Managing a Painting Job from Quote to Review: The Complete Workflow
Most painting businesses run the first three stages well — quote, accept, work. The last six are where the money lives.
A painting project has nine distinct stages from first call to final review. Painters who run all nine close more jobs, get paid faster, and earn the reviews that drive the next ten leads.
The 9 stages
- Site assessment and surface measurement. Visit, measure, capture defect photos, identify hazards.
- Quote generation and client proposal. Run cost-plus formula, build branded proposal.
- Quote acceptance and project activation. Client accepts in portal. Quote locks at the Cloud Function level.
- Crew brief and safe work plan. SWMS / JHA / RAMS / SSSP generated. QR code crew sign-off.
- Job management — progress, updates, variations. Daily updates, time logging, material purchase capture, variations through the portal.
- Invoicing — deposit, progress, final. Deposit on quote acceptance. Progress at milestones. Final on completion.
- Completion sign-off and client portal. Client confirms via portal. Defect log captured. Warranty starts.
- Review collection and post-job drip. Day 7 review request. Day 14 reminder. Day 30 final reminder.
- Permanent surface register. Building stays on file. Re-quote in 5 years without re-measuring.
The 10 project status states
Surfacely tracks projects through 10 statuses: Lead → Scoping → Quoted → Sent → Won → In Progress → Complete → On Hold → Lost → Archived. The flow is one-directional for most transitions.
Documents at each stage
- Stage 1: assessment record, measurement record, condition notes
- Stage 2: quote PDF, branded proposal
- Stage 3: acceptance audit trail
- Stage 4: crew brief PDF, safe work plan, sign-off register
- Stage 5: daily updates, time logs, material purchases, variation documents
- Stage 6: deposit, progress, final invoices
- Stage 7: completion confirmation, defect log, warranty register
- Stage 8: drip email log, review submission tracking
- Stage 9: updated surface register