Category: Features

April 21, 2026

Communication is the backbone of every successful construction project. But too often, it’s fragmented. It’s spread across texts, emails, calls, and disconnected tools. That’s exactly why we created Jet Streams for team chat many years ago. Now, we’re taking a giant step forward to completely upgrade Jet Streams in Contractors Cloud.

We didn’t just want to improve it, we wanted to redefine what communication inside a roofing project management platform should feel like.

Why We Rebuilt Jet Streams

Our goal was simple: create a communication experience that feels instantly familiar, incredibly fast, and actually enjoyable to use. Yes, we want it to spark joy!

The new Jet Streams blends the best of two worlds—the simplicity and speed of text messaging with the structure and power of business chat tools like Slack. The result is a modern team chat interface that’s intuitive, clean, and purpose-built for how contractors and their teams communicate every day.

No learning curve. No friction. Just clear, organized conversations tied directly to your projects.

This is what forward-thinking communication looks like:

• Real-time, not delayed
• Structured, not scattered
• Visual, not buried
• Built for action, not just discussion

Because when communication improves, everything else follows—speed, accountability, and results.

9 Major Team Chat Upgrades That Change Everything

From this foundation, we’ve introduced nine major enhancements that transform how your team communicates inside Jet Streams.

1. Real-Time Messaging

No more refreshing. No more wondering if someone replied.

Team chat messages now appear instantly in the thread, giving your team true real-time communication. Conversations flow naturally, decisions happen faster, and nothing gets missed.

2. Inbox-Style Interface

Jet Streams now features a familiar inbox layout—just like texting. It’s organized and features visual cues for where your attention is needed.

You can preview all conversations on one side and dive into full threads on the other. This allows you to see 2x to 4x more conversations at once, reducing scrolling and making it easier to stay on top of everything.

3. AI-Generated Topics

Every new Jet Stream now includes an AI-generated Topic. Just a little bit of magic to save you some typing.

The AI automatically summarizes your message into a clear, action-oriented subject—so anyone viewing the thread instantly understands what it’s about and what’s needed.

And if you want to tweak it? You can. The Jet Stream creator can edit the topic to any custom topic they want at any time.

4. Unread Notifications

Just like your text messages, you’ll always know what needs your attention.

Unread Jet Streams are clearly marked with a 🟣 purple dot on the user photo/initials, so nothing slips through the cracks and your team stays responsive.

5. One-Click Filters

Quickly sort your conversations with simple, powerful filters:

• All Jet Streams
• Streams you started
• Unread messages

No digging. No wasted time. Just instant access to what matters most.

6. Task Status Visuals

Jet Streams now visually connects communication to action.

• Grey circle with checkmark → Task created
• Green circle with checkmark → Task completed

This gives you instant visibility into whether conversations are turning into completed work.

7. Typing Indicators

See when someone is replying in real time just below the message composer so you can wait for a message before replying.

This small but powerful feature reduces overlapping messages and creates a smoother, more natural conversation flow—just like texting.

8. Mark All as Read

Need a clean slate?

You can now mark all messages as read in one click from the settings, clearing notifications and helping you refocus quickly.

9. Direct-to-Thread Navigation

No more hunting for the right message. When you click “Open Jet Stream” from an email notification, the app now takes you exactly to that specific conversation in your Inbox. We’ve eliminated the need to scroll through older messages to find the current one, so you can get the context you need and get back to work instantly.

Everything You Already Love—Still Here

While Jet Streams has been completely upgraded, all of the core functionality your team depends on remains intact—now enhanced by a faster, more modern experience.

Team Chat Messaging

At its core, Jet Streams continues to deliver flexible, project-based team chat communication. You can create a Jet Stream in seconds and send it to a single user, multiple teammates, project teams, or entire Jet Groups you’ve set up.

Conversations remain tied directly to your projects, giving full context to every message, reply, and decision. Each stream maintains a complete, chronological history—so anyone involved can quickly catch up and stay aligned without missing a detail.

Tasks

Jet Streams make it easy to turn conversations into action with built-in task creation. Any Jet Stream can be converted into a task in seconds—assign it to a team member, set a due date, and flag it as high priority when needed.

This ensures important discussions don’t just sit in chat, but move forward with clear ownership and accountability. With the new visual task indicators, you can instantly see the status of that work, whether it’s been created or completed, directly from the Jet Stream preview or within the full conversation.

It’s a seamless way to connect communication with execution and keep projects moving.

Controls & Settings

Jet Streams still gives you full control over how conversations are managed. You can add or remove recipients as needed, unfollow streams that are no longer relevant to your role, or delete a Jet Stream if you created it.

Jet Groups remain fully manageable in their own tab, allowing you to organize teams, assign members, and streamline communication across roles.

You also have the ability to customize your experience with email notifications—turning them on or off based on how you prefer to stay informed.

Usability & Efficiency

Everything about Jet Streams is designed to make communication faster and easier in your day-to-day workflow. Messages can be sent instantly with a simple press of the enter key, keeping conversations moving without interruption.

With improved structure and visibility across messages, replies, members, and associated projects, your team can navigate conversations effortlessly and focus on what matters—getting work done.

Built for Better Communication—Available Now

This upgrade isn’t just about new features. It’s about improving one of the most important parts of your business: communication.

With faster messaging, better visibility, and a modern interface your team already understands, Jet Streams now helps you:

• Respond quicker
• Stay aligned
• Keep projects moving

And best of all—it’s ready for you to use right now.

Because when your team communicates better, your projects run better.

Note: Jet Streams is now upgraded in our web and mobile web versions. Our native app experience for Jet Streams will be updated in May.

April 14, 2026

Managing roofing and construction production across dozens, or hundreds, of jobs shouldn’t feel like chasing updates across tabs, spreadsheets, and team messages. The new Whiteboard in Contractors Cloud changes that with a construction scheduling feature set to master your projects and work orders.

Built as a complete top-to-bottom revamp, Whiteboard is now the centralized command center for your production team. The Whiteboard is bringing scheduling, statuses, crews, and real-time job data into one visual, actionable workspace.

Within seconds of opening it, your team can understand what’s happening, what’s next, and what needs attention, without digging.

Powerful Production Scheduling and Management

The Whiteboard isn’t just a new interface, it’s a shift in how construction production is scheduled and managed.

It’s designed to eliminate friction between planning and execution. Instead of reacting to problems late, teams can proactively manage workflows, assign crews, and keep jobs moving forward with clarity.

The result is simple but powerful:

• Fewer delays
• Better crew utilization
• Clear accountability
• Faster decision-making

Most importantly, it gives your team instant visual confirmation of your entire production pipeline, something that traditionally takes multiple tools and hours of coordination.

One Interface. Three Powerful Views.

At the core of the Whiteboard are three distinct views, each designed for a different operational need. Together, they give your team full control over roofing production from planning to completion.

Status View: Control Your Workflow

The Status View transforms your work orders into a visual pipeline, allowing your team to move jobs from left to right as they progress toward completion.

Each work order is represented as a card, customized by trade, giving instant clarity into what type of work is being performed and where it stands.

But this isn’t just for visibility, it’s built for action.

You can open and edit work orders directly from the board, assign supervisors, and manage materials, labor, or installers without ever leaving the view.

Status View Pro Tips

• “Ready & Waiting” Filters
  Quickly isolate work orders that are stuck or ready to schedule. This is one of the fastest ways to remove bottlenecks and keep production flowing.
• Active + Post Production Tracking
  Combine “In Progress” and “Closed Pending” to see what’s happening now—and what still needs financial cleanup before full completion.
• Draft Monitoring
  Keep an eye on draft work orders to forecast upcoming work or clean up backlog before it becomes operational clutter.

Calendar View: Own Your Schedule

The Calendar View is where planning meets execution for production scheduling at the highest level.

With day, week, month, and year views, your team can see exactly what’s scheduled, and more importantly, what isn’t.

Unscheduled work orders live in the left-hand queue, ready to be dragged and dropped directly onto the calendar. Scheduling becomes visual, fast, and intuitive.

Behind the scenes, safeguards ensure accuracy—like preventing crews with expired insurance from being scheduled and prompting notifications when jobs are moved.

Calendar View Pro Tips

• Start with Unscheduled Work
  Use the default queue to quickly assign upcoming jobs without hunting through projects.
• Filter by Installer or Crew
  Instantly view availability and workload for specific installers to balance capacity.
• Track Work Order Supervisors
  Filter by internal supervisors to understand who owns what—and where they’ll be throughout the day.

Map View: See the Bigger Picture

The Map View brings geography into your decision-making.

Every job is plotted visually, color-coded by status, giving your team a real-time understanding of where work is happening.

This is where operational efficiency turns into strategic advantage.

Map View Pro Tips

• Optimize Crew Movement
  See where jobs are clustered to reduce drive time and improve efficiency.
• Support Field Teams in Real Time
  Know which project managers or crews are nearby if a job needs extra materials or support.
• Align Marketing with Production
  Identify active job zones and coordinate marketing efforts in those same neighborhoods to maximize visibility and referrals.

Advanced Filtering: Precision Control in Seconds

The Whiteboard’s filtering engine is what turns a powerful view into a personalized command center.

You can build filters around virtually any part of your operation—companies, projects, contracts, events, material orders, permits, trades, site types, or work orders. Whether you need a simple one-condition filter or a highly specific set of layered conditions, the system gives you complete flexibility to dial in exactly what you want to see.

But the real power comes from how those filters are used day-to-day.

Filters can be saved for personal use or shared across your team, ensuring everyone is aligned on the same views and workflows. This makes it easy to standardize how roles like production managers, coordinators, or project supervisors track their work—without rebuilding filters every time.

For speed and efficiency, you can pin up to five filters directly to your Status or Calendar view. That means your most important views—like “Ready to Schedule,” “In Progress by Crew,” or “Unscheduled Work Orders”, are always one click away.

The result is a filtering system that’s both powerful and practical: as simple or as advanced as you need it to be, with instant access to the views that keep your operation moving.

Built for How Contractors Actually Work

The Whiteboard was designed with one goal: make production scheduling and management faster, clearer, and more actionable.

It reduces the gap between knowing and doing.

Instead of asking:

• “What’s ready?”
• “Who’s scheduled?”
• “Where are we at?”

Your team can see it, and act on it, immediately.

That’s the difference between managing jobs and running a high-performance production operation.

February 26, 2026

Our Winter Webinar 2026 focused on one central theme: operational clarity at scale. As roofing and specialty contractors grow, complexity increases—more jobs, more work orders, more vendors, and more moving pieces. The updates introduced in this webinar are designed to centralize communication, improve visibility, and give teams stronger control over project execution.

We also announced an important transition: beginning March 1, 2026 users will move to a new Stratus-first login experience. This shift lays the foundation for a more integrated, streamlined platform moving forward—connecting users more tightly to the tools that drive daily operations.

But the core of this webinar centered on two powerful enhancements: the new Whiteboard and the expanded Vendor Portal. Here is the full video of the webinar below or subscribe to our YouTube channel for past webinars and future updates.

The New Whiteboard: Your Operational Command Center

The Whiteboard is now the true command center for project and work order management. It brings together three distinct views—Status, Calendar, and Map—giving teams multiple ways to visualize and manage production workflows.

At its core, the Whiteboard is built around flexibility and real-time oversight.

Three Powerful Views

Status View gives you a vertical Kanban board, scrollable workflow of projects and work orders. Each card contains key job information, and now supports trade-specific custom formatting. That means different trades can be visually differentiated at a glance—eliminating confusion and reducing decision friction. Clicking into a card reveals detailed project data, keeping navigation fast and intuitive.

Calendar View simplifies production logistics. Unscheduled work orders appear in the left pane and can be dragged and dropped directly into the schedule. This dramatically reduces the time it takes to move from planning to execution. Users can also manage event details and utilize calendar pins to keep high-priority items visible.

Map View (introduced as part of the unified experience) adds geographic visibility, helping teams coordinate field activity more effectively.

Advanced Filter Management

One of the most impactful enhancements is the new filtering system.

Users can now:

• Save custom filters
• Edit and refine them over time
• Share filters with specific users or the entire team
• Pin frequently used filters for instant access

This transforms the Whiteboard from a static view into a dynamic operational dashboard tailored to each role. Production managers, sales managers, and operations leaders can all create views specific to their needs—while leadership maintains standardized oversight across teams.

In short, the Whiteboard turns complexity into clarity.

Vendor Portal: Centralized Communication & Compliance

The upgraded Vendor Portal expands beyond simple work order access. It is now a comprehensive vendor management and compliance tool.

From a compliance standpoint, contractors can track vendor insurance certifications and monitor expiration dates—ensuring every partner meets safety and documentation requirements before stepping onto a job site.

The Vendor Portal is mobile focused, but available on desktop too. It’s main purpose is for your field crews and vendors to access and manage work order information from the roof or job site.

From an execution standpoint, vendors gain detailed access to work order information, including:

• Trade-specific fields
• Custom instructions
• Location details
• Related labor and material orders

Material management is now more accountable as well. Vendors can certify deliveries directly within material orders, providing confirmation and transparency without back-and-forth communication.

Perhaps most importantly, field-to-office communication is now seamless. Your vendors or crews can instantly upload photos, files, and notes directly to the project record. This ensures documentation happens in real time—reducing delays, minimizing miscommunication, and creating a complete project history inside the platform.

Moving Forward

The Winter Webinar 2026 updates are about one thing: bringing visibility, accountability, and communication into one connected system.

With the Whiteboard serving as your operational command center and the Vendor Portal strengthening compliance and field collaboration, teams now have tighter control over scheduling, execution, and documentation than ever before.

As we transition to the Stratus-first login experience on March 1, these updates mark the next step toward a more integrated, scalable platform built for growing contractors.

If you missed the live session, we encourage you to explore these features inside your account and begin configuring your filters, workflows, and vendor settings today.

October 15, 2025

The fall Contractors Cloud webinar featured our new Project Portal and a walk thru of many new features built into Stratus (our next version) and how it will roll out in the coming months. Our focus on connecting your contracting business to your people, projects, and profits was on center stage with these updates.

Here is the recording of our October webinar, also available on our YouTube channel.

The Project Portal

Our team took on a complete overhaul of our existing Customer Portal, focusing on a mobile-first, intuitive connection between your business and your customer. The Project Portal allows you to share proposals, photos, project calendar, invoices, notes, and more in one centralized web portal with your customers.

The portal is beautifully branded in your logo and accent colors, giving you a connection tool with your customers that makes you look as good as the valuable information you are sharing.

In the coming months we will be adding the capabilities from our Vendor Portal into the new Project Portal, so that it becomes the one tool you can use to connect with your customers, vendors, consultants, and more. Stay tuned for upcoming announcements on this.

The new magic link login format improves the ease of access for users as well as security. It allows you to create users and specify their access type of customer, vendor, consultant, to govern what features and information they will have access to.

The future of Contractors Cloud is now

The next version of the Contractors Cloud app, internally called Stratus, is here. On the webinar we shared our launch timelines with the big news that all NEW customers to Contractors Cloud will be going on Stratus in November and current customers will transition during the start of 2026. Watch the webinar for all of the details.

Stratus is the next generation of Contractors Cloud in every way. From its architecture to feature expansion, Stratus serves as the base to launch our next mission – connected to performance, consistency, and efficiency.

We walked through many of our core features that now have new interface elements, improved performance, additional features, and more. We highlighted our calendars, photos, project email, maps, and polygons.

The webinar was wrapped up with a sneak peak at our new Kanban Board view for Projects, coming to Stratus in the next few weeks. This gives you a highly visual, organized, action oriented view of your stages with powerful filtering and sorting options.

Watch the October webinar to see it all

The ability to mange your business is hitting a whole new level. Make sure you watch this webinar to get all of the details, here what questions our attendees had, and view many of the exciting additions coming to Contractors Cloud.

Stay tuned for more information and our next webinar coming to start 2026.

September 10, 2025

Learn how roofing companies structure payouts, from commissions and draws to bonuses and fees, and how automation keeps everything accurate and transparent.

Designing the right commission structure is one of the most impactful business decisions a roofing company can make. A good plan attracts top sales talent, motivates reps to maximize profit—not just revenue—and ensures that the business stays healthy. 

A poor plan, on the other hand, creates conflict, encourages discounting, and often leaves both salespeople and owners frustrated.

In this commissions guide, we’ll cover:

• The most common roofing commission models, explained with clear examples.
  
• The payout types and calculation methods contractors use.
  
• How Contractors Cloud eliminates spreadsheets and mistakes with industry leading commission management and payout features.
  

If you’re looking to create or refine your roofing commission plan, this resource will give you the building blocks, implementation, and management tools.

Why roofing commission structures matter

Roofing is a sales-driven business. Most companies rely heavily on sales representatives, canvassers, and project managers to generate new jobs and close deals. Because roofing contracts often involve high dollar amounts and multiple payments, commissions are both a big motivator and a big expense.

Your commission plan needs to:

• Reward top performance without eroding profitability.
  
• Protect cash flow by aligning payouts with actual collections.
  
• Stay flexible enough to cover retail, storm, insurance supplement, and service work.
  
• Be clear and transparent, so reps trust the system.
  

Common roofing company commission models

Let’s walk through the commission models that roofing companies commonly use.

1. Percentage of Total Revenue

How it works: The rep earns a flat percentage of the total contract amount or collected revenue.

Example:

• Contract value = $20,000
  
• Commission rate = 10%
  
• Rep earns $2,000 commission.
  

Best for: Simplicity. Great for new or smaller companies where margins are steady.

Caution: Doesn’t account for profit. A job sold with deep discounts could cost the company money, but the rep still gets paid.

2. Percentage of Gross Profit

How it works: Commission is tied to the profitability of the job. Gross profit = Contract value – Direct costs.

Example:

• Contract value = $20,000
  
• Job costs = $12,000
  
• Gross profit = $8,000
  
• Commission rate = 25% of GP = $2,000 commission.
  

Best for: Aligning sales behavior with profit. Reps protect pricing and upsell premium options because their pay is linked to margin.

Caution: Requires accurate, real-time job costing to avoid disputes.

The 10/50/50 Split

A common structure for roofing company commissions is the 10/50/50 split. This plan involves taking 10% of the total sales revenue to reimburse overhead. Then the cost of materials and labor is deducted from the remaining 90%, and the net profit is equally shared between the salesperson and the company. 

3. Tiered Commission Plans

How it works: Reps earn higher rates as they hit volume or margin thresholds.

Example (margin-based):

• < 35% margin → 20% of GP
  
• 35–45% margin → 25% of GP
  
• 45% margin → 30% of GP
  

If a rep sells a job at 42% margin ($8,000 GP), they earn 25% × $8,000 = $2,000.

Best for: Encouraging reps to aim for higher-margin jobs instead of chasing volume with discounts.

4. Split Commissions

How it works: Commission pools are divided between multiple team members, such as setter/closer or rep/project manager.

Example: $2,000 commission pool split 30%/70% = $600 to setter, $1,400 to closer.

Best for: Larger sales teams with multiple roles.

5. Milestone or Progress-Based Commissions

How it works: Commissions are split into stages tied to contract signing, installation, and final payment.

Example:

• Total commission = $2,000
  
• 30% at contract signed = $600
  
• 40% at installation complete = $800
  
• 30% at job paid-in-full = $600
  

Best for: Protecting company cash flow and reducing risk of chargebacks.

6. Draw Against Commission

How it works: Reps receive an advance or “draw” that is later reconciled against earned commissions.

Example:

• Rep receives $2,000 draw.
  
• Earned commission = $2,500.
  
• Net payout = $500 after draw is cleared.
  

Best for: Smoothing income for new hires or off-season periods.

7. Bonuses and SPIFFs

How it works: One-time payouts for hitting goals or selling add-ons.

Examples:

• $500 bonus for selling $100k+ in a month.
  
• $200 SPIFF for each premium underlayment upgrade.
  
• $100 bonus for a 5-star Google review mentioning the rep.
  

Best for: Driving specific short-term behaviors and outcomes.

8. Straight Fees

How it works: Flat fees paid for specific roles or contributions.

Example: $500 canvasser fee for each signed job.

Best for: Setters, canvassing teams, or referrals.

Managing and automating payouts in Contractors Cloud

Once you arrive at the best commission structure(s) for your sales team, Contractors Cloud can help you manage, track, and automate payouts perfectly.

Roofing companies often combine different payout types and calculation methods to match their business model.

Instead of messy spreadsheets, Contractors Cloud provides a robust commission engine built for roofing companies. Using the endless combinations listed below, your roofing company can create, manage, and automate payouts in a commissions system that is customizable, fair, and efficient.

• Create rules: Choose payout type and calculation method.
  
• Add conditions: Define ranges, milestones, and requirements.
  
• Assign employees: Apply plans per role, rep, or tenure.
  
• Automate payouts: Commission runs calculate everything in seconds.
  
• Log results: Every payout is visible, auditable, and tied to the project.

Creating Payout Rules

It all starts with creating a Payout Rule that designates the rules, percentages, and details you need to manage and payout commissions. The rule starts with being centered on the payout type.

Payout Types

• Company Overhead (off the top): Deduct overhead before calculating commissions.
  
• Draws: Advances against commissions.
  
• Commissions: Percentage of revenue, profit, or ticket value.
  
• Bonuses: Flat or conditional payouts.
  
• Fees: Flat payments (e.g., canvasser fee).

Payout Type Popularity

When we look at how ~1,900 roofing companies in Contractors Cloud structure their payouts, commissions dominate the landscape. Of all payout types, commissions account for 54% of usage (1,026 setups), making them the most popular way to compensate sales reps. Company overhead is the next most common at 26% (494), showing how many contractors calculate profit-based payouts after fixed costs are removed. Draws make up 11% (213), while bonuses represent 5% (92) and flat fees just 2% (45).

This breakdown highlights that while commissions are by far the primary method, companies are also layering in overhead, draws, and performance incentives to create compensation plans that fit their business model.

Commission calculation methods (with examples)

Once you select your Payout Plan type, your rule needs its calculation method. Here are the methods available in Contractors Cloud with an example of how they would calculate.

• % of actual gross profit: $20,000 revenue – $12,000 expenses = $8,000 GP × 20% = $1,600.
  
• % of down payments: 9% of $5,000 down payment = $450.
  
• % of all payments: 9% of $20,000 = $1,800.
  
• % of progress payments: 9% of $10,000 progress payment = $900.
  
• % of each payment: Apply percentage per individual payment event.
  
• % of net profit: $8,000 GP – $3,000 overhead = $5,000 net × 20% = $1,000.
  
• % of total revenue (adjusted): $20,000 – $1,000 credits = $19,000 × 10% = $1,900.
  
• % of total ticket items (incl. pending): Includes supplements awaiting approval.
  
• % of total ticket (approved only): Excludes pending items.
  
• Straight fee: Flat payout, e.g., $500 finder’s fee.
  

Setting Conditions

Conditions allow roofing companies to make commission rules dynamic. Examples include:

• Pay 20% of GP if margin is 30–35%, but 30% if margin > 40%.
  
• Only pay if the contract is marked “Paid in Full.”
  
• Require all job expenses entered before GP- or net-profit-based commissions run.
  
• Apply different rules depending on rep seniority (e.g., junior vs. senior sales reps).
  
• Handle multiple reps per project with automatic split commissions.
  

Conditions ensure commissions are fair, accurate, and tied to the company’s priorities.

Applying Rules to Employees

Commission plans aren’t one-size-fits-all. Contractors Cloud allows companies to:

• Apply different rules for senior vs. junior reps.
  
• Set unique plans for canvassers, closers, and project managers.
  
• Assign payout rules per employee or per role.
  

This flexibility makes it easy to scale without confusion.

Logging and Transparency

Every commission payout is automatically logged in Contractors Cloud. This gives companies:

• A clear record of all payouts.
  
• Project-level transparency (which commissions have been paid vs. pending).
  
• An audit trail for disputes or adjustments.
  

For sales reps, this builds trust. For owners, it provides accountability.

Payouts / Commission Report

The Payouts / Commission Report enables you to see all of your commissions payouts by their status, project, date, employee, and amount. It’s a centralized, easy, and sortable way to track your commission payouts.

Draw Accounts

A draw account provides sales representatives with a steady income stream by advancing money against their future commissions, essentially working as a short-term loan that is automatically reconciled once commissions are earned. This approach is especially helpful for new reps ramping up in the role or during slower sales periods when income may fluctuate. 

Contractors Cloud allows you to fully manage the draw process with ease so that payouts are kept smooth and transparent while tracking the funds advanced and the deductions once commissions are earned. 

A draw example would be, if a rep receives a $2,000 draw in January and then earns $2,500 in commissions in February, $2,000 is applied to pay back the draw and the rep receives the remaining $500. Contractors Cloud makes managing draw accounts simple by integrating them directly into the Payouts/Commissions Report as well as the Accountant and Sales Manager Dashboards, giving both leadership and sales teams full transparency into balances, deductions, and payouts.

Commissions and payouts FAQs

Q: Should I pay roofing reps on revenue or profit?
A: Profit-based commissions protect your margin, but revenue-based is simpler. Many companies use a hybrid or tiered approach.

Q: How do you handle supplements in roofing commissions?
A: Define whether supplements are included in total revenue or treated as separate ticket items with their own percentage.

Q: How do you pay setters or canvassers?
A: Many companies use flat fees ($500/job) or a smaller percentage split from the total commission pool.

Q: What’s the best commission plan for new sales reps?
A: Draws or base + lower commission percentage help stabilize income while new reps ramp up.

Roofing sales commissions mastered

Roofing sales commissions don’t have to be a headache. With the right structure, you can:

• Motivate reps to sell profitably.
  
• Protect your company’s cash flow.
  
• Simplify payroll and eliminate disputes.
  

Contractors Cloud makes it easy to design, apply, and automate even the most complex commission rules—per employee, per job, or per payment type.

When commissions are clear, fair, and automated, your reps focus on selling, not fighting over spreadsheets—and your business grows with confidence.

Ready to simplify commissions? Schedule a demo of Contractors Cloud today and see how easy it is to automate payouts, protect margins, and keep your sales team motivated.

July 23, 2025

If your contracting business spans more than one territory, service type, or team structure, you’ve probably asked yourself: How do I keep everything organized, but still view the big picture? That’s exactly what Events in Contractors Cloud are built for.

What are Events?

Events are a powerful organizational tool in Contractors Cloud that let you segment different parts of your business—by service type, geographic location, team, or other strategic divisions—all within a single company account.

With Events, you can:

• Track and manage projects by category or region
  
• Keep operational processes distinct (think crews, suppliers, workflows)
  
• Analyze performance individually or collectively
  
• Simplify accounting with unified or segmented reporting
  

Segmentation is powerful because it transforms raw data into meaningful insights. With segmentation you can quickly spot trends, compare performance, and make smarter decisions. 

It allows you to analyze project history, revenue, and profitability in ways that highlight what’s working and where there’s room to grow. Instead of sifting through cluttered reports, segmentation gives you focused, actionable views of your business.

Examples of events in action

Roofing: storm response, service type, or territory

Let’s say you’re a roofing company based in Minnesota. A hailstorm hits Oklahoma City, and you decide to send a crew to work the storm. Instead of creating a new company or disrupting your main process, you simply create an “OKC Storm” Event. 

Now every job tied to that storm is grouped together, keeping your local and storm operations cleanly separated for tracking, resource assignment, and profitability.

Another common use? Residential vs. Commercial roofing. These two job types often require different suppliers, materials, pricing, and crews. By using Events to divide them, you prevent mistakes like assigning a residential shingle crew to a commercial flat roof, and make it easy to report on how each side of your business is performing.

Tracking service types like roofing and gutters using Events allows you to keep these distinct parts of your business organized and easy to manage. Each service may have different crews, materials, timelines, and workflows. By grouping them into separate Events, you avoid mix-ups and ensure accurate tracking. 

It also lets you analyze how each service line is performing individually, so you can compare revenue, job volume, and profitability for roofing vs. gutters, all within the same system.

Paving & snow removal: seasonal service segmentation

Events aren’t just for roofing as Contractors Cloud serves many contracting industries. A paving contractor who also does snow removal in winter can create two Events for “Paving” and “Snow Removal.” 

Now, each seasonal service is tracked independently. Your team can see which service drives more revenue, where the profitability lies, and plan accordingly for staffing, equipment, and marketing.

Location, location, location – Multi-State operations with clean territory breakdowns

For contractors who operate across state lines or multiple regions, Events offer simple and powerful segmentation. A roofing company based in Stillwater, MN, might also take on work in Wisconsin. With one Event for “MN Projects” and another for “WI Projects,” they can keep workflows consistent while comparing performance by state. 

Want to see total company revenue? Done. Want to drill into Wisconsin’s average job size or close rate? Easy.

Why use events?

Whether you run multiple crews, service areas, or offerings, Events give you clarity without complexity.

Benefits of using Events:

• Accurate Reporting: Run reports by individual Event or across your entire company.
  
• Avoid Operational Mix-ups: Keep the right teams, workflows, and suppliers tied to the right types of jobs.
  
• Better Business Decisions: Understand which areas are most profitable or growing faster.
  
• Scalability: Expand into new services or locations without changing systems.
  

Set up Events to match your business

Think about your business in terms of how you want to measure and manage it. Do you want to separate:

• Different territories or states?
  
• Service types like roofing, solar, or gutters?
  
• Seasonal or temporary teams like storm work or snow removal?
  
• Specialized teams like insurance vs. retail?
  

Events make it possible. And because they live within your company account, you can centralize your operations while gaining the power to zoom in or out depending on your need.

Start using Events today

Whether you’re a roofing contractor chasing storms, a paving business with a snow season hustle, or a growing company expanding across state lines, Events in Contractors Cloud help you stay organized, efficient, and profitable.

Ready to simplify your segmentation?
Reach out to our support team or explore Events in your Contractors Cloud dashboard today.

June 9, 2025

Thanks to Google, we’ve all come to expect one thing from every platform we use: search that just works. You type in a few letters, maybe with a typo or two, and boom, you get what you were looking for.

That kind of search power expectation has become second nature on the internet, but building a tool that delivers those kinds of instant, accurate results isn’t automatic. Especially inside a CRM and project management platform, is no small feat.

That’s why we’ve invested in making Global Search in Contractors Cloud smarter, faster, and more forgiving. It’s here to help you find what you need without friction.

Get Instantly Connected to the Right Contact or Project

Our Global Search bar isn’t just for names. When you’re managing dozens (or hundreds) of projects and contacts, scrolling through lists or digging through records just doesn’t cut it. That’s why Global Search in Contractors Cloud is designed to search across your entire account, so you can instantly zero in on the details you need, no matter where they live.

Global Search looks across contacts and projects for:

• First and last names
• Email addresses
• Phone numbers
• Project and contact addresses
• Project IDs
• Account IDs
• Claim number

Whether you’re tracking down a new lead you just spoke to, reviewing the job history of a returning customer, or pulling up a project status in the middle of a call with a crew member, Global Search makes sure you’re never more than a few keystrokes away from the information that keeps your business moving.

No guesswork. No wasted time. Just fast, reliable answers—exactly when you need them.

Updates That Make Global Search Even Better

We recently rolled out powerful upgrades that make our Global Search even more intuitive:

Fuzzy Search

Typos happen. Now they don’t stop you from finding what you need. Our new fuzzy search intelligently recognizes and corrects small misspellings, so “Johnathan” still shows up in your results if you typed “Jonathen.” No more blank results or second-guessing how something was spelled.

Highlighted Results

Every result now highlights exactly what matched your search. You’ll see names, emails, or project details visually marked and highlighted in yellow, helping you instantly confirm that you’ve found the right record.

Faster Processing

Speed matters when you’re on a call or juggling job site logistics. We’ve optimized our search performance to deliver faster results, even as your database grows.

Search Your CRM The Way You Think

From new leads to old jobs, your business data is just a few keystrokes away. Global Search in Contractors Cloud is designed for real-world use. Focused on being fast, flexible, and forgiving, just like the best search engines you use every day. Even with a small typo.

Try the upgraded Global Search inside your Contractors Cloud dashboard today.

May 21, 2025

Watch our first-ever Contractors Cloud webinar as we explored how automation and smarter project management can supercharge your contracting business. Hosted by myself and Mike Kampa, the session focused on two high-impact tools: Zapier and our own Milestones feature in Workflows.

From automating tasks to keeping your workflows on track, this webinar delivered practical takeaways to help you move faster, stay organized, and grow more efficiently.

Here is the recording of the May Webinar, also available on our YouTube channel.

Automate Contractors Cloud with Zapier

Zapier is a no-code automation platform that connects over 8,000 apps to help you streamline operations. Zapier lets you set up “Zaps”, automated workflows that are based on conditions of triggers and actions you define.

Here’s a snapshot of the use cases we shared:

• Google Sheets to Contractors Cloud
  Automatically create new leads in Contractors Cloud when a row is added to a Google Sheet. This same automation applies to tools like Calendly, Gravity Forms, Pipedrive, and Salesforce.
  
• Nurturing with Webhooks
  When a project reaches the estimate/proposal stage in Contractors Cloud, you can send that contact to be nurtured with email or SMS platforms like MailChimp, Constant Contact, Textdrip, and Podium.
  
• Follow-Up After Job Completion
  For completed jobs in Contractors Cloud over $10K, automatically send a thank-you email, request a review, or kick off a direct mailer using apps like Gmail, SurveyMonkey, or NiceJob.

Here are the steps of each of these three zaps we covered in the webinar.

You can even enhance these workflows further using Zapier’s internal tools—like filters, paths, and conditions—to add more intelligence and customization to your automations.

Supercharge Your Workflow with Milestones

The last part of the webinar zeroed in on Milestones, a powerful feature within Contractors Cloud Workflows. Milestones are the checkpoints that track where each job stands, what’s been done, and what’s next. When used effectively, they drive faster project completion, automate tasks, improve accountability, and deliver more predictable profits.

Key strategies covered:

• Pass-Through Tasks: Notify stakeholders without delaying the next step in your workflow.
• Conditional Logic: Trigger additional milestones or tasks based on answers to specific questions.
• Milestone Performance Tracking: Monitor job “velocity” and identify bottlenecks to keep things moving smoothly.
• Conditions for Clarity: Use file-based conditions to ensure documentation is organized, labeled, and easy for your team to find.

If you’re serious about elevating your project management, Milestones aren’t just a feature—they’re a framework for success.

Final Webinar Notes

This was just the first in a series of upcoming webinars designed to empower you with practical tools and know-how to maximize all that Contractors Cloud can do. And remember, Zapier integration is included in all Contractors Cloud plans.

Stay tuned—and stay productive!

May 1, 2025

In the fast-paced world of roofing, every day counts. Managing your projects without clear checkpoints is like driving cross-country without a map—you’ll get lost, miss critical turns, and waste valuable time and money.

That’s where Milestones in Contractors Cloud come in. They bring structure, accountability, and visibility to every project, ensuring you stay on track, on time, and on budget.

Milestones are powerful, customizable, and essential to running a smoother, smarter roofing business.

What are Workflows and Milestones?

At a high level, a Workflow is your full roadmap for taking a job from lead to close—every step needed to win, build, and complete a project.

Milestones are the individual steps inside that workflow—the actionable checkpoints that track exactly where a job is and what needs to be done next. If you want faster workflows, better team accountability, and more predictable profits, understanding and using Milestones the right way is key.

In Contractors Cloud, you create Milestones within your workflow templates, customizing:

• The Milestone name (what action is being completed)
  
• Project Status (where the Milestone fits: Lead, Prospect, Production, Accounts Receivable, etc.)
  
• Status (Active/Inactive)
  
• Internal comments
  
• Optional % completion updates
  
• On Entry / On Completion automations (tasks, emails, texts)
  
• Conditions (e.g., “Project must have Uploaded Photos”)
  
• Branching questions (dynamic yes/no decision points)
  

Each Milestone isn’t just a label—it’s a working part of your project engine.

Why Milestones matter: the real benefits

Here’s why setting up and using Milestones transforms roofing project management:

1. Total visibility

Easily track exactly where every job stands across your company. From new leads to final invoices, no project slips through the cracks.

2. Drive progress forward

Milestones clearly show what needs to happen before moving forward—ensuring hand-offs between sales, production, and accounting are smooth, fast, and accountable.

3. Improve team accountability

Tasks can be assigned automatically as Milestones are completed, transferring responsibility cleanly down the chain without confusion.

4. Identify and fix bottlenecks

Using reports like the Milestone Performance Report, you can measure how long projects sit in each stage—and make real-time adjustments to move faster.

5. Enhance customer communication

Keeping homeowners informed about project progress is easier and faster when you’re tracking milestones accurately—and happier customers mean more referrals.

Real-world use cases for roofing companies

Contractors are using Milestones every day in creative and impactful ways. These are just some of the uses cases for roofing companies:

• Insurance vs. Retail Workflows: Different sales processes mean different Milestones. Roofing companies often set up dedicated workflows for insurance restoration jobs and separate ones for retail sales.
  
• Residential vs. Commercial: Customize workflows and Milestones to handle the complexity and longer timelines of commercial roofing compared to faster residential projects.
  
• Service and Repair Jobs: Quick turnaround? A streamlined workflow with just a few key Milestones gets the job closed fast—perfect for minor repairs or emergency fixes.
  
• Change Order Flexibility: Dynamic Milestone questions like “Are there change orders?” allow you to branch your workflow mid-project, ensuring nothing gets missed and billing stays accurate.
  

Reporting on Milestones: measuring speed and efficiency

Milestones aren’t just internal checkpoints—they fuel your reporting power. The Milestone Performance Report gives you visibility, insight, and the security of checks and balances.

The Milestone Performance Report allows you to:

• Filter jobs by workflow, Milestone status (active, completed), and other criteria
  
• See start and end dates for each Milestone
  
• Measure the time spent in each stage (duration metrics)
  
• Analyze velocity and bottlenecks over time
  

One standout example is Proliance, a roofing company that uses Milestone reporting to track velocity across their operations.

“The ability to have custom and unlimited milestones really helps us place deals in various buckets to find out where we excel and opportunities for improvement. Almost all of our priority reports are in line with milestones, and the beauty of them being in sync helps us determine key process strategies.”
shared Faraz Andhi, Operations Manager at Proliance.

By measuring how long projects spend in each Milestone, they continuously optimize their workflows and velocity to drive faster job completion and higher profits.

How to Set Up Milestones for Success

Setting up your Milestones the right way not only keeps projects moving—it builds in automation, accountability, and the flexibility to handle real-world scenarios with precision.

Create smart milestones

Choose clear, action-driven names (“Permit Approved” vs. “Permit Step”) and assign them to the correct Project Status.

Automate tasks and communications

Trigger follow-up actions like customer updates or material orders automatically when Milestones are completed.

Use conditions for accuracy

Enforce project requirements like photo uploads, signed contracts, or payment verifications before a project can move forward.

Leverage branching logic

Dynamically adjust workflows based on project-specific answers (e.g., change orders, additional trades).

Monitor performance

Regularly review the Milestone Performance Report to spot delays, make improvements, and keep every project moving efficiently.

Final word: Milestones build stronger roofing businesses

When you build smart workflows and Milestones in Contractors Cloud, you’re not just staying organized—you’re running a tighter, more profitable operation.You’ll close more jobs, keep customers happier, empower your team, and crush your timelines.

Milestones aren’t just steps. They’re your competitive advantage.

April 14, 2025

In the roofing and contracting world, every project has a location—but until now, it hasn’t always been easy to see the full picture of where your jobs are happening and how they’re distributed. That’s where the Map View feature in the File Cabinet (Projects) section of Contractors Cloud changes everything.

Map View gives you an interactive, real-time look at all your projects—whether they’re in early lead stages, mid-estimate, active production, or long since closed. Instead of digging through lists or reports, you can visually explore your work, filtered exactly how you need it. It’s like turning your project database into a dynamic command center.

This feature isn’t just about convenience—it’s about strategy. Visual mapping brings clarity to complex workflows, reveals patterns in sales and production, and helps you make smarter decisions, faster.

What Is Map View?

Map View is a feature inside the Projects section of Contractors Cloud that lets you see all of your jobs plotted on an interactive map, regardless of their status. Click the “Map View” tab when in the File Cabinet to access your map.

Whether you’re working hundreds of jobs across multiple cities, or just need to get a clearer sense of where your team is focused, Map View brings it all into focus.

With this tool, you can filter your map pins by:

• Project Status (12+ status options from Lead to Production to Closed)
• Assigned Role (sales rep, sales manager, production coordinator, etc.)
• Lead Source
• Event
• Milestone
• Workflow
• Sub-category
• And many more

Each pin on the map gives you instant visibility into where your business is active—and where there may be opportunities to optimize. Clicking on the map pin gives the project details including the primary contact, company rep, status, and milestone.

Why Visual Mapping Matters

Text-based lists and spreadsheets are great for many tasks—but they don’t always tell the whole story. Here’s what you can do with Map View that you can’t do with static reports:

• Spot geographic trends in leads, estimates, or closed deals
• Plan smarter routes for production crews or sales reps
• Identify opportunity zones after a storm or marketing campaign
• Reduce inefficiencies by seeing overlapping or scattered job locations
• Quickly assess workload distribution across teams or regions

Let’s look at some real-world ways contractors are using Map View to take action.

Use Cases That Drive Smarter Operations

1. Visualize Where Your Sales Reps Are Working

“I want to see all Leads, Prospects, and Estimates for Rep John Smith to understand what areas he’s covering.”

This is a game changer for sales managers. Instead of relying on verbal updates or guessing where your team is focused, Map View gives you a real-time visual of a rep’s footprint.

You can easily filter by rep and project status to see where your leads and proposals are coming in. It helps you:

• Spot geographic gaps or overlaps in coverage
• Identify high-performing areas that may deserve more marketing support
• See where to reduce drive time by clustering appointments more efficiently

In short, Map View gives you a smarter way to manage territory and improve rep productivity.

2. Track Active Production Across the Map

“I want to see a map of all jobs in ‘Production’ so I can plan more efficiently.”

Need to know where your crews are working this week? Or where your materials are being delivered? By filtering for projects in Production, Map View becomes a real-time operations board.

You can use it to:

• See which neighborhoods are active
• Avoid scheduling conflicts
• Group nearby jobs for streamlined logistics
• Help crews avoid long travel times between jobs

This is especially helpful during your busiest weeks, when coordination is everything.

3. Use the HailWatch Overlay to Spot Opportunities

“The HailWatch overlay shows recent storm paths right on top of my project map.”

Contractors Cloud integrates with HailWatch (subscription required), allowing you to overlay recent storm data on your project map. This turns Map View into a post-storm response powerhouse.

By enabling the HailWatch overlay, you can:

• Quickly identify which of your past customers were in the storm path
• Launch targeted follow-ups with those homeowners
• See where new leads are likely to emerge and get ahead of competitors

This is a powerful tool for storm restoration and re-engagement strategies.

4. Draw a Custom Area in Rainmaker for Hyper-Targeted Filters

“I can draw a polygon in Rainmaker to define a storm line or neighborhood, then view all jobs within that area.”

If you have access to our Rainmaker version, you can take Map View even further. Use the polygon tool to draw a custom area—like a storm-damaged region or a new development—and instantly view all your jobs, leads, or opportunities in that zone.

Common use cases include:

• Pulling a list of previous leads within a storm zone
• Defining a target area for new canvassing or direct mail
• Measuring your presence in specific neighborhoods or subdivisions

This blend of custom geography and project data gives you unmatched targeting power.

Map View = Smarter, More Visual Project Management

The power of Map View lies in its simplicity: it takes the complexity of project data and turns it into something you can see and act on.

Whether you’re leading a sales team, managing production crews, or tracking storm opportunities, Map View gives you the visual insights to:

• Improve decision-making
• Increase team efficiency
• Maximize lead conversion
• Strengthen operational oversight

If you haven’t explored Map View in your File Cabinet yet, now’s the time.

See Your Business on the Map

Log into Contractors Cloud and head to the Projects section → File Cabinet → Map View (tab) to start exploring. Use filters to customize your view, and activate HailWatch overlays to unlock even more value.

Need help or a walkthrough? Contact our support team — we’re happy to help you get set up.