General Contractor Automation

What’s included for general contractors

The General Contractor snapshot installs 12 pre-built workflows tuned to the way a GC actually wins, runs, and closes residential jobs:

• Lead-to-walkthrough automation — every inbound from your website, Houzz, Angi, or GMB hits an SMS-first qualification flow inside 60 seconds, then routes to your calendar for a site walk.
• Estimate delivery and follow-up — estimate goes out with a read-receipt trigger; if the homeowner doesn’t sign in 72 hours, a phased SMS and email sequence runs through day 14 so quotes stop dying in inboxes.
• Change-order capture — homeowner texts a change request, the system logs it, drafts the change-order document, and routes to the project manager for pricing before any work shifts.
• Sub coordination SMS — day-before arrival reminders to framing, electrical, plumbing, drywall, and finish subs with scope confirmation and on-site contact.
• Photo-driven job updates — your foreman texts site photos to a project number; the homeowner gets a branded weekly progress update with milestone, photos, and next-step.
• Punch-list and final walkthrough — automated punch-list intake from the final walk, a 7-day completion deadline timer, and lien-waiver delivery on payment.
• Review automation — 5 days after final payment, a review request to GMB, Houzz, and Facebook with the homeowner’s name pre-filled.

How it differs from generic construction CRMs

Buildertrend, JobNimbus, and CoConstruct are project management tools. They assume the job is already sold. They are not built to chase a $42,000 kitchen estimate through the 11-day decision window where the homeowner is also talking to two of your competitors. They do not text the homeowner at 7:42 PM on a Tuesday with a photo of the framing they care about. And they do not run the review-request sequence that determines whether the next homeowner in their neighborhood calls you or the competitor with 40 more reviews.

The snapshot is the front-of-funnel and customer-communication layer that sits in front of those tools. You keep your project management software. You stop losing jobs to faster-responding GCs. Every estimate that goes out is tracked through to a signed contract or a documented “lost to price/timeline/competitor,” so your pipeline numbers stop being guesses.

General contractor-specific edge

A GC’s economics live and die on three numbers: estimate-to-close rate, average ticket, and change-order capture. The snapshot moves all three. First, the estimate-to-close rate climbs when every quote gets the same 14-day follow-up cadence instead of whatever the GC remembers to do between jobsite visits. Second, average ticket creeps up when the snapshot’s “upgrade prompts” surface during the proposal phase — quartz vs. granite, hardwood vs. LVP, full vs. partial repaint. Third, change-order capture stops leaking when every homeowner request goes through the documented change-order flow instead of a text to the foreman that nobody priced.

Every $4,000 change order you forget to price is real money. Every estimate you didn’t follow up on at day 7 is a job your competitor probably signed. In 90 days you’ll have a documented pipeline, a documented close rate, and a documented average ticket — and you’ll know exactly where the next 10% of margin lives.

Compliance, by default

Construction has fewer federal compliance landmines than some service trades, but the ones that exist matter:

• TCPA SMS consent — every inbound lead is asked to opt in before automated SMS begins. STOP keyword triggers immediate suppression. Consent timestamps are logged per contact.
• State contractor license display — your license number, classification, and state board reference appear on every outbound email footer, estimate PDF, and proposal cover sheet.
• Lien waiver workflow — partial and final lien waivers are generated and delivered alongside payment requests so the paper trail exists if the job ever gets contested.
• Insurance certificate tracking — sub COIs are tracked with expiration dates; any sub with a lapsed certificate gets flagged before the day-before reminder sends.