Everything you need to Scale.

Welcome to BidFlow — the command center for the modern contractor. This guide walks you through one full job, start to finish: from setting up your profile to estimating, sending the proposal, getting paid, scheduling, running the job, and closing it out. Fifteen minutes here and you'll run your whole business from your phone.

1. Set Up Your Foundation

Your business profile is your digital handshake. Every proposal, invoice, and PDF you send is branded with it, so set this up once before your first estimate.

• Business identity: Upload your logo — we optimize it for both web and PDF automatically.
• Credentials: Add your license number and BidFlow puts a Verified Professional badge on your proposals to build trust.
• Contact: Your address and phone are turned into tap-to-call and tap-to-map links for customers.

Set Your Markups Once

BidFlow doesn't just estimate costs — it protects your margins. In Settings, set your three markups and every estimate uses them automatically:

• Material markup: Your margin on hardware and supplies (typical: 15–25%).
• Overhead: Insurance, fuel, tools, software (typical: 10–15%).
• Profit margin: Your actual take-home (typical: 15–30%).

2. Estimate Any Job in Seconds

No more spreadsheets. Describe the job in plain language and BidFlow's AI — tuned for the trades — builds a line-item estimate for you.

1. Talk it out: Tap the mic and describe the job as you walk the site. "Replace 150 square feet of water-damaged drywall, tape, texture to match, paint two coats."
2. Snap photos: Add up to a few job-site photos and the AI reads the space to confirm scope and complexity.
3. Drop your ZIP: Every estimate is tied to a ZIP code so material and labor prices match your local market — you never underbid.

Prefer a guided path? Tap the wizard to pick a job category and answer a few quick questions — including full support for doors & windows and other common trade work — and BidFlow assembles the estimate for you.

Dial In the Finish Level

• Budget: Functional, cost-effective (rentals, flips).
• Mid-grade: Standard residential quality (most common).
• High-end: Premium finishes and detailed craftsmanship.
• Ultra-luxury: Custom, designer-grade materials and artisan labor.

3. Turn It Into a Winning Proposal

An estimate is for you; a proposal is for the customer. One tap turns your numbers into a clean, interactive document your customer can read, sign, and pay — right on their phone.

• Scope of work: The AI writes a professional, plain-English summary. Edit it to add exclusions or warranties.
• Payment schedule: Choose a single payment or up to 4 progress milestones — BidFlow handles the invoicing for each stage.
• E-signatures: Legally binding signatures are captured with a timestamp and IP address for full audit protection.

4. Get Paid — Card, Cash, or Check

Stop chasing checks. Connect Stripe in Settings and customers pay deposits and invoices by credit card, Apple Pay, or Google Pay — straight from the proposal.

• Instant deposits: Collect the deposit the moment the proposal is signed. Work starts once the money's secured.
• Automatic invoices: After the deposit, BidFlow lines up the remaining invoices — just tap Send at each milestone.
• Cash & check, tracked accurately: Paid offline? Mark it in the app. BidFlow tracks cash, check, and card together so your totals are always right, even when a single job mixes payment methods.

5. Put It on the Calendar

Once a job is sold, schedule it from the Schedule tab. Tap a day, pick the job, set the start (and end) date.

• Tentative vs. confirmed: A scheduled job shows as Tentative until the deposit lands, then flips to Confirmed automatically — so you can see at a glance which dates are locked in.
• On your phone's calendar: Subscribe to your BidFlow calendar feed and your jobs show up right alongside everything else in Apple or Google Calendar.

6. Run the Job From the Job File

Every sold job gets a Job File under the Jobs tab — your single place to track the work, the money, and the paper trail while the crew is on site.

Track Real Costs With Receipt Scanning

1. Snap the receipt: Photograph your material receipt at the supply house.
2. AI reads it: BidFlow pulls the vendor, total, tax, and date automatically.
3. See real profit: Expenses link to the job, so you watch actual profit against your estimated profit in real time.

Daily Logs & Change Orders

• Daily logs: Jot a quick note on what got done each day — a clean record if a question ever comes up later.
• Change orders: When scope grows mid-job, create a change order from the Job File. The customer approves it on their phone and the amount is added to the job total — no awkward conversations, no money left on the table.

7. Close It Out & Wow the Homeowner

When the work's done, use the Job Closer to turn the finish into marketing and a memorable handoff.

• Guided before & after photos: A built-in camera guide helps you capture matching shots so the transformation really lands.
• Homeowner memento: BidFlow builds a polished recap PDF of the project to leave with the customer — the kind of finishing touch that earns referrals and five-star reviews.

8. Keep Your Books Straight

BidFlow keeps your accounting tidy without extra busywork.

• QuickBooks export: Connect QuickBooks Online in Settings and push a paid job over as a customer, invoice, and payment in one tap — and send your tracked expenses across as purchases too. It's smart about duplicates, so you can re-run it safely.
• Reports: The Reports tab shows your revenue trends, your close rate (how many sent proposals get signed), and a real-time profit & loss from your income minus tracked expenses.

9. Field Tools & Code Search

BidFlow isn't just an office tool — the Tools tab has what you need on site.

• AI code search (powered by CodeBook): Ask in plain language — "max spacing for deck joists in Florida?" — and get an accurate answer, not legalese. Covers all US states and Canadian provinces.
• Code check: One tap on any estimate surfaces the relevant building-code requirements and saves them to the estimate for reference all job long.
• Construction calculator: Construction math, BPI diagnostics, and unit conversions — no separate app.

10. Power Features

Ready to go further? These set you apart from the competition.

• Specialty flows: Turn on trade-specific flows like septic in Settings for guided, code-aware estimating built for that work.
• Labor display: Show labor as its own line item or fold it into materials for a cleaner customer-facing view.
• Audit trail: Every change to an estimate is logged — if a customer questions a price, you've got the full history.
• Offline mode: No signal? No problem. Drafts save on your device and sync the moment you're back in range.