This is what operating blind looks like
Losing track of emails and texts across long-running projects
Sending huge estimates via PDF causes friction for customer approval
Difficulty managing progress payments or multiple invoices for one job
Following up on large open bids is manual and time-consuming
Every job, every sub, one screen.
Click to explore the operations dashboard - project tracking, crew management, and revenue analytics for general contractors.
What changes when your tools think for themselves
Centralized communication timeline per contact
Every call, text, email, note, and document attached to the customer record. Open a contact and see the full project story.
Digital estimate approvals with tiered options
Send estimates with good-better-best pricing. Customers review on their phone and approve with a digital signature.
Progress invoicing capability
Bill against project milestones. Track draws, retainage, and change orders across long-running projects.
Automated bid follow-up sequences
Open bids trigger automatic follow-up at 3 days (text), 7 days (email), and 14 days (call task). Nothing falls through.
Photo documentation per project phase
Capture and organize before, during, and after photos by project phase. GPS and timestamp metadata attached automatically.
Subcontractor coordination notes
Track which subs are assigned to which phase. Log communications and scheduling with subcontractors in the project record.
Up and running in one afternoon
Organize Your Projects
Create pipeline stages for each project phase: bid preparation, estimate sent, approved, in progress, punch list, completed.
Send and Track Estimates
Build professional estimates with tiered options. Send digitally and track opens, views, and approvals in real time.
Manage the Project
Log communications, track change orders, generate progress invoices, and document every phase with photos.
Bill and Follow Up
Progress invoices generate from project data. Review requests fire after completion. Referral campaigns nurture past clients.
Why Automated Bid Follow-Up Doubles Your Close Rate
A general contractor sends an average of 8-12 estimates per month. Each estimate takes 2-4 hours to prepare. But most contractors only follow up on maybe half of them - the big ones, or the ones the customer asked about.
The rest sit in email and die. Not because the customer said no - but because nobody followed up.
Chillead's automation engine changes this. Every estimate sent triggers a follow-up sequence: a text at 3 days ('Just checking if you had any questions about the estimate'), an email at 7 days (with the estimate attached again for convenience), and a call task at 14 days for the sales team.
Contractors using automated follow-up report closing 30-50% more bids - not because they improved their estimates, but because they simply stayed in front of the customer.
What the competition is missing
Buildertrend and CoConstruct are designed for contractors but cost $99-399/mo with limited CRM and no dialer. Jobber handles small jobs but isn't built for multi-phase projects. Chillead gives GCs progress invoicing, automated bid follow-up, and a built-in dialer at 49/mo.
Questions from general contracting
Learn more about running a general contracting business
Field Service Operations Guide: From Chaos to Clockwork (2026)
The complete playbook for building a field service operation that scales. Covers dispatch optimization, technician routi...
GuidesField Service Automation in 2026: The Definitive Guide for Service Business Owners
87% of organizations report AI has positively impacted revenue. Here's the complete automation playbook for HVAC, plumbi...
GuidesCRM vs Field Service Management Software: What Your Service Business Actually Needs
CRM and FSM are not the same thing, but modern service businesses need both. Here is how they differ and why all-in-one ...
Chillead works for every service business
General Contracting operations, powered by AI.
See what happens when your general contracting business gets access to intelligent automation and real-time control.
Free trial · No credit card · Cancel anytime