Requirements checklist
What to ask for when choosing software for painting contractors.
A checklist built from how painting contractors work, to print or save as a PDF and bring to any supplier meeting.
What the software should cover
Tick each one that matters to your business.
- Room-wise measurement sheet
- Quotes by surface and coat
- Shade and product record
- Dealer account and site stock
- Foreman, painter attendance and wages
- Snag list and shade handover
Roles that need their own access
Who logs in, and what each person may see or change.
- For owners
- For estimators and site visit staff
- For site supervisors
- For accounts
Reports to ask for
Ask to see each one with your own sample data.
- Quotations sent, won and pending by month
- Sites running and the stage each has reached
- Paint and material used against the plan for each site
- Painter days and wages payable
- Stage bills raised and payments due from clients
- Dealer purchases and balance owed to each dealer
Systems it may need to connect to
Note which ones you already run.
- SMS
- Payment links and gateways
- Accounting software export
Questions for any vendor
Put these to every supplier you are comparing.
- Can I work out paint quantity from the measurements?
- Does it handle interior and exterior painting?
- Can I bill by stage instead of one bill at the end?
- Can it track my painters across several sites?
- Can it keep my paint dealer account?
- Does it send tax invoices?
- Can the figures reach our accounts?
- Can my existing clients and quotations be moved over?
- Who owns the data?
- What does it cost?
- How soon can the supervisors start using it on sites?
- What does the contractor need ready before we start?
Where the work usually breaks today
Circle the ones you recognise. They set the order of the project.
- Paint runs out mid-job
- Nobody recorded the shade code
- Wages and days do not add up
- The final bill waits on the snag list
- A housing committee has twelve decision-makers
Prefer to talk it through? See the painting contractors page.