Rain tomorrow. Send the crew inside.
A painting company with two crews always wants an interior job ready for the wet day. Redline moves the exterior crew to the hall and stairwell that's waiting, pushes the exterior to Thursday, and puts the right colors and sheens on the crew lead's phone.
Running painting crews in Redline
Crew leads on the app
Each person in the app uses a seat, so a lot of companies give it to the crew leads. The lead sees the address, the notes, the color schedule and the checklist. Never the price.
Book multi-day jobs day by day
An exterior is prep, prime, body and trim over several days. Book each day as its own visit, so a rained-out day moves without dragging the rest.
Keep an interior on deck
Have at least one sold interior ready to go. When the forecast turns, that's where the exterior crew goes.
Swap in one message
Tell Redline which crew moves where and which job slides. The board, the calendar and the lead's phone update together.
Punch list to the touch-up person
The final walkthrough list goes in the job notes. Send one painter back to work through it while the crew starts the next house.
5:45pm, the forecast changed
Danny's crew is on Kimball tomorrow at 8:00. Ruiz exterior day 2 moved to Thursday 8:00, still on Danny.
Kimball's notes: hall and stairwell walls Pale Oak eggshell, 2 coats, trim semi-gloss white. Thursday Danny also had the Shah prep. Keep both?
Shah prep is on Marco's crew Thursday at 8:00. Both phones are updated.
The crew board, tech app and assigning by chat are on Team ($129 a month) and Team+. Redline looks up a forecast only when you ask.
What the board does for a painting company
Color schedule on the phone
"Hall: Pale Oak, eggshell, 2 coats. Trim: semi-gloss white." In the job notes, so the sheen is right the first time.
Prep list
Furniture moved and covered, outlets taped, scraped and spot-primed, caulked. It goes in the job notes, and the lead's tapped status shows you where the day stands.
Paint store receipts
The extra gallon picked up mid-job gets snapped in the tech app and filed against the job.
Status by tap
Crews tap En route and On job, and mark the day done. No GPS, so nobody feels tracked, and you still know who's finished.
Weather is the schedule
Exterior painting runs on dry days, the right temperature and no dew on the siding by mid-morning. A week of rain can leave two crews with nothing to do unless something is ready inside. The companies that keep their crews working all season are the ones with an interior always on deck and a fast way to swap.
Redline won't watch the forecast for you. Ask it in the chat when you want to know. What it does is make the swap a sentence: the crew moves, the exterior slides, and the lead finds out on their phone instead of from a voicemail at 6am.
Straight answers on painting dispatch
Redline does
- Swap crews between exterior and interior jobs in one message
- Book multi-day jobs as separate visits
- Put the color schedule and prep list on the crew lead's phone
- Look up the forecast when you ask
- Keep job prices off crew phones
Redline doesn't
- Watch the weather and move jobs by itself
- Track painters' hours for payroll
- Track crews by GPS
- Order paint or track gallons used
- Text the homeowner about the change (calling is one tap)
Questions contractors ask
What does the crew lead see after a swap?
The new job, the address, the notes and the color schedule, on their phone as soon as you assign it. Team is $129 a month with 3 seats.
Can two painters share a truck on the board?
Yes. Group them for the day, every week on that day, or until you undo it, and they show as one crew.
How do I tell the homeowner their exterior moved?
Call with one tap from their file and log it, or have Redline draft a short email from your Gmail. Nothing goes to the customer on its own.
More for painters
Keep reading
- Painting softwareRoom-by-room quotes, deposits for paint, colors on the job and the final after walkthrough.
- Painting CRMExteriors sold in winter, the sold-not-scheduled list, and past clients due for the next room.
- Painting estimate appWalls, trim, doors, coats and prep into a bid with a deposit for paint.
- Crew dispatch and tech appA board for every tech's day and a simple app for the crew. Team plan and up.
Run your business by chat.
Redline is free to start. Tell it about the job and it handles the quote, the schedule, the invoice and the follow-up.