Step 1
Send a link instead of a site visit
An enquiry comes in. Instead of booking a site visit days out and losing half a day to it, you fill in three fields and send a link — by email, or copy it and text it yourself.
At the desk
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For painting companies
How Surfacely works
Every estimating platform starts the moment you already have the measurements. Surfacely starts before that — with two ways a job gets roughly measured without you driving there, so you can qualify it, refine it, or turn it down before it costs you a trip out. Then it prices it on your numbers, and afterwards tells you whether you actually made money.
About these screenshots. Every screen below is the real product, captured end to end against a live database. The company, the client and the address are invented; the measurements, hours, rates and totals are what the software actually calculated. They come from several jobs at different stages, so project numbers and dollar figures differ from screen to screen.
01
Send a link instead of driving out
The part no other estimating platform does — and the cheapest way there is to find out whether a job is worth your time.
Step 2
One link, no app on either end
That is the whole thing. No account for them to create, nothing to install, nothing to print. It works on whatever phone is already in their hand.
At the desk
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Step 3
They open it in your name, not ours
Your logo, your colours, your company across the top: "Walk Fernbrook Painting Co. through your place." As far as the homeowner is concerned this is your software. Surfacely never appears.
The alternative is one tap away too — "Just send my details for now" — so a reluctant homeowner still becomes a lead rather than a bounce.
On the phone, on site
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Step 4
Room by room, aspect by aspect, in plain language
No jargon and no arithmetic — nothing they can get wrong. Inside it asks for a room; outside it asks for an aspect — the front of the house, the eaves, a deck, a fence. Then a photo, and which surfaces are being painted. Questions a homeowner can actually answer standing in front of it.
On the phone, on site
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Step 5
They put rough sizes to it
Rough is the point. It is not a survey and it does not pretend to be — it is enough to tell a small job from a big one, and it comes to you with photos attached.
On the phone, on site
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Step 6
What they see is a starting range — and it says so
Three tiers, in the homeowner's own words, under a line that does the most important job on the page: "This is a starting range, not a quote. Your painter sets the real price once they see the job."
You are never bound by it, and the homeowner has been told that before they ever contact you.
On the phone, on site
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Step 7
And it is honest about what it leaves out
Access and scaffolding. How much preparation is really needed. Repairs underneath. Lead paint and asbestos. Big colour changes. Every one of them named, with "your painter will confirm them on site."
This is the expectation-setting conversation you would otherwise have to have yourself, on the phone, every time.
On the phone, on site
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Step 8
You look it over before you commit to anything
This is the part that matters. Before you spend a minute on it you can see the photos, where it is, how big it is, and what the range deliberately excluded. You review, and you refine.
And you can decide you do not want it. A job that is too small, too far, or too awkward costs you thirty seconds here instead of a round trip — which is the whole saving. Take it on, and you go and measure it properly with their scope already loaded.
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Step 9
You can see who is still measuring
Every invite you have sent, and where it got to. A homeowner who has gone quiet is a follow-up you can actually make, instead of an enquiry you assume went cold.
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02
Or put the link on your own website
The same measuring flow, self-serve — sitting on your site and your social pages, working while you are up a ladder.
Step 10
A link on your website or your Facebook page
"Measure your own place and get an honest starting range you can send to a painter." Someone who lands on your page at ten at night can start right there, instead of filling in a contact form and waiting for you to call back.
Nothing is routed, brokered or sold, and Surfacely never sells you leads. They came from your page, so the scope they end up holding is one they send to you.
On the phone, on site
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Step 11
They scope it themselves, the same way
Same rooms, same surfaces, same photos, same starting range with the same exclusions spelled out. What reaches you is a real scope in Surfacely's own format — which is why you can turn it into a priced quote the same day rather than the same week.
On the phone, on site
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03
Then you measure it properly, on site
The homeowner measure qualifies a job; it never replaces yours. On the ones you take on you still walk the site and measure it properly — starting from what they already sent, not from a blank page.
Step 12
Area by area, surface by surface
Ceilings, doors, baseboards, walls, windows — each carrying its own area, hours and coat count. The bar at the bottom keeps a running total for the room: 15.7 hrs, 5 gallons.
On the phone, on site
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Step 13
Feet and inches, or metres — whichever you work in
49′3″ for the first run. Add another and it totals as you go. In the US and Canada the grid takes feet and the inches come off their own row; everywhere else it is metres and a decimal point. Either way, no converting in your head and no arithmetic on the back of a business card.
The keypad changes with your country, so nobody is doing unit maths on site. Storage is metric underneath either way; you never see it.
On the phone, on site
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Step 14
The whole job, measured
Six areas, all six done — 81.7 hrs and 16 gallons. Every surface measured rather than guessed. This is the scope the price gets built on.
On the phone, on site
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04
Price it so it is actually profitable
At the desk, with the measurements already in. The part that decides whether the job was worth doing.
Step 15
What an hour actually costs you
Not your wage — your loaded cost. Wages plus on-costs: tax, insurance, leave. Surfacely shows you where your number sits against what painters near you pay, and every quote you send prices off it.
Not sure? Enter your crew — painters, apprentices, casuals, subbies — and it blends them into one rate.
On the phone, on site
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Step 16
The costs you would have eaten
Scaffold on the front facade. Three weeks of project management. Surfacely flags what the measurement implies and will not price the job until you have said yes or no to each one — running cost impact in view the whole time.
Two findings here. Neither is optional to answer; both are optional to charge.
At the desk
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Step 17
Your margin on the left, their document on the right
$52/hr cost at 45% margin makes a $94.55/hr sell rate and 43.2% GP across the job. Change either number and the client-facing document on the right updates as you watch.
Sell prices are always derived from cost, never stored — so a rate change can never leave a stale price behind.
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Step 18
What lands in their inbox
A cover photo of their own house, an executive summary, and the scope of work broken down by area — in your colours, under your logo, the same identity they saw on the measuring link.
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Step 19
They accept on their phone
One link. No login, no PDF to download and squint at. Once a quote is accepted it locks — from there, changes are variations, measured and priced the same way.
On the phone, on site
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05
Run it, and know where you stand
The half most quoting tools stop before — and the only half that tells you whether the price was right.
Step 20
Log the day from the van
Three on site, eight hours each, three quarters of the way through. About thirty seconds at knock-off.
On the phone, on site
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Step 21
Burn rate while you can still do something about it
Labour 62% — on track. Materials 85% — watch. You find this out with a week left, not at the end when the money has already gone.
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Step 22
What the job actually did
Quote total, invoiced, paid and outstanding in one panel. Job complete, paid in full, nothing left on the table — and the estimate-versus-actual sits behind it, ready for the next quote.
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FAQ
The questions painters actually ask
Do homeowners really measure their own place?
They do the parts a homeowner can do: name the room, say whether it is inside or out, take a photo, pick the surfaces, and put rough sizes to them. It is not a survey and the app never claims it is — the screen they see says "this is a starting range, not a quote" before it shows them a number. It is enough for you to judge the job.
Does this replace going out and measuring properly?
No. It replaces driving out to find out whether a job is worth measuring. On the ones you take on you still walk the site and measure it properly — the difference is you arrive knowing the job is real, and you start from the rooms and photos they already sent instead of a blank page.
So do I get to check it before I am committed to anything?
Yes, and that is the point of the whole thing. You see the photos, where it is, how big it is, which surfaces they picked, and the list of things the range deliberately excluded. You refine it into a real quote on your own rates — or you decide it is not a job you want, which cost you thirty seconds instead of half a day.
Does Surfacely sell me leads?
No, and it never will. There is no marketplace, no bidding, no per-lead fee, and nobody is being sold your name. The public route is a link you put on your own website or social pages, so the person measuring came from your page and the scope comes back to you.
What do I actually get back when they finish?
The measurements land on a project in your pipeline, you get a notification and an email, and Surfacely attaches a ballpark value so you can tell a small job from a big one at a glance. The homeowner never sees that number — it is yours, for triage.
Is the pricing yours or mine?
Yours. Your loaded labour cost, your production rates, your prep rates, your material margins, your minimum-job rules. Surfacely does the arithmetic and keeps it consistent across everyone who quotes for you. Every number in it is one you set.
What if my numbers are wrong?
That is what the last stage is for. Log actual hours and materials as the job runs, and it tells you where the estimate was off and by how much. The tenth quote is better than the first because the first nine told you something.
Does it work without signal?
Yes, for your own measuring — it writes to the device and syncs when you have coverage again. Half the houses worth quoting have no reception in the garage.
Metric or imperial?
Whichever your country uses — feet and inches in the US and Canada, metres elsewhere. The keypad changes with it, so nobody is converting anything in their head. Surfacely runs in Australia, the US, the UK, New Zealand and Canada.
See it on one of your own jobs
Set your rates once, then either send a measuring link or walk a room yourself and price it on your own numbers. The fastest way to judge it is on a job you already know the answer to.
Free to start, and your rate card is yours from the first quote — nothing here prices a job on our numbers.