Residential Estimate Wizard

Full walkthrough of the 3-step Residential Estimate Wizard, from client details to sending.

Beginnerownersales repUpdated 2026-04-25

Residential Estimate Wizard

The Residential Estimate Wizard walks you through three steps: client and property details, services and pricing, and review and send. Most estimates take under five minutes once your pricing defaults are configured.

Step 1 -- Client & Property

Start by entering the customer and property information.

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Step 1 of the Residential Estimate Wizard showing the client and property form

Customer Details

Fill in the following fields:

  • Customer Name (required) -- the name that appears on the proposal.
  • Lead Source -- select from the dropdown. This tracks where the lead came from (Google, referral, door hanger, etc.).
  • Email -- used to send the estimate link.
  • Phone -- used for SMS delivery.
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Customer details fields with Lead Source dropdown expanded

Property Address

Start typing in the Address field. Google Places autocomplete suggests matching addresses. Select one from the dropdown.

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Address field with Google Places autocomplete suggestions visible

When you select an address, the system auto-fills City, State (2-character abbreviation), and ZIP.

Property Details

Enter the property characteristics manually or use the auto-fill shortcut.

FieldDescription
Property Square FootageTotal livable area in square feet
StoriesNumber of floors (defaults to 1)
Lot SizeTotal lot area
Year BuiltConstruction year
Roof SqftEstimated from property sqft
Gutter Linear FtEstimated from building footprint
Siding Typewood, vinyl, fiber-cement, brick, stone, stucco, aluminum, composite, other
Roof Typeasphalt_shingle, metal, tile, slate, other
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Property details section with all fields filled in

Auto-fill Property Data

Click Auto-fill Property after entering the address and ZIP code. The system calls a property lookup API and fills in:

  • Square footage
  • Stories
  • Lot size
  • Year built
  • Roof square footage
  • Gutter linear feet

This saves two to three minutes per estimate. Not all addresses have data available, especially rural properties.

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Auto-fill Property button highlighted, with fields populated after clicking

Assign to Sales Rep

If you are creating an internal estimate, use the Assign to Sales Rep dropdown to assign the estimate to a team member.

Internal residential estimates now autosave in the background while you work. CE Pro can save partially completed drafts during Step 1, then keep updating that same draft as you change pricing, notes, services, add-ons, or review details. The wizard header shows the save state so the office can see when changes are still pending, and the wizard also flushes pending draft changes if the office clicks away right after editing.

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Assign to Sales Rep dropdown with team member names listed

On the estimate detail page, CE Pro also shows a shared Tags card whenever the estimate is linked to a client. Those tags save back to the linked client so the same labels stay in sync with lead, job, and invoice filters.

When the estimate is linked to a CRM client, the wizard header also includes a direct View Client action so the office can jump back to the customer profile without leaving the estimate workflow blind.

Click Next to proceed to Step 2.


Step 2 -- Services & Pricing

Select which services to include and configure the details for each one.

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Step 2 showing the services list with toggle checkboxes and the pricing panel on the right

The Residential Estimate Wizard now loads its services, add-ons, and custom item templates through the same shared catalog bridge used by the public estimator entrypoint. In practice, that means the office and customer-facing residential estimator stay aligned to the same active catalog rows while the platform moves toward the unified price-book core.

That catalog read path now stays read-only during normal page loads. Office and customer estimator screens consume the shared residential catalog snapshot (with legacy fallback when a workspace has not been bridged yet) instead of trying to repair the shared price book inline during every render.

Residential catalog saves now follow that same fail-closed rule too. If the office creates, edits, or deletes a service, add-on structure, or custom item template and CE Pro cannot update the shared price-book bridge, the admin change is rolled back instead of leaving the legacy pricing table ahead of the shared quote-core catalog.

Those residential catalog saves now update only the touched shared price-book rows instead of forcing a full residential catalog rebuild after every single service, add-on, or template change. That keeps org-specific custom books isolated, lowers the blast radius of each save, and still preserves the fail-closed rollback if the shared price-book write cannot complete.

Residential saves also now normalize their service, add-on, and custom-item breakdown into the shared quote-core line-item model behind the scenes. The current residential wizard UI and legacy estimate fields still stay in place, but the same saved estimate now feeds the new canonical line-item layer used by the unified quote-core rollout.

Behind that UI, residential create and update now run through the same shared quote-core persistence layer used by generic quotes. That means the saved estimate row, canonical line items, quote snapshots, rollback handling, and quote-event logging are all written together instead of the residential API route owning a second inline save flow.

Measurement-driven property values like Roof Sqft, Gutter Linear Ft, and saved map-measure sources now persist correctly when you edit and resave a residential estimate. That same updated measurement context is written before PDF and email regeneration runs, so previews and sends stay aligned to the latest saved scope instead of a stale earlier version.

Enabling Services

Each service has a toggle checkbox. Turn on the services you want to include in the estimate. When you enable a service, its configuration fields appear below.

Each enabled service now also includes a Customer Description field. CE Pro seeds that text from the residential service catalog when default scope copy exists, and the same description now stays visible in the office review step, the customer-facing estimate page, and the residential PDF instead of disappearing after save.

Service and add-on price overrides are now directly editable text inputs. Reps can click into the amount and type the target price instead of relying on the browser's up/down number arrows.

Service Parameters

Each service has its own set of inputs.

House Wash

  • Square footage (auto-filled from Step 1)
  • Stories
  • Dirtiness level

Windows

  • Window count
  • Type: Exterior Only or Interior + Exterior
  • Screen removal: Yes or No

Gutters

  • Linear feet (auto-filled from Step 1)
  • Gutter type

Roof

  • Square feet
  • Roof type multiplier
  • Half roof toggle (for partial cleaning)

Driveway

  • Square feet

Sidewalks

  • Linear feet

Deck

  • Square feet
  • Deck type

Patio

  • Square feet
  • Patio type

Fence

  • Linear feet
  • Fence type
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House Wash service expanded showing sqft, stories, and dirtiness level fields

Dirtiness Level

Every applicable service includes a dirtiness level selector. This affects the pricing multiplier.

LevelLabelWhen to Use
LightRoutine cleaningAnnual maintenance, minimal buildup
ModerateSome buildupVisible dirt, mildew starting
HeavySignificant stainingYears of neglect, heavy mold or algae
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Dirtiness level selector showing the three options with descriptions

Red Line Pricing

If your workspace enables Red Line, CE Pro also calculates a per-service floor directly from the live suggested service price. That means the floor follows the same square-footage, size, and dirtiness inputs your team already uses instead of relying on a disconnected flat table.

Red Line now follows the assigned sales rep on the estimate. If an owner, manager, or office teammate changes the rep while building the quote, the floor logic and save guardrails update to match that rep's Red Line access before the estimate is saved.

If the estimate is still attached to an old or unavailable rep record, CE Pro now keeps Red Line hidden and falls back to standard pricing instead of borrowing the access level of the office user who opened the quote. That keeps stale assignments from changing the floor model by accident.

If Red Line is not showing on a residential quote, the estimator now explains why inline. The notice tells you whether Red Line is turned off in Pricing Manager or the currently assigned rep is still on standard pricing, so the office does not have to guess which setting is blocking the floor.

Mixed teams are supported here too. Owners, managers, and sales reps remain the default Red Line candidates, but a crew lead, technician, or other teammate with explicit Red Line Access now shows up as an assignable residential rep in the estimator as well.

  • Suggested Price -- the calculated service price before a manual override.
  • Floor Price -- a configurable percentage of the suggested price.
  • Status -- CE Pro marks the service as at red line, near red line, above red line, or healthy upside.
  • Manual Override Guardrail -- when manager overrides are turned off, reps still cannot save a service below the floor.

Managers and owners can always review the red-line floor on eligible estimates. Whether sales reps also see the live commission number depends on the Show commissions to reps pricing setting.

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Residential service row showing the floor price, red-line status badge, and commission callout

If your workspace turns on Enable manager override tracking, the estimator also unlocks the first residential override workflow:

  • Reps can type a below-floor price into the service row instead of being clamped at the floor.
  • Step 3 shows a Red Line manager override card with the shortfall, affected services, and a place to explain why the quote should go out below floor.
  • The estimate can still save as a draft so the office has a real quote record to review, but Send Now stays blocked until a manager approves the request.
  • Owners and managers can approve or reject the pending override either from the residential review step or from the estimate detail page.
  • If the rep changes the below-floor pricing after requesting approval, CE Pro marks the old request as stale and requires a fresh request before sending.

If your workspace also enables the Rehash Department, Step 3 now captures the quote outcome before the office can finish the save:

  • Residential quotes need a Rehash disposition before they can be saved or sent.
  • HOT, PRICE, TIMING, and DEAD require notes so the follow-up team sees the real objection or timing issue later.
  • Unsold quotes can auto-enroll into the staged Rehash sequence immediately after save.
  • Day 21 and Day 90 win-back offers still respect Red Line. If the saved service floors would be broken, CE Pro suppresses that discount message instead of sending a below-floor offer.
  • Once a quote is in Rehash, the estimate detail page shows a dedicated Rehash card with stage, notes, next touch, parent quote, and any recovered-close attribution.

Sales reps building residential estimates from the mobile app now get the same Red Line guardrails. Mobile pricing review shows each service floor and status, clamps below-floor edits back to the floor, repeats the Red Line summary before delivery, and stores the Red Line snapshot with the queued mobile proposal data for later audit.

Mobile residential estimates now also share the web estimator's property lookup service. When a rep starts from a live CRM client or lead, the linked customer and service address carry into the mobile builder. Once the address, city, and ZIP are present, the mobile app calls the authenticated property lookup endpoint, pre-fills square footage, stories, lot size, and year built when available, and recalculates house-wash quantity from the returned square footage.

Add-ons

Below the main services, check any applicable add-ons. Each add-on has a quantity input so you can adjust amounts.

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Add-ons section with checkboxes and quantity fields

Selected add-ons now use Customer Description text too. Built-in residential add-ons can start with default scope copy from the shared catalog bridge, and any edits you make there now follow the estimate through draft reopen, office review, the customer page, and the PDF export.

Saved drafts now preserve add-on selections in their editable form. When you reopen a draft estimate, the selected add-ons, option pricing, and manual add-on price changes load back into Step 2 instead of duplicating or resetting.

Add-on normalization is also more stable during reopen and resave now. When CE Pro rebuilds the estimate from stored add-on selections plus calculated add-on totals, it matches them by the add-on label instead of relying on raw array order.

The stock residential add-ons that offices commonly reuse for detached extras now also ship with default customer-facing scope copy in the shared catalog bridge. Built-in rows such as Shed, Pergola, Pool Deck, Fireplace (Exterior), Play Set, Outdoor Furniture Set, and Bring Water no longer start blank when they flow into shared quote-core line items.

Template-based custom items also stay linked to the shared residential price-book bridge more reliably now. If you add a saved custom template and then reopen or resave the estimate later, CE Pro can still map that line back to the shared template definition even though the editable line item keeps its own runtime row id.

Custom Line Items

Click + Add Custom Item to add a line item that is not in your standard service list. Each custom item has:

  • Description (free text)
  • Quantity
  • Unit Price
  • A delete button to remove it
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Custom line item row with description, quantity, unit price fields, and a delete button

Maintenance Plan

Click + Add Maintenance Plan to open the maintenance plan builder. This lets you create a year-by-year visit schedule with recurring service pricing.

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Maintenance plan builder showing visit schedule and yearly pricing

When a residential estimate includes a maintenance plan, the customer portal shows a clear choice between One-Time Service and Maintenance Plan. Accepting either option now completes the same acceptance workflow behind the scenes, so the estimate status, automations, and follow-up scheduling stay in sync.

Accepted maintenance agreements now also seed recurring job templates automatically. CE Pro creates one recurring template per repeating seasonal visit pattern from the accepted maintenance offer, so the office can manage those future visits from Admin > Jobs > Templates without rebuilding the schedule manually.

If the office edits that accepted maintenance estimate later, CE Pro now resyncs the linked recurring templates from the updated maintenance plan too. That keeps the future recurring schedule aligned with the latest accepted scope instead of leaving the recurring templates on the earlier agreement shape.

Pricing Panel

The right side of the screen shows a running total that updates as you make changes.

The panel breaks down:

  • Per-service pricing
  • Subtotal before discounts
  • Package discount (triggers automatically when you select three or more services)
  • Add-on totals
  • Custom item totals
  • Minimum service charge, if the quote is below your configured floor
  • Taxable amount after discounts
  • Tax
  • Grand Total

If you apply a manual price override to a service, that override is now carried back into the edit flow when you reopen the draft. The Residential Estimate Wizard rebuilds the quote with the saved override instead of reverting to the original calculated price.

That same override path now autosaves with the rest of the draft. If you type a new service or add-on price and pause, CE Pro writes the updated amount back to the estimate automatically instead of waiting for a manual draft save from Step 3.

When Red Line is enabled, the same pricing panel can also show a running Rep Commission block. CE Pro rolls up service commission plus add-on commission in real time, using the red-line floor for services and the configured add-on commission rate for add-ons.

The public residential estimator also now merges partial pricing configs with the same default pricing structure the office uses. That keeps customer-facing estimators from dropping service rules just because an older workspace config is missing newly introduced pricing keys.

Residential pricing-manager saves now keep the shared default price book in sync too. When the office saves or restores a pricing version, CE Pro mirrors that active residential pricing config into the workspace's default price book immediately so the quote-core pricing layer does not lag behind the Pricing Manager.

Shared residential customer links also now preserve the correct public context when they land on the unified quote page. Standard estimate links open the estimate tab, proposal-option links keep their package-selection tracking, and maintenance-plan links keep their maintenance-agreement tracking instead of collapsing every residential customer open into one generic quote-view event.

Those residential proposal-option and maintenance-plan reads also now hydrate from the shared offer mirror behind the scenes. That means the public/customer residential pages can keep rendering the correct package and maintenance data even as CE Pro moves those offer structures off the parent estimate JSON and into the shared estimate_offer_groups layer.

That same shared offer hydration now protects customer package selection, residential send classification, and maintenance-plan PDF reads too. If the rollout has already mirrored the proposal options or maintenance plan into the shared offer layer, CE Pro can still choose the right send path, render the right customer-facing maintenance document, and process the customer’s package selection even while the legacy parent estimate JSON is being phased down.

Residential package acceptance now validates against that mirrored shared offer state before it rejects the customer selection too. If the current package options already live in the shared estimate_offer_groups layer, customers can still accept the right package even when the older parent estimate JSON has already been trimmed back during the quote-core migration.

Customer and office summary surfaces now honor that same mirrored offer layer too. The customer dashboard, customer estimate list, portal proposal lookup, and office estimate list can still classify a residential quote as a package proposal or maintenance offer even after the shared rollout moves that data off the parent estimate row.

Those acceptance flows now keep the mirrored child offer quotes aligned too. When a customer accepts a package proposal or maintenance agreement, CE Pro updates the linked offer quote status along with the parent estimate so later send, PDF, recurring-template, and follow-up reads stay aligned to the accepted offer instead of only the compatibility JSON fields changing.

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Pricing panel on the right side showing per-service breakdown, package discount, tax, and total

Margin Calculator

If your organization has cost data configured, the margin calculator appears in the pricing panel. It shows your estimated margin percentage based on your configured labor and material costs versus the quoted price.

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Margin calculator showing margin percentage and cost vs. price comparison

Click Next to proceed to Step 3.


Step 3 -- Review & Send

Review everything before sending. This step shows a read-only summary of the entire estimate.

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Step 3 review screen showing the full estimate summary

Summary

The review screen displays:

  • Customer name, email, phone
  • Property address and details
  • Each selected service with its parameters
  • Customer-facing service and add-on descriptions exactly as they will appear on the shared estimate page and PDF
  • Full pricing breakdown with subtotal, visible discount lines, taxable amount, tax, and total
  • Custom items grouped inside the same estimate breakdown as services and add-ons
  • Grand Total displayed prominently at the top of the pricing section
  • The current autosave-backed draft record used for preview, AI review, and send actions
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Grand total prominently displayed in the pricing summary

Actions

Four buttons appear at the bottom of the review screen:

ButtonWhat It Does
BackReturns to Step 2 to make changes
Save as DraftSaves the estimate without sending
PreviewOpens a PDF preview of the proposal
Send EstimateOpens the send modal
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Action buttons at the bottom of the review screen -- Back, Save as Draft, Preview, Send Estimate

Because the draft autosaves during the earlier steps, Preview, AI Review, and Send now all reuse the same saved estimate record instead of creating separate parallel drafts during review.

Sending the Estimate

Click Send Estimate to open the shared review-and-send modal. That same module is now used across residential estimates, generic quotes, holiday lights, fleet proposals, and commercial building proposals.

If the workspace is temporarily missing the secure customer-token signing secret, residential records that already have a persisted shared /quote/[token] link can still stay interactive. Package selection, maintenance-plan acceptance, custom estimate approval, customer-facing PDFs, and deposit actions now validate against that saved public quote token directly, so the shared quote page keeps working for customers and office previews instead of falling back to a false read-only state. Older signed estimate-only links still depend on the customer-token signing secret.

Residential customer links are now converging onto the shared quote page too. When a residential estimate already has a persisted public quote token, the older /estimate, /proposal, and /maintenance-proposal customer links now hand off to the shared /quote/[token] experience so customers see the same unified estimate, package-option, and maintenance tabs from one public quote surface.

The subject line, email body, and SMS body come pre-filled. You can edit them before sending. For SMS, a character counter shows how close you are to the 160-character limit.

Residential sends now also flow through the shared quote-core delivery helper. The office-facing behavior is the same, but CE Pro now records residential send history in delivery_state, tracks the last sent customer URL, and writes quote-core sent events the same way the generic quote flow already does.

Older workspaces that still have the pre-quote-core residential add-on table shape now stay compatible too. Residential estimate saves and residential catalog sync can fall back cleanly even if the legacy addon_structures rows do not expose the newer created_at column yet, so office users do not get blocked just opening or saving residential quotes during rollout cleanup.

Customer-facing residential estimate, proposal, and maintenance pages now also record quote-core viewed events in addition to the existing communication and pipeline view tracking. That keeps the shared quote event stream aligned with what customers are actually opening while the public estimate UI is still being consolidated.

Residential acceptance is now starting to use that same shared quote-core lifecycle too. Public signatures and accepted-status updates now run through one shared acceptance helper for the accepted event log, webhook dispatch, pipeline move to Won, gamification credit, and accepted-estimate automation instead of each residential route owning its own side-effect bundle.

Proposal package selection now follows that same accepted-estimate path as well. When a signed customer picks one of the residential proposal options, CE Pro now runs the shared accepted follow-up flow instead of only swapping the selected package totals on the estimate row, which keeps package acceptance aligned with the rest of the quote-core lifecycle.

Residential estimate previews and office/customer open actions can now also reuse the shared quote-core /quote/[token] page once a saved estimate has a persisted public quote token. The dedicated residential proposal-options and maintenance-plan pages still exist for those specialized offer shapes, but the base residential estimate path is now converging on the same customer quote page the generic builder already uses.

Under the hood, residential proposal options and maintenance plans now also mirror into the shared quote-core offer layer as hidden child quotes plus estimate_offer_groups / estimate_offer_members records. The current proposal and maintenance customer pages still render from the legacy residential JSON for compatibility, but the saved estimate now seeds the shared offer structure needed for the full unified quote-core rollout.

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Shared send modal with editable email and SMS copy plus recipient summary

Click Confirm & Send. The button shows a loading state while the email and text delivery finish.

After sending:

  • The estimate status changes from Draft to Sent.
  • The customer receives the email and, when a phone number is available, the matching text message in the same send action.
  • If the estimate includes a maintenance plan, the customer can choose either the one-time estimate or the maintenance plan from the portal without losing the acceptance workflow.
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Estimate status badge showing "Sent" after successful delivery

Tips

  • Use Auto-fill Property to save two to three minutes per estimate. Enter the address and ZIP first, then click the button.
  • Enable three or more services to trigger the automatic package discount. This shows the customer the bundled savings.
  • Save as Draft if you need to finish the estimate later. You can return to it from the estimates list.
  • Preview the PDF before sending. This catches formatting issues and pricing errors before the customer sees them.

Troubleshooting

Auto-fill did not work

Make sure both the address and ZIP code are entered before clicking Auto-fill Property. Some rural or new-construction addresses may not have property data available. Enter the details manually in those cases.

If CE Pro temporarily cannot verify the shared property-lookup rate limit safely, the button may return a retry-style error instead of filling partial data. Wait a moment and try again rather than assuming the address itself is invalid.

Pricing looks wrong

Check your default pricing in the Pricing Manager. The Residential Estimate Wizard pulls base rates, multipliers, and minimum charges from your pricing configuration. Go to Settings > Pricing to verify your defaults.

Customer did not receive the estimate

Verify the customer's email address and phone number. Check that email delivery and SMS delivery are configured correctly in Settings > Integrations. Look at the message log for delivery errors.

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