Read the job out of the installer's text

1Paste the job text

Open the job. Section 1 Job details is a text box with the placeholder e.g. "Quote for the Hendersons, 12 Oak Lane…. This text is the primary source for the job: the rooms, their square footage, the customer and the labor prices are all read out of it.

1. Copy the installer's message as it is.
2. Click in the box and paste.
3. Press Save text. The button turns grey and reads Saved.

On a new job the button already reads Saved while the box is empty. It changes to Save text once you type or paste. Saving first is optional, because Read the job details saves unsaved text before it reads.

If the installer sent a file, press Upload the installer's quote next to Read the job details and pick a PDF, a photo or a text file. The upload adds the file's text to the box and reads it in the same step, so you land on the same review card described below.

Under the buttons, Labor costs on this job is still empty: "No labor costs yet. Read them out of the installer's quote above, or add a line."

2Read the job details

Press Read the job details. The button reads Reading… and a line says "Pulling rooms and customer out of the text…". When it finishes, the review card Found in the text opens and the page scrolls to it.

For the demonstration job the card proposes:

• Customer: Dana Halloran, 2210 Birchwood Lane, Bend, OR 97702.
• Five rooms, each with a square footage box: Living room · herringbone at 360, Hall at 176, Primary bedroom at 140, and Kitchen and Nook with empty boxes marked sqft?.
• A red warning: "340 sq ft covers Kitchen, Nook together — split it across the rooms."
• Labor costs: six lines with their quantities, such as Tear out existing laminate at 550 sqft and Stair treads and risers to match at 13 each. The last one, Install flooring in primary bedroom, carries an Option tag.

This text gives no prices, so every price box shows 0 and the card reads "Labor to add: $0.00 · options are kept with their price and not counted". The customer, every room and every labor line start ticked. Nothing is on the job yet. The card stays a proposal until you press Add to the job.

3Review what was found and add it to the job

The review card is where you correct the reading. Fix anything here, before it reaches the job.

1. Split shared areas. The text gave 340 sq ft for the kitchen and nook together. Type 192 in the Kitchen box and 148 in the Nook box, which add up to 340.
2. Type the unit prices. Clear each price box and type the installer's figure: 1.50 for tear-out, 380 for subfloor leveling, 70 per stair, 45 per transition, 250 for haul-away. Each amount and the Labor to add line update as you type, ending at $2,500.00.
3. Price the option. Type 4.75 on Install flooring in primary bedroom. Its amount stays "option" and the total does not move.
4. Leave out what you do not want. Untick a room, a labor line or the customer to skip it.
5. Press Add to the job.

The button reads Applying…, the card closes, and a green line confirms "✓ 5 rooms added, 6 labor lines added, customer set to Dana Halloran." The option counts among the six lines and stays out of the total.

4Labor costs on the job

The six lines now sit in Labor costs on this job, with the columns Description, Qty, Unit, Unit price, Amount and Option, and a Remove link on each row. The footer reads "LABOR TOTAL $2,500.00 · 1 option not counted".

• Bill an option. An option always sits at quantity 0. Type a quantity, here 140 on the primary bedroom line, and leave the field. The Option box unticks itself, the amount becomes $665.00 and the total becomes $3,165.00.
• Make it an option again. Tick Option. The quantity returns to 0, the price of 4.75 is kept, and the total goes back to $2,500.00.
• Add a line the installer left out. Type a description in the box marked "Add a labor line, for example Baseboard removal" and a figure in the price box, then press Add line. Floor protection and cleanup at 120 arrives with quantity 1 and an empty unit. Edit both in the table.

Every edit saves when you leave the field. The demonstration job ends at "LABOR TOTAL $2,620.00 · 1 option not counted".

5Rooms, sources and the checklist

Scroll to section 3 Materials & rooms. The Rooms on this job table lists the five rooms with Job details in the Source column, so you can tell which rooms came from the text. Their areas are the ones from the review card: 360, 192, 148, 176 and 140. The footer reads "TOTAL · 5 of 5 with an area · 1016 sqft".

The laying style comes across too. The Living room, read as herringbone, arrives with its Style set to Herringbone, and the other four rooms arrive as Straight. You can change any room to another style from its Style menu at any time. The waste rate for each style is set in Settings, which Materials, waste and pricing covers. Until the job has a material list, the Material column says "Add a material above first".

Back at the top, the checklist reads Keep this job moving 3/5. Rooms on the job, Every room has an area and Labor costs on file ("7 labor lines, $2,620.00") are ticked. Material list ready and Rooms assigned & priced are still open, and the next-action button now reads Add the first material.

6What comes next

The job now has its customer, its rooms with their areas, and its labor costs. Two tutorials pick up from here.

• Measure a floor plan is optional. Use it when the text gives no area for a room, or when you want to check the installer's figures against the plan.
• Materials, waste and pricing comes next on every takeoff. You add the wood being quoted, assign it to each room, check each room's laying style and its waste rate, and price the materials.

The checklist button, Add the first material, leads to the same place. Once materials are assigned and priced, Create the quote turns the job into a PDF or QuickBooks drafts.