Drywall & finishing

The CRM that names the level of finish.

Daybook runs a drywall company end to end: the level of finish named at the walkthrough and the quote built from your own labelled price list; a finish walk-through — the level delivered, the raking-light check, the client’s sign-off — rides on every job type, and the job does not close without it; FLHA forms, clock-in and photos come from the crew’s phones. Then the invoice, with GST/HST by province.

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The job “Trevor Raman — New construction” in Daybook, and its brief: “Work starts Monday, October 12”, an update from the crew, the access code pinned from the customer’s email, a short summary of where it stands, the key facts and what the customer asked for (each with the message it came from).

The rules the trade lives under

Built around the paperwork a drywall contractor already answers to.

The level of finish, delivered and signed for

A new build, a basement development, renovation boarding and finishing, a repair or patch, a textured ceiling, an insulation and vapour barrier job and a commercial or steel-stud job do not close without the level of finish delivered, whether it was checked under a raking light, what was done, the photographs after and the client’s sign-off.
The insulation inspection, before the board

The site measure and sheet count records what is on the walls now, the ceiling heights, the sheet count, the level of finish quoted, the access and protection, and whether an insulation inspection is needed before the board, with the photographs before and the crew lead’s sign-off. Attached to new builds, basements, renovations, insulation and commercial jobs.
Ontario’s rules for contracts signed at a client’s home

A quote signed at an Ontario client’s home shows them their right to cancel for 10 days, and their copy is emailed with the last day to cancel.
Provincial OH&S hazard assessments (FLHA)

FLHA forms in the crew app, on Crew and up: the hazards, the controls, the conditions and the crew on site, filled in on the phone at the start of the day and filed on the job the moment they land.

Daybook names these so you can see where it helps. It is not a compliance product: it does not work out a sheet count, certify a fire-rated assembly or test a wall for moisture or mould. The sheets record what was measured, done and signed for, the hazard assessment is yours to fill in, and your province has the last word.

Three things that go wrong

The headaches every drywall company knows.

Pricing a basement from the last one

Every quote starts as a copy of the last basement: the bulkheads forgotten, the stairwell scaffold left off, and the bin and the dump fees never billed.

In Daybook The quote builder prices from your own labelled list — boarding by the sheet, board, tape and finish by the square foot at the level, bead, bulkheads and arches by the foot, patches by the size, the scaffold by the day, the bin and the dump fees each on their own line — with the margin beside the price on every line.

Smooth, said nobody in writing

The client heard “smooth”, the painter expected a skim, and the quote never said. The argument starts when the eggshell goes on and the afternoon light comes through the window.

In Daybook The site measure records the level of finish quoted, the price list names the level on its lines, and the walk-through at the end asks which level was delivered and whether it was checked under a raking light, with the client’s sign-off. The job is not complete until it is answered.

Which stage is it at?

The builder calls to ask whether the taper can start, and the answer is somewhere in a text thread between the boarders.

In Daybook The stage log keeps an entry per stage — boarded, taped and coated, sanded, skimmed, primed, or held up — with the date, who was on site and the work done, and a place for the sheets hung, the issues and the photographs, filled in from the crew’s phones and on the job where the office can find it.

The brief

Everyone talks at once. The job gets one brief.

A job is a week of emails, texts, notes and updates from the crew. Daybook files each one on the job it belongs to and writes the brief: the gate code, the deadline, what the customer asked for, what you owe them and what they owe you — rewritten whenever something new arrives.

The brief and the Assistant

Texting comes with the top plan of every rate card (Company, for a trade), from a verified toll-free number of your own.

Larkspur

The smart thermostat, please.

We start Monday.

Done before the 24th?

The customer

The office

The crew

Our furnace keeps shutting off

Side-wall vent. Narrow door

Your quote is attached

3 photos

Done before the 24th?

Gate code 4471. Mind the dog

Checklist done

Please send the thermostat finishes

We start Monday the 19th

Do you take the old furnace away?

A job’s brief in Daybook: the gate code pinned at the top, a one-line summary, a time-sensitive deadline, key facts, what the customer requested, a suggestion, the next step and its date, and what is waiting on the customer.

A real capture of a contractor’s job. Daybook wrote every line of this brief from the messages on the job; only the five teal labels are added. A camp gets the same brief on a booking, a property manager on a work order.

Our furnace keeps shutting offThe customer, by email
Side-wall vent. Narrow doorThe crew, from the site
Your quote is attachedThe office, by email
3 photosThe crew, from the site
Done before the 24th?The customer, by text
Gate code 4471. Mind the dogThe office, to the crew
Checklist doneThe crew, from the site

The gate code, pinned. Said once in an email, and now at the top of the job for the crew.
The deadline. What is time-sensitive, and by when.
What the customer asked for. Each request, with the message it came from.
What we owe, and the next step. One next step, and a button that starts it.
What the customer owes. So nobody chases the wrong person.

Real captures of a contractor’s job. Daybook wrote every line of this brief from the messages on the job. A camp gets the same brief on a booking, a property manager on a work order.

The drywall toolkit.

On top of everything Daybook does for every one of its 44 trades — the full list is here — drywall gets its own words and tools: the visit before the quote is a site walkthrough; a labelled drywall price list in the quote builder; three drywaller’s sheets; and drafts, replies and job summaries that say board and hang, tape, mud and coat, sand and skim, the level of finish, corner bead, butt joint and tapered edge, Type X, MR board, poly, nail pop, popcorn and stipple the way a drywaller does.

The price list

Priced by the sheet, the square foot and the level.

Daybook gives you a labelled drywall price list to quote from: finishers, boarders and labourers by the hour, and the site measure and sheet count; boarding walls and ceilings by the sheet, 4 × 12s on their own line, board, tape and finish by the square foot at Level 3 or Level 4, taping and finishing only by the sheet, a Level 5 skim by the square foot, corner bead, bulkheads and curved work by the foot, access panels and the prime coat; popcorn and texture removal, knockdown and orange-peel texture; patches small and medium, large repairs and water damage by the square foot, nail pops and cracks by the room, plaster and bead repair, the minimum charge; batts, poly and acoustic sealant, sound insulation and spray foam; steel stud by the foot, Type X fire-rated assemblies, acoustic and demising walls, T-bar ceilings and shaft wall, the after-hours premium; board, compound, tape, screws, bead and primer; a drywall lift, a baker scaffold and a dustless sander by the day; mobilization and site protection, haul-away, the bin and dump fees. Your own prices go on it, and every quote and invoice reads from it.

By the level the sheet, the square foot and the level of finish — each a labelled line, priced from your own list

Quoting

The request

A request becomes a site walkthrough. Then a quote.

Every request lands on one board with its job type — a basement, a new build, a popcorn ceiling, a patch — and one button: Schedule a walkthrough. Walk the site, count the sheets, and build the quote on the job; when the customer approves it in their portal, the job is won and ready to schedule.

Scheduling

The requests board in Daybook: “Simone Mitchell — Basement development” and “Grace Stavros — Commercial & steel stud”.

The paperwork

Three sheets, written for drywallers.

A site measure and sheet count for the walk before the quote. A stage log for every stage from the board to the prime coat. A finish walk-through and sign-off for the light check at the end. All three attach themselves to the right jobs, and the walk-through will not let one close unfinished.

The crew app

The checklists in Daybook: “Site measure & sheet count” and “Stage log”.

Safety on site

The FLHA, filled in on the phone. Filed before the first sheet goes up.

Pick the job and the address and the crew come with it; the day’s conditions, each task with its hazard and its control — submitted from the phone at the start of the day and on the job’s record the moment it lands. Then clock-in, checklists and photos, with no signal if it comes to that.

The crew app

Getting paid

Invoiced off the quote. Closed out with a review request.

The invoice is raised off the quote the customer approved — all of it, the part that is finished, or the extra work approved on top. A reminder you set once does the following-up, with a Pay Now link; e-transfers are matched to their invoices for you to confirm. And when the job is finished, its page offers the warranty and closeout package and a review request.

Invoicing & payments

A finished job in Daybook: Job finished, Generate warranty and Closeout.

The crew

The phone already in their pocket.

Field seats are free and unlimited on Crew and Company, so every boarder, taper and labourer has the app: the day’s jobs, clock-in, the FLHA, the checklists, the photos — and the office sees it the moment it lands.

The economics

Priced on the office. Free for the crew.

Most field-service software charges by the head, in another currency. Daybook charges the office seats, in Canadian dollars, and leaves the people hanging the board alone.

Workflow	Field-service platforms priced per user	Daybook
Currency	Often billed in US dollars — the exchange rate and your card’s foreign fee ride along.	Canadian dollars. Every plan, every add-on, printed on the pricing page.
The crew	Typically an extra monthly fee for every field user past the plan’s cap.	Field seats free and unlimited on Crew and Company — every boarder, taper and labourer gets the app.
Drywall tools	A generic quote form; the price list lives in a spreadsheet.	A labelled drywall price list in the quote builder, three drywaller’s sheets, and drafts and replies in a drywaller’s words.
Canadian tax and mileage	Usually an accounting add-on, or by hand.	GST/HST by province on every invoice, the Sales Tax report, a mileage log at your own rate, receipts read for you.
Your website	Usually a separate builder, or a designer.	A drywall site template on every plan, with a levels-of-finish page and a quote-request form that mints a real lead.

Nothing here is a discount, and there is no setup fee.

Three plans, priced in CAD.

Drywall runs on the trades rate card — every plan the same app, the office seats counted and the crew free from Crew up. Solo $99 / Crew $249 / Company $449 a month CAD. Office seats included on every plan. Field seats are free and unlimited on Crew and Company. Crew and Company include selling online, and Company also includes your own domain and texting — a plan without them can add them.

Solo — $99/mo CAD · 1 seat · no additions · Start on Solo
Crew — $249/mo CAD · 3 office seats · +$39/mo each after · Start on Crew
Company — $449/mo CAD · 10 office seats · +$39/mo each after · Start on Company

Start the free trial on Crew See the plans

Switching

Moving from a spreadsheet, or from another platform.

There is no importer for another product’s export, and the page does not pretend there is. What there is gets a drywall company running in an afternoon.

Bring your client list

Upload a CSV or paste it in — names, phones, emails, addresses — and the clients are there. A QuickBooks client list imports straight across.

Put your prices on the list

The drywall price list is already labelled, from the boarder’s hour to a sheet of Type X and a box of compound. Type your own prices in — or, on Crew and up, scan a supplier invoice and the price book fills with your real costs.

Your website, live day one

The drywall template is already written for the work, with a levels-of-finish page — your photographs and your words go in, and the quote-request form drops leads straight into Daybook.

Questions drywall companies ask.

Is there a drywall estimator?

No — the builder prices from your own labelled list, and there is no takeoff that works out the quantities. You count the sheets, the square feet and the feet of bead; the list carries boarding by the sheet, board, tape and finish by the square foot at Level 3 or Level 4, the Level 5 skim, ceilings, patches and water damage, insulation and poly, steel stud and T-bar, with your own prices on it.

Which jobs will it not let me close?

Every drywall job type — new construction, basement development, renovation boarding and finishing, repair and patch, textured ceilings, insulation and vapour barrier, commercial and steel stud — carries the finish walk-through and sign-off: the level of finish delivered, whether it was checked under a raking light, what was done, the photographs after and the client’s sign-off. It is yours to edit.

Does it keep the level of finish on the job?

Yes. The site measure records the level of finish quoted — Level 3, Level 4, a Level 5 skim or texture — the price list names the level on its lines, and the walk-through at the end asks which level was delivered. Daybook does not inspect a wall: the raking-light check is yours, and the sheet asks whether it was done.

Can I bring my own prices?

Yes. Scan a supplier invoice and the price book updates; put your own sheet and square-foot rates alongside the starter list; set your own labour rates and markups. The quote builder prices from your numbers, not ours.

What does a taper cost?

Nothing on Crew and Company — field seats are free and unlimited. The office seats are what is counted, and the pricing page prints exactly how many each plan includes.

Does it work in a basement with no signal?

Clock-in, checklists and photos work with no signal and file themselves when the signal returns. The office sees them the moment they land.

Bring a real basement. Watch it priced.

Your own numbers beat any feature list — start the trial, count one basement and price it from your own list.

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