AI Guides / roofing
Practical ways to save time, capture more enquiries, and use the tools you already have.
Roofing is won in two windows: the weeks after a storm, and the weeks a homeowner spends deciding. In the first, speed of measurement and documentation beats everything; in the second, the quote that keeps following up beats the quote that was cheapest. Both are machine work — and the measuring now costs $13 from a parking lot.
Written for an owner who has never set up a single one of these things. Start at step one, which is free and takes an afternoon, and stop whenever you have had enough — nothing further down is needed for anything above it to work.
Prices checked 27 July 2026 · no affiliate links on this page or any other
The whole page, in order
Software: Roofr Starter and JobNimbus workflows
Cost note: Roofr Starter is free; CRM automation depends on your plan
Software: Roofr measurement reports and proposals
Cost note: Approximately $13 per measurement report
Software: CompanyCam and Roofr ESX
Cost note: CompanyCam starts at $29/month; check ESX availability
Software: JobNimbus reports
Cost note: No additional software
Step one · start here
If you already use JobNimbus, Roofr, Xero, QuickBooks, these features are settings inside those products, not another subscription. Your current plan still needs to include the feature. If you use something else, skip that card and search your software’s help centre for the named feature before you buy anything.
Extra software cost
$0*
if included in your plan
Hours back per month
≈16
Why it matters
Roofing decisions take weeks, and the sold job usually belongs to whoever stayed in touch. Automated status-based follow-ups are included — capped at ten workflows on the Growing plan, so spend them on quote chasing, not internal notifications.
What to do
Open the official guide below. In JobNimbus, find “Automated workflows and follow-ups”. Follow the guide once, switch it on for one real job or customer first, and check that it did exactly what you expected before using it everywhere.
Check the official pricing and plan details ↗Half a day · $0 extra if included in your current plan
Why it matters
The free Starter plan includes the proposal builder and e-signing — measurement to branded, signable proposal in minutes, no subscription required. Most contractors buy the reports and never use the proposals attached to them.
What to do
Open the official guide below. In Roofr (any plan, including free), find “Proposals with e-signature”. Follow the guide once, switch it on for one real job or customer first, and check that it did exactly what you expected before using it everywhere.
Check the official pricing and plan details ↗2 hours · $0 extra if included in your current plan
Why it matters
Roofing invoices are big and staged — deposit, mid-build, completion. Automatic reminders per stage, off by default, with insurance-paid jobs excluded because the carrier's timeline is not the homeowner's fault.
What to do
Open the official guide below. In Xero or QuickBooks, find “Invoice and progress-payment reminders”. Follow the guide once, switch it on for one real job or customer first, and check that it did exactly what you expected before using it everywhere.
Check the official pricing and plan details ↗20 minutes · $0 extra if included in your current plan
If your software is not named above, the equivalent switch often still exists. Search its help centre for the exact feature name before you buy another tool.
Step two · first workflow to implement
A $13 aerial report back in about two hours, with squares, pitch, edges and a material list — proposal in the homeowner's inbox that evening, while the other two roofers are still booking a ladder visit.
Do this in order
Typical size
≈20 quotes/mo
Setup
Half a day
How you know it worked
Count it in week one, then count the same thing again in week four. If the number did not move, stop spending.
Do not want to set it up yourself?
In Speed to Lead. Or take the Diagnostic before hiring anyone.
Step three · keep going without adding complexity
Do not start all three at once. Finish one, test it on real work, then move to the next card.
After a hail event you have days, not weeks. An intake path that takes the address, orders the measurement and books the inspection — for every caller, not just the ones who reach a person — is the difference between a full season and a normal one.
1 week · In Speed to Lead
Photos per elevation, test squares, measurement report, and an ESX file the adjuster can open in Xactimate. Scope disputes shrink when your documentation is better than theirs.
1 day · We do it · $1,200
Retail roofs are decided slowly — financing, spouses, second quotes. A follow-up sequence with the financing option resurfaced at week two is where the cheapest-quote competitor quietly loses.
Half a day · In Speed to Lead
Step four · only once the first three are running
This is the first point where a real build may be worth paying for. The earlier steps need to be working before you add it.
You hold addresses, roof ages and photos from every past inspection. When a storm tracks over those suburbs, a message from the roofer who has already been on the roof beats every door-knocker on the street.
1 week · We do it · $1,900
What this page is automating
Almost everything above is a computer sending a message at a moment when nobody was going to send one. That is it. No robot and no replacement for professional judgement.
If you already use one of the products named in step one, those cards are settings inside that product. If you do not, skip the card. This page is not claiming that you already own it.
It is
A message going out because a call, date or status changed.
It is not
Something that decides what to charge or replaces professional judgement.
It is
A reminder sent from records your business already keeps.
It is not
A replacement for you, your trade, or the people who know the work.
Does this look familiar?
Quote from the parking lot, same day
Capture the storm window
Walk into the adjuster meeting with the file done
Chase every proposal for six weeks
Message the storm path, not the phone book
Stop measuring twice
After thirty days
Number one
Write down the current monthly number before you switch anything on. Compare it with the same number after thirty days.
Number two
Count it the same way in week one and week four. Do not change the definition halfway through.
Number three
Use the history inside your existing software to count how often the automation actually ran.
Number four
Ask the person doing the work now. They will know before a dashboard does.
Every figure on this page is a typical size, not a measurement of yours. These four are the numbers that are actually about your business.
Reference · come back to this
Nothing here is urgent and nothing here is a starting point. It is the complete set for this business, in rough order of what it returns, with the tool, effort, and done-for-you route on every row.
Wins work
Saves hours
The stack · prices checked
Measurement & proposals
Aerial measurement reports, proposals with e-signature, instant estimating and material ordering.
Verdict: Start on the free Starter plan — reports are pay-as-you-go on every tier, and the paid plans ($209/mo Essentials) only earn their keep once volume makes the guaranteed two-hour turnaround and discounts matter. Complex or tree-covered roofs still need eyes on them.
Roofing CRM
Pipeline, contacts, workflows and document tracking built around roofing sales cycles.
Verdict: Flexible and well-integrated, but the Growing plan caps you at ten automations and five integrations, which serious users hit fast — price the Established tier before committing. Pricing has a base fee plus per-user layers, so get the real number for your headcount in writing.
Restoration CRM
Insurance claim workflows: supplement tracking, adjuster management and claim statuses, natively.
Verdict: The right choice only if half or more of your work is insurance restoration — it is opinionated and the onboarding is a project. Retail-heavy shops will fight it.
Job documentation
Photos filed against the right job automatically, tagged with time and location.
Verdict: In roofing this is not optional-nice-to-have — photo documentation is your claim evidence and your dispute defence. Skip only if your CRM's photo handling is genuinely equivalent, and test that claim before believing it.
Accounting
Staged invoicing, reconciliation, and the payment reminders nobody enables.
Verdict: You almost certainly have this or QuickBooks already. The reminders are free and off by default — twenty minutes in settings, no new spend.
Phone & messaging
A business number with a shared inbox so storm-week calls stop living on one person's mobile.
Verdict: Worth it for the shared inbox in storm weeks; outside them, roofing demand is appointment-driven and your money is better spent on measurement and follow-up.
Automation
Connecting the CRM to storm-path messaging and completion packets without code.
Verdict: The engine behind the reactivation and packet rows. Powerful, and very easy to build something fragile that breaks quietly — keep the scenarios few and boring.
Assistant
Answering the crew's and office's recurring questions — warranty terms, shingle specs, claim process steps — from your own documents.
Verdict: Only earns its keep once your real warranty terms and processes are loaded. It must never draft a supplement or touch a claim number.
Do not bother
The lead seller sold the same addresses to four other roofers, and the homeowner knows it — five door-knocks deep, everyone looks like a scammer. Your own past-inspection list converts better and costs nothing.
Inflated or templated supplements are how roofing companies end up flagged by carriers. Document more than anyone else and claim precisely what the documentation supports — the tool's job is filing evidence, not inventing line items.
A $13 aerial report already does the quoting job. Buy the drone when you are regularly inspecting roofs the satellite imagery genuinely cannot resolve — steep, complex, or under canopy — not because it looks good in marketing.
Sources
Do it yourself
Use the official links, do one card at a time, and count the result after thirty days.
See every playbook →Have it done for you
$500
The AI Opportunity Diagnostic analyses your business and delivers the ranked, buyer-owned implementation report. Implementation and ongoing support are separate, optional work after the report.
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