Built for painters who care about the bid and the trust
Painting is where two boring spreadsheet problems eat into margin every job. The first is the estimate. Square footage by room, coat count by room, prep level by room, ceiling versus walls versus trim, doors and windows. Generic contractor estimates are a freeform line-item list that lets you forget the half-bath ceiling or undercount coats on the dark accent wall. The second is color selections. Repose Gray and Agreeable Gray are nine percent different on the LRV chart. A homeowner asks for one and remembers the other. Three days into the job the room is half-painted in the wrong color and somebody is eating the repaint cost.
Workhand fixes both. The painter estimate template runs room-by-room with square-foot math, coat count, and prep level. Add or remove rooms in seconds. Whole-house exterior runs the same way by elevation. The selections sheet captures color per room with brand, line, sheen, color name and number, photo reference, and homeowner signoff date. The homeowner signs each selection in-app before paint goes on the wall. And through the customer-facing portal, the homeowner watches the job progress photo by photo each day. They get the part painters under-deliver on (visibility) and you get the part homeowners under-deliver on (color decisions stuck on the record).
Workflows we cover
The day-to-day motions of a residential and commercial painting crew, from estimate walkthrough to final review request.
Room-by-room estimates with square-foot math
Walk the house, log wall square footage, ceiling, trim linear feet, doors, windows, coat count, and prep level (light scuff, heavy patch, full skim coat) per room. The catalog handles your sell rates per square foot. Customer estimate prints as a clean summary with a room-by-room appendix.
Color selections per room, signed in-app
Selections sheet captures brand (Sherwin-Williams, Benjamin Moore, Behr), color name and number, sheen, and a photo reference per room. Homeowner signs each selection with a date stamp. No "I told you Agreeable Gray" arguments six days in.
Prep vs paint phase tracking
Painter job template runs in phases: protect-and-mask, prep (patch, sand, caulk, prime), first coat, second coat, touch-up and walkthrough, final invoice. Heavy-prep jobs see the prep budget chewing real days, and you can adjust the timeline before it becomes a customer trust issue.
Daily photo logs through the customer portal
Crew snaps progress photos. The customer-facing portal shows today's hero photo, phase status, the crew lead's note, and balance owed. Homeowner watches the living room change every day through a public link. No login, no app install. Cuts callback calls and creates the review-worthy experience.
Paint SKU catalog with markups
Paint SKUs by brand, line, sheen, color base, gallon count. Cost-vs-sell markups stored separately. Cost stays internal. Sell prints on the customer doc. Catalog stays current as supplier pricing shifts.
Mid-job material reorders against job costing
When the crew runs short of paint on day three, they log the reorder against the job from the phone. Job costing reports show actual material consumed versus estimated, which is how you catch the room that took three coats instead of two and adjust the bid template going forward.
Residential vs commercial billing
Customer billing profile drives the invoice template. Homeowners default to COD with Stripe Pay Online buttons. Commercial GCs and property managers default to net-30 with a clean PDF the AP department can process. The right template loads automatically.
Time tracking for small crews
Painter clocks in and out from the job on their phone. Active timer banner on the home screen so nobody forgets. Hours roll up to job cost reports (real labor cost per room) and to the payroll period for export.
What Workhand has that helps painters
- Room-by-room estimate template. Wall square footage, ceiling, trim, doors, windows, coats, prep level per room. Walk-through-to-estimate in under an hour.
- Color selections sheet. Brand, line, sheen, color name and number, photo reference, homeowner signoff per room.
- Paint SKU catalog with markups. Cost-vs-sell separated. Cost stays internal. Sell prints on customer doc.
- Phase tracking with prep budget visibility. Protect-mask, prep, first coat, second coat, touch-up, walkthrough. Catch heavy-prep overruns early.
- Customer-facing portal with daily photos. Homeowner sees today's progress through a public link. No login, no app install.
- Stripe Connect for deposit and balance. Online payments on deposit and final invoice. Two-day funding to your bank.
- Customer profile drives invoice template. COD homeowners, net-30 GCs and property managers. Automatic.
- Time tracking with active timer banner. Crew clocks in and out, hours roll up to job costing and payroll.
- Mileage logs with IRS-rate math. Trips between jobs log automatically. Tax deduction calculated by Workhand.
- Subcontractor insurance tracking. Drywall sub, sandblaster on the exterior, scaffolding company. COI alerts. See the insurance checklist.
- Customer review collection with Google funnel. Auto-email after walkthrough. 4-and-5 stars routed to your Google Business Profile.
- QuickBooks Online sync on Team plan. Customers, invoices, payments push to QBO automatically.
- Documents in English, Spanish, or Portuguese. Send estimates and invoices in the homeowner's language per customer. Useful in Spanish-speaking markets.
See the full feature list for everything else, the estimate follow-up writeup for closing more bids, and the FAQ for specifics.
What we are not
Workhand is not a painting-specific bid platform like PaintScout. PaintScout is built tight around the painting walk-and-talk sales process with iPad-first room scanning, production rate libraries, and the close-on-the-couch flow some painting franchises rely on. If your sales team works on iPads with that motion locked in, PaintScout wins on depth.
We also do not do route-and-dispatch service for painting touch-up routes. If your business is mostly tiny one-hour touch-up tickets dispatched off a grid (rare for painters, but it exists), look at Jobber or Housecall Pro.
Workhand is for the painting contractor running real residential and commercial projects, mostly two-to-fifteen-day jobs, where the estimate accuracy and the homeowner trust experience are the two places margin gets won or lost. If that's the shape of your business, we fit. Compare to JobTread or Buildertrend if you're cross-shopping.
Pricing for painters
Three plans. No per-user fees. No per-estimate fees. Most working painting crews land on Pro or Team depending on crew size.
Free
Pro
Team
Most residential painters pick Pro. Commercial painters with a project manager or an estimator usually need Team for the pipeline and QuickBooks sync. See the FAQ for trial and refund details and the QuickBooks alternative writeup if you're thinking about consolidating.
Questions painters ask
Can I estimate room-by-room with square-foot math?
Yes. The estimate template for painters runs room-by-room. Per room you log wall square footage, ceiling, trim linear feet, doors, windows, number of coats, prep level (light scuff, heavy patch, full skim coat), and primer. The catalog handles your sell rates per square foot for each scope. Add or remove rooms in seconds. Whole-house exterior runs the same way by elevation.
How do I track which color the homeowner picked for which room?
The selections sheet captures color per room. Brand (Sherwin-Williams, Benjamin Moore, Behr), color name and number, sheen (flat, matte, eggshell, satin, semi, gloss), and a photo reference. The homeowner signs each selection in-app, with the date stamped. No "I told you Repose Gray, not Agreeable Gray" arguments six days into the job.
Can I track prep work separately from paint work?
Yes. The painter job template runs in phases: protect-and-mask, prep (patch, sand, caulk, prime), first coat, second coat, touch-up and walkthrough, final invoice. Each phase has its own checklist and the customer-facing portal shows where the job is. Heavy-prep jobs see the prep budget chewing up real days, and you can adjust the timeline before it becomes a customer-trust issue.
Does the customer see today's work?
Yes. The customer-facing portal shows hero photos from each day, the phase status (prep complete, first coat in progress), today's note from the crew lead, and the balance owed. The homeowner opens a link, no login or app install. They get to see their living room change every day, which is the part most painters under-deliver on.
How do I track paint material reorders mid-job?
Paint SKUs live in your catalog by brand, line, sheen, and color base. When the crew runs short mid-job, they log the reorder against the job from their phone. Job costing reports show actual material consumed versus estimated, which is how you catch the room that took three coats instead of two. The supplier invoice attaches to the job for the bookkeeper.
Can I bill residential and commercial work differently?
Yes. Each customer has a billing profile. Homeowner customers default to COD with Stripe Pay Online buttons on the invoice. Commercial GCs and property managers default to net-30 with a PDF the AP department can process. Workhand uses the right template automatically based on the customer profile.
Does Workhand do time tracking for small crews?
Yes. Each painter clocks in and out from the job site on their phone. An active timer banner stays visible on their home screen until they clock out so nobody forgets. Hours roll up against each job for cost reporting (real labor cost per room) and against the payroll period for export. Time tracking is on Pro and Team plans.
More reading: Workhand vs JobTread, Workhand vs Buildertrend, Workhand vs Jobber, the estimate follow-up writeup, and the remodelers page if you also handle interior remodel work.