Surfacely glossary — terms explained
Surfacely uses a precise vocabulary. These terms have specific meanings — understanding them once makes every other guide easier to follow.
The hierarchy
- Client
- The person or business paying the bill. A client can have many sites.
- Site
- A physical address. Sites sit between clients and buildings — Surfacely manages this layer for you, so you usually don't think about it directly.
- Building
- A paintable structure at a site — a house, warehouse, outbuilding. One site can have several buildings.
- Area
- A named zone within a building: North Elevation, Kitchen, Garage Interior. Areas are permanent — they persist across jobs and re-paints.
- Surface
- The paintable thing itself — walls, ceiling, windows, soffit, balustrades. Surfaces are permanent records. Measurements and condition change over time; the surface register does not.
- Surface set
- Several surfaces that repeat as a unit — a bay window, a balcony, three identical bedrooms. Measure one, say how many there are, and the whole set multiplies: hours, paint and cost. In the surface picker a set is drawn as a stacked pill carrying its count, like Bay Windows ×4.
- Price by the piece
- For work that is counted rather than measured — shutters, spindles, brackets, louvre blades. Instead of an area you state what one piece takes: minutes to prep, minutes to paint, paint per piece, and any cost that comes with it. Multiply by the count and it joins the quote through the same labour, paint and prelim lines as everything else. Drawn as a square-cornered tag, like Shutters ×12.
Work and money
- Project
- The overarching activity — measuring, quoting, and delivering a paint job against one or more buildings. Every quote, invoice, variation, and update belongs to a project.
- Quote
- A priced scope sent to the client for acceptance. Quotes are versioned — Q1, Q2, Q3 — so revisions are tracked without overwriting history.
- Variation
- A formal scope change after the quote has been accepted. Additional work, reduced work, or work swapped for something else — all require a variation so the agreement stays clear.
- Proposal
- A sales document — longer and more persuasive than a quote. Covers your assessment, approach, scope, safety, and investment. Sent for larger or more competitive jobs.
- Invoice
- A billing document tied to a project. Surfacely generates deposit, progress, and final invoices at the right moments in the project lifecycle.
Measuring
- Measurement
- A set of dimensions recorded against a surface at a point in time (length, width, quantity, coats, etc.). Measurements drive hours and material calculations.
- Assessment
- A structured sweep of an area covering access method, defects, exclusions, safety hazards, and notes. Separate from measurement — it captures the qualitative picture of the job.
- Speed Step
- A 1–8 scale describing the character of the work: 1 (Intricate) to 8 (High-volume). Each step maps to a production rate in m²/hr. You set 8 rates in company pricing; each surface has a default step.
- Prep Level
- How much prep this surface needs, expressed as its own production rate — how much surface you prep in an hour. Everyday bands, metric with imperial in brackets: None (no prep), Minimal 75 m²/hr (800 ft²/hr), Light 52.5 (565), Sound 35 (375), Standard 25 (270), Moderate 16 (170), Heavy 10.5 (115), Very Heavy 6.5 (70), with Extensive 4 (43), Strip Back 2.5 (27), Strip & Rebuild 1.5 (16) and Restoration 1 (11) above. A slower rate means more prep, it is charged once — not once per coat — and it depends on the condition of the surface alone, never on how fast you paint it.
- Cabinets
- The Cabinetry surface. Instead of measuring, you count doors, drawer fronts and end panels, and Surfacely turns the counts into an area and prices it from your own rates. See Painting cabinets.
- Piece
- One cabinet door or drawer front, priced as both faces plus its share of the box. End panels are counted separately and are not pieces.
- Face frame
- The frame at the front of a cabinet box that the doors hang from. Cabinets are set to Framed by default, which adds the frame's area. Choose Frameless for cabinets with no front frame.
- Drawer front
- The painted face of a drawer, counted as one piece. It does not include the drawer box.
- Kickboard / toe kick / plinth
- The panel at the base of a run of cabinets: a kickboard in Australia and New Zealand, a toe kick in the US and Canada, a plinth in the UK. It is counted with the end panels.
- Wash Only
- A surface with coats set to zero — exterior surfaces only. Calculates wash hours at the wash rate; no paint material is counted. Used for surfaces that need cleaning but not painting this visit.
AI and photos
- Surfacely Assist
- The AI layer that analyses photos in the background and surfaces observations — defects, probable surfaces, area name ideas. Observations are suggestions; you confirm or dismiss each one.
- Estimate walkthrough
- A feature that lets a homeowner take photos of their property via a shared link before you visit. The AI analyses the photos and presents surface chips for the homeowner to confirm, giving you a head start when you open the job.
Documents
- Crew Brief
- A safety and scope document for your team — the on-site equivalent of a quote. Covers the work scope, hazards, access method, safe work controls, and colour schedule. Your crew signs off via a portal link.
- Project Update
- A short field post — text, photos, or voice note — attached to the project timeline. Can be internal (team only) or shared with the client via the portal.
Project types
- Repaint
- The standard project type. All surfaces are treated as previously painted.
- New Build
- For unfinished construction. The first coat is treated as a primer, and the default coat count is 3. Hours and material are calculated differently from a repaint.