Reviewing a self-scope submission and importing it
The moment a homeowner taps send on their self-scope, the project updates in your pipeline. You'll get an email, the project card shows a Walkthrough complete badge with their timing at a glance, and inside the project there's a review panel waiting for you.
The review panel
Open the project from Projects → Leads. You'll see a Review homeowner scope panel summarising:
- How many areas the homeowner mapped
- The total number of photos uploaded
- Their timing — ASAP, next month, 2–3 months, or just getting prices
Open the full review and each area is listed with its name, photos, the surfaces the homeowner picked, any measurements they captured, and any notes they added.
Take a moment to read it before the site visit
The review is where you turn raw homeowner input into a mental picture of the job. Look for:
- Photos. Wide shots tell you about access and condition. Close-ups flag the things the homeowner is worried about — those are the conversation starters when you arrive.
- Note chips. If they tapped "colour change," "wallpaper," "garden against walls," "hard access," "high areas," or "dog on property," each one is a heads-up worth planning for.
- Skipped areas. A homeowner who skipped a room either didn't know it well or didn't want it included. Worth a quick call to clarify before you drive out.
- Surface selection. If they ticked walls but not ceiling, or doors but not skirting, that tells you what they think they want. The site visit is your chance to walk them through what makes sense as a complete job.
Importing to measurements
Once you've read through, tap Import to measurements. Surfacely does the following in one move:
- Creates a building under the project if one doesn't already exist
- Creates an area for each space the homeowner described — including ones they left unmeasured, as empty shells with the photos and notes attached
- Pre-loads every surface the homeowner ticked, with any measurements they captured filled in
- Attaches every photo to the matching area
- Copies their notes into the area assessment
You're then in the normal scoping flow — same surfaces, same speed steps, same pricing engine. The only difference is you didn't start from a blank screen.
What to confirm on site
Homeowner measurements are rough — a useful starting point, not a substitute for your own tape. On site, you'll want to:
- Measure each area properly — Surfacely will recalculate as you go
- Confirm the prep level for each surface (the homeowner has no way to assess this)
- Check anything flagged in the notes — access, garden beds, high areas, pets
- Add anything the homeowner missed or wasn't sure about
- Take your own photos for evidence and the crew brief
The homeowner's photos and notes stay on the project as context. They're useful again when you're back at the desk building the quote.
If you don't want to import
You're not obliged to. Some painters prefer to review the self-scope as background and then start scoping from scratch on site — particularly for larger jobs where the homeowner's structure doesn't quite fit reality. The submission stays on the project either way. You can come back to it later.
A useful record if scope drifts later
One quiet benefit of self-scope: the homeowner's original photos, notes, and surface picks are preserved on the project for as long as the project exists. Months later, if a conversation drifts into "I thought you were going to do the spare bedroom too," you have a date-stamped record of exactly which areas the homeowner included up front. That protects you, but it also protects the homeowner — there's no he-said-she-said, just a screen they can both look at together.
What happens to the lead afterwards
Importing doesn't change the project's status on its own — it stays a lead until you convert it into an active project. See Converting a lead into an active project for the next step.
Why it matters: the import is the bridge between the homeowner's world (rooms, surfaces, photos) and your pricing engine (production rates, prep levels, materials). Bridging it by hand for every job is the kind of admin that eats Sunday nights — and the kind of admin where things get missed. Importing in one tap saves the time, and structuring every job the same way protects the accuracy. Both quietly add up over a year.