two for the demonstration phone number. For Project address, enter one hundred Example Lane, Sampletown, followed by fictional address. These are demonstration contact details. Select Save client. You now have one customer record to use throughout the job.

Start the estimate
Select Estimates and then New estimate. Change Project name to Morgan patio and retaining wall, training. Select Taylor Morgan as the client and keep the estimate status Draft. The work is a twenty by twenty foot paver patio, or four hundred square feet, and a forty foot wall with two feet of exposed height, or eighty square feet of wall face. This walkthrough enters a prepared takeoff using custom lines. The calculator is another way to build quantities, but we will keep this example to one method. All unit costs are fictional training allowances.

Enter the material lines
Select Add a custom line item. Name the first line Patio materials. Enter quantity four hundred, unit square feet, and unit cost seven dollars and fifty cents. That is three thousand dollars in planned cost. Expand Edit installation scope and dimensions. Select Materials as the internal cost bucket, and describe the pavers, base, bedding, joint sand, and edge restraint. Add a second line named Wall materials. Enter quantity eighty, unit square feet of face, and unit cost eighteen dollars and seventy-five cents. Select Materials again and describe the blocks, caps, base, and drainage. That line costs fifteen hundred dollars. Leave Optional work unchecked on both lines.

Enter labor and other costs
Add Crew labor as the next line. Enter ninety-six person-hours at thirty dollars per person-hour. In the expanded details, set the internal cost bucket to Labor. The plan is three workers, four days, eight hours a day, for a labor budget of twenty-eight hundred and eighty dollars. Add Equipment: two days at five hundred dollars, categorized as Equipment. Add Delivery and mobilization: one allowance at six hundred dollars, categorized as Delivery and hauling. Finally, add Disposal: one allowance at three hundred dollars, categorized as Other. Keep all six lines in the base scope. Their total planned cost is nine thousand two hundred and eighty dollars.

Write scope and terms
Scroll to Scope and terms. In Project introduction, describe the twenty by twenty foot patio, forty foot wall, included base and drainage, labor, equipment, and cleanup. In Exclusions and site assumptions, record site-specific design and access requirements. For this example, exclude rock excavation, utility relocation, and work outside the written scope. In Terms and owner responsibilities, enter: estimate valid for thirty days; a thirty percent deposit is required; the remaining balance is due after the final walkthrough; owner provides clear access; schedule is subject to weather. These fields tell the customer what is included and when payment is expected.

Set the price and review
In Estimate summary, choose Markup and enter fifty percent. This multiplies the nine thousand two hundred and eighty dollar cost by one point five, giving a thirteen thousand nine hundred and twenty dollar selling price. Set the overhead planning allowance to fifteen percent. Overhead is an internal allocation, not an extra customer charge. Leave Customer discount at No discount. We use zero tax solely for this training example; a real quote needs the correct applicable treatment. The thirty percent deposit is four thousand one hundred and seventy-six dollars. Select Customer preview. Check Your company, the fictional client, scope, terms, and total. Use Print or save PDF when you need a customer copy.

Turn acceptance into a job
Close the preview. After acceptance has been obtained outside Tailored Crew, change Estimate status from Draft to Accepted. Select Create job. The review screen should show a thirteen thousand nine hundred and twenty dollar contract and a nine thousand two hundred and eighty dollar cost budget. Select Create job and open Tailored Crew. This preserves the accepted estimate and opens the job dashboard. No actual expense or customer payment is created by conversion. Later changes to the estimate do not silently change this job. We will now stay in this job and prepare it for the crew.

Schedule the job
On the new job, select Job details. The name, customer, address, and cost budget came from the accepted estimate. In Project manager, enter Demo crew lead. Set Start date to October fifth, twenty twenty-six, and Target finish to October eighth. Choose Active for the status and leave the imported nine thousand two hundred and eighty dollar cost budget unchanged. Select Save. The job now has a schedule and a named lead. Overview still shows zero actual spending and zero payments until we record them ourselves.

Assign a work task
Open Tasks. Conversion created checklist entries from the estimate lines. Add a practical field task by selecting Add task. In Task, enter Confirm layout, access and drainage plan. Assign it to Demo crew lead and set the due date to October fifth, twenty twenty-six. Save it. Use each task's status to show Not started, In progress, Blocked, or Complete as the work actually progresses. The task list is a record of execution. Completing a task does not record labor costs or customer payments.

Plan the material order
Open Materials and select Add item. Enter Pavers, includes ten percent cutting allowance. Enter a quantity of four hundred and forty and the unit square feet. That is the four hundred square foot patio plus forty square feet for cuts and waste. Set Needed on site to October fifth, twenty twenty-six, and save. Change the material status from To arrange to Ordered after placing the order. Use Partial if only some arrives, and Received after confirming delivery. These quantities are a purchasing plan; they do not add another estimate line or an actual expense.

Record the deposit
Open Payments. The ledger is empty even though the estimate required a deposit. Select Record payment. Enter Thirty percent deposit, training, as the description, four thousand one hundred and seventy-six dollars as the amount, and October first, twenty twenty-six, as the date. Leave the payment type at Deposit. Add a note that this is a fictional received payment, then save. In a real job, record only money actually received. The remaining balance is nine thousand seven hundred and forty-four dollars. This screen records a payment; it does not charge the customer.

Enter each daily field report
Open Field log and select Add update. Enter Demo crew lead as the reporter and October fifth as the date. Enter twenty-four in Total crew hours. In the note, write: layout and excavation complete; three workers times eight hours equals twenty-four person-hours; no delays. Save the update. Repeat on October sixth for base, wall, and drainage work, using twenty-four hours. On October seventh, record pavers, cuts, and edge restraint with twenty-four hours. On October eighth, record cleanup and walkthrough with twelve hours. The four reports total eighty-four person-hours. Enter the matching labor expense in Costs; field hours do not create it automatically.

Enter actual job costs
Open Costs. The imported budget is the plan; the actual-cost ledger begins empty. Select Add cost. Enter Patio and wall materials, four thousand three hundred dollars, October eighth, and category Materials. Add the sample invoice reference in Notes, then save. Repeat for Crew labor: eighty-four person-hours times thirty dollars, totaling two thousand five hundred and twenty dollars, category Labor. Add Equipment rental and usage for nine hundred and fifty dollars, category Equipment. Add Delivery and mobilization for six hundred dollars, category Other. Add Disposal for two hundred and eighty dollars, also Other. Date these training entries October eighth. Actual costs now total eight thousand six hundred and fifty dollars. Check entries before saving; a general correction workflow is not available yet.

Attach the supporting record
Open Files. Start with the empty file list, choose Upload file, and select training material receipt dot PNG. This clearly marked fictional record supports the four thousand three hundred dollar material entry. After the upload finishes, its filename appears in the list. On real jobs, use the same process for supplier receipts, delivery records, and progress or completion photos. Supported files include images and PDFs up to ten megabytes each. Uploading a receipt does not add an expense automatically. We already entered its cost, so do not count it twice.

Record approved extra work
Suppose the customer also requests mulching a small adjacent bed. Open Quote and select Add change. Enter Adjacent bed mulching by subcontractor, training. Enter four hundred and fifty dollars as Additional customer price and three hundred dollars as Additional cost budget. For this fictional demonstration, agreement has already been obtained outside the app, so choose Approved and save. The revised contract is fourteen thousand three hundred and seventy dollars, and the cost budget is nine thousand five hundred and eighty dollars. Now open Costs and add the subcontractor's three hundred dollar expense, categorized as Subcontractor. The change order itself did not create that expense. This extra work is subcontracted, so it adds no crew labor hours.

Close the job and record final payment
At closeout, confirm delivered materials are marked Received, completed tasks are marked Complete, and the final field report describes the walkthrough. In Job details, change the job status to Complete and save. Now record the final customer payment: ten thousand one hundred and ninety-four dollars, dated October eighth, type Final payment. This is the revised contract less the deposit already received. The payment balance should now be zero. Overview shows fourteen thousand three hundred and seventy dollars collected and eight thousand nine hundred and fifty dollars in recorded costs. The job finished six hundred and thirty dollars below its revised cost budget. That difference is budget savings, not net profit. This completes the main workflow.

Review the finished job
Before we finish, compare the plan with the result. The approved job budget, including the extra work, was nine thousand five hundred eighty dollars. Actual recorded costs were eight thousand nine hundred fifty dollars. That is six hundred thirty dollars below budget, not net profit. The customer paid the full fourteen thousand three hundred seventy dollar contract, leaving no balance. All seven tasks are complete, materials are received, and the example job is closed. Your normal job workflow is finished. The next lesson is optional production pay.

Optional add-on: production pay
Production pay is an optional add-on. You can manage the entire job without using it. If your company uses this plan, agree the rules with the crew before work begins. For this training example, open Production pay and set the crew share to thirty percent. Confirm the labor budget of two thousand eight hundred and eighty dollars and enter a comparable employer labor cost of thirty dollars per person-hour. Leave the approved labor adjustment at zero: the extra mulching was subcontracted. Confirm all actual labor costs are recorded. Two thousand eight hundred and eighty minus two thousand five hundred and twenty leaves three hundred and sixty dollars in labor savings. Thirty percent makes a one hundred and eight dollar bonus pool for the whole crew. Complete the quality review, enter Demo reviewer and the inspection notes, then save and approve. All inspections here are simulated. Individual splits and payroll are not calculated. Normal wages remain separate.