Dirty Work
Software
How Much Could Automation Save Your Contracting Business?
Calculate Your ROI in 2 Minutes
Every contractor knows that office work eats into profits. Quoting, invoicing, scheduling, payroll, lead follow-up. These tasks pile up until you're spending 15, 20, even 30 hours a week on work that doesn't generate revenue.
But what does that actually cost you?
Most contractors have never calculated it. They know the pain, but not the price tag. That's where integrated automation systems change everything. The calculator below shows you exactly what manual office work costs your business. Plug in your numbers and see exactly what manual office work costs your business, what integrated automation could save, and how that compares to hiring more office staff.
This takes about 2 minutes. The results might surprise you.
Calculate Your Business Automation Savings
Adjust the sliders to match your business. Uncheck any systems you already have. The chart updates instantly to show your 5-year ROI projection, including when you'd break even and how much you'd save at each milestone.
What This Calculator Measures
The numbers above aren't guesses. They're based on real operational data from contractors across Oklahoma City, Edmond, Norman, and the surrounding metro area. Here's what goes into each calculation:
Owner Time Reclaimed
Owner time is the most expensive resource in any contracting business. When you're copying lead information from emails, creating quotes from scratch, or chasing down timesheets, you're spending $75-150 per hour (or more) on tasks worth $15-20 per hour.
The calculator tracks how each system milestone reduces your admin burden:
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Contact & Lead Management: 15% reduction in admin time through proper lead follow-up and tracking (no more hunting through emails and texts)
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Quoting & Estimating: 20% reduction (templates and auto-calculations replace manual work)
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Job & Project Management: 15% reduction (everything in one place, not scattered across apps)
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Invoicing & Payments: 10% reduction (auto-generated invoices from job data)
Combined, these systems can reclaim up to 60% of your weekly admin hours. For a contractor spending 20 hours weekly on office work at $100/hour effective rate, that's over $5,000 per month in time value returned.
Labor and Payroll Savings
Field labor is your biggest expense. The calculator models three specific savings:
Time tracking accuracy: Contractors using GPS-verified digital time tracking typically see 20% reduction in labor costs from eliminating time theft, rounding errors, and disputed hours.
Overtime reduction: When time tracking combines with job scheduling, you gain visibility into who's approaching overtime before it happens. The calculator assumes 45% overtime reduction for contractors with both systems active.
Payroll processing: Manual payroll for a 10-person crew takes 4-8 hours every pay period. Automated time-to-payroll export cuts that by 80%, saving your time (or your bookkeeper's).
Close Rate Improvement
Two system milestones directly impact how many leads become paying jobs:
Professional website with lead capture: Contractors with modern, mobile-friendly sites that capture leads automatically see roughly 15% improvement in close rates. Why? Faster follow-up, professional first impression, and no leads lost to inbox chaos.
Contact and lead management: Adding a proper CRM layer improves close rates another 10%. Every lead gets tracked, followed up, and nothing falls through the cracks.
The calculator applies these percentages to your current close rate and lead volume to project additional monthly revenue.
Capacity and Throughput Gains
When your systems handle the administrative load, you can take on more work without adding overhead. The calculator models:
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Job tracking: +10% capacity (crews waste less time waiting for instructions or information)
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Workflow automation: +10% capacity (automated notifications, onboarding, and handoffs)
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Time tracking: +5% capacity (better visibility into where hours actually go)
These compound. A contractor doing 15 jobs per month could handle 18-19 with the same crew once job tracking eliminates friction and automates the administrative load.
SEO and Marketing Value
If you select an SEO tier, the calculator projects organic lead growth over time. This isn't instant. SEO takes 5-8 months to gain traction, depending on your market and investment level. But by year two, contractors on our SEO Plus tier typically see 25-40 additional organic leads per month, converting at your improved close rate.
The calculator also assigns value to your traffic itself. Ranking for "epoxy flooring Oklahoma City" or "concrete contractor Edmond" has measurable worth, even before those visitors become leads.
Systems vs. Hiring: The Real Cost Comparison
When contractors hit the office work wall, most consider the same solution: hire someone. An office manager, a bookkeeper, maybe a part-time admin. It's the obvious answer. But it's often not the smartest one.
The Hiring Approach vs. The Systems Approach
Traditional Hiring Costs
Office Manager: $3,500 to $4,500 monthly before they're productive. Add 2-3 months of training, benefits overhead, and the reality that they still can't work nights or weekends when leads come in. When they quit, you start over from zero.
Part-Time Bookkeeper: $1,200 to $1,800 monthly for invoicing and payroll, but you're still approving everything, answering their questions, and fixing errors. Compare that to GPS-verified digital time tracking that feeds payroll reports automatically. They work on their schedule, not yours. Invoices go out when they get to it, not when jobs finish.
Marketing Coordinator: $2,800 to $3,500 monthly for SEO and lead generation. Most contractors skip this hire entirely because it feels like a luxury. Result: your website sits stale, competitors outrank you, and you're stuck buying leads from HomeAdvisor at $75 a pop.
Web Designer Retainer: $800 to $1,500 monthly for a freelancer who takes three weeks to update your phone number. Your site still doesn't capture leads properly, still isn't mobile-friendly, and still sends form submissions to an email you forget to check. A modern contractor website with lead capture solves all of this as part of your monthly investment.
Database Developer: $3,000 to $5,000 monthly if you can even find one. Most have never seen a job site and build systems that make sense to engineers, not contractors. You'll spend months explaining what "job tracking" actually means in your world.
Custom Systems Investment
Automated Operations: JJob tracking, scheduling, and customer communication run 24/7 without coffee breaks, sick days, or two-week notices. A lead at 11pm gets logged, confirmed, and queued for morning follow-up before you wake up. No training period, no turnover risk.
Integrated Financials: Invoicing generates the moment a job marks complete, pulling labor hours and materials automatically. Payroll reports build themselves from time tracking data. No reconciliation headaches because information only lives in one place, entered once.
Built-In Marketing: SEO, blog content, and Google Business Profile management included in your tier from day one. You're not choosing between marketing and payroll. Lead generation happens alongside operations because it's the same system, the same team, the same investment
Continuous Website: Updates happen as part of your ongoing development hours. New service pages when you add offerings, landing pages for seasonal promotions, lead capture improvements based on real data. No chasing freelancers, no "I'll get to it next week."
True Ownership: Your domain registered in your name. Your data in your Google Drive. Your systems running on your accounts. Walk away tomorrow and everything keeps working. We have to earn your business every month because you're never locked in.
$11,300-16,300/mo vs. $5,000/mo
Traditional hiring vs. Steady + SEO Plus tier
The comparison isn't quite apples-to-apples, and that's the point. A human office manager handles things automation can't, like complex customer conversations or unique situations. But automation handles the 80% of office work that's repetitive, predictable, and frankly boring. That's the 80% eating up your time.
The smart approach: Use systems to eliminate the repetitive work, then decide if you still need to hire. Most contractors find they don't need that office manager after all, or they can hire someone part-time instead of full-time, focused on the work that actually requires human judgment.
Our Pricing Structure
We separate development and marketing so you pay for what you actually need:
Development Tiers (system building and maintenance):
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Essentials: $500/mo (monitoring and fixes only)
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Light: $1,200/mo (~10 development hours)
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Steady: $2,100/mo (~20 development hours)
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Active: $3,700/mo (~40 development hours)
SEO & Marketing Tiers (growth and visibility):
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No SEO: $0/mo (handle it yourself)
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SEO Starter: $2,200/mo (4 blogs monthly, GBP management)
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SEO Plus: $3,500/mo (adds cornerstone content, hub pages)
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SEO Premium: $4,800/mo (adds video production, YouTube)
Bundle savings apply when you pair complementary tiers. For example, Steady Development + SEO Plus saves $600/mo compared to purchasing separately. View detailed pricing breakdown for all tier combinations and bundle discounts.
Real Results from Oklahoma Contractors
The calculator estimates are based on actual outcomes from contractors in the OKC metro area. Here's what integrated automation looks like in practice:
Documented Contractor Results
Epoxy Contractor, Edmond: Owner went from 22 hours weekly on admin to 9 hours after implementing quoting and estimating systems, job tracking, and invoicing. Close rate improved from 28% to 35%, adding 2-3 jobs monthly from better follow-up alone.
Concrete Coatings, OKC: Reduced office staff from two people to one while processing 60+ jobs monthly. Their same-day invoicing replaced 5-7 day delay. Payroll processing dropped from 8 hours every two weeks to under 2 hours.
Polished Concrete, Norman: Consolidated QuickBooks, spreadsheets, paper timesheets, and email into one integrated database. Customer lookup went from 20 minutes of searching through five different systems to under 10 seconds.
Average Admin Reduction: 59% fewer hours spent on office work after full system implementation.
Close Rate Improvement: 15-25% increase from professional website and lead tracking alone.
Payroll Processing: 80% time reduction with automated time-to-payroll export.
Cash Flow Impact: Invoices sent 9 days faster on average when triggered automatically at job completion.
Labor Cost Savings: 20% reduction from GPS-verified time tracking eliminating errors and disputes.
How We Calculate These Numbers
Transparency matters. Here's exactly how the calculator generates your results:
Owner Time Savings: Each system milestone unlocks a specific percentage reduction in admin hours. CRM (15%), Quoting (20%), Job Tracking (15%), Invoicing (10%). These stack up to a maximum 60% reduction. The calculator multiplies your weekly admin hours by your hourly rate by these percentages.
Labor Savings: Time tracking systems reduce labor costs by approximately 20% through eliminating time theft and errors. This applies to your total monthly labor cost (field hours × hourly rate × burden rate × weeks per month).
Overtime Reduction: When time tracking and job scheduling work together, overtime visibility improves dramatically. The calculator assumes 45% reduction in overtime hours for contractors with both systems active.
Close Rate Improvement: Website adds 15% to your current close rate. CRM adds another 10%. The calculator applies these to your lead volume and profit-per-job to project additional revenue.
Capacity Gains: Job tracking (+10%), automation (+10%), and time tracking (+5%) each add capacity. The calculator converts this to additional jobs at your current profit margin.
SEO Projections: Based on documented traffic growth from similar contractor sites. SEO Starter tier averages 5 leads/month by year one, growing to 25 by year five. Plus tier: 12 to 70. Premium tier: 20 to 120.
Mature Pricing: After your system build completes plus 12 months, monthly costs drop as development needs decrease. The calculator reflects this transition automatically.
Your actual results will vary. Every business is different. But these estimates give you a realistic starting point for evaluating the investment. If you want numbers specific to your operation, that's what the Operations Review is for.
What is a Profit and Why You Should Be Making One
AppSheet database development represents a significant investment in your business infrastructure, but one that typically pays for itself within months through labor savings and operational efficiency. Our pricing reflects the complexity of the system, number of integrated modules, and ongoing automation requirements. We structure agreements to align our success with yours through performance-based pricing models.
Development Investment and Ongoing Service Costs
Custom database systems require substantial upfront design and development work to build properly. Unlike template solutions that force you into predetermined structures, true custom development involves understanding your unique workflows, designing appropriate data models, building user interfaces optimized for your processes, and creating integrations that connect your technology ecosystem.
Development timelines typically range from 4-12 weeks depending on system complexity. A basic lead management and quoting system might require 6-8 weeks, while a comprehensive business operating system with time tracking, inventory management, payroll integration, and customer portals could take 10-14 weeks. Rush timelines are possible for additional fees when business circumstances require faster implementation.
Benefit Card
Most contractor websites remain optimized exclusively for traditional search engines, creating significant opportunity for early adopters of GEO strategies. By structuring content to serve both traditional SEO and AI-powered search, your website positions your business for visibility across all discovery channels as customer search behavior continues evolving toward AI-assisted research and decision-making.
Highlight Card: A $30,000 upfront development fee creates significant cash flow strain for small contractors and provides no ongoing incentive for us to optimize your system. A 4% revenue share on $500,000 in annual jobs costs you $20,000 yearly while ensuring we remain invested in your success, continuously improving the system, and responding quickly to issues. As your revenue grows, we benefit proportionally, creating perfect alignment.
Stat Card
Typical Office Labor Savings From Hiring Robots to Do Everything For You
Feature List
Initial System Design and Development: One-time investment covering.....
Initial System Design and Development: One-time investment covering.....
Initial System Design and Development: One-time investment covering.....
Initial System Design and Development: One-time investment covering.....
Initial System Design and Development: One-time investment covering.....
Process List
1
Customer Submits Website Form
Lead information instantly captured with project details, service type, and location data
Instant
2
Automatic CRM Entry Created
Contact record generated in AppSheet database with task assignment to sales team
2 seconds
3
Follow-Up Email Sequence Triggers
Automated thank you email with company info and estimated response timeline
1 minute
4
Quote Generated & Sent
Sales rep uses template system to create branded PDF proposal with pricing calculator
15 minutes
Step List
1
Emergency Services
Immediate response emphasis, 24/7 availability, fast turnaround time, emergency pricing transparency
2
Major Projects
Educational content focus, financing options, project timeline explanations, detailed process overview, past project galleries
3
Maintenance Services
Value of preventive care, contract benefits, seasonal reminders, long-term cost savings, warranty information
4
General Inquiries
Exploratory discovery questions, range of services showcase, consultation offer, flexible scheduling, free estimate emphasis
Different Follow-Up Strategies by Service
1
Emergency Services
Immediate response emphasis, 24/7 availability, fast turnaround time, emergency pricing transparency
2
Major Projects
Educational content focus, financing options, project timeline explanations, detailed process overview, past project galleries
3
Maintenance Services
Value of preventive care, contract benefits, seasonal reminders, long-term cost savings, warranty information
4
General Inquiries
Exploratory discovery questions, range of services showcase, consultation offer, flexible scheduling, free estimate emphasis
Automated Follow-Up Sequence Example
Step 1
Immediate Response (2 minutes)
Automated email confirms receipt of their inquiry, sets expectations for when you'll call, provides your direct phone number and office hours. Builds confidence you received their information.
Step 2
Next Business Day (24 hours)
Our team creates a tailored database structure and automation blueprint specific to your business operations and service offerings.
Step 3
Value-Add Content (Day 3)
Educational email related to their service request. HVAC prospects get "5 Signs You Need AC Replacement vs Repair." Plumbing prospects get "How to Choose a Plumber for Major Projects."
Step 4
Check-In (Day 7)
Friendly check-in asking if they've made a decision or have questions. Offers to schedule estimate at their convenience. Includes testimonials from recent similar projects.
Step 5
Final Touch (Day 14)
Last follow-up before lead goes to longer-term nurture sequence. Emphasizes your availability, includes limited-time offer or seasonal promotion if applicable.
Frequently Asked Questions About Contractor Software ROI
How accurate is this ROI calculator?
The calculator uses documented percentages from real contractor implementations across Oklahoma City, Edmond, Norman, and the surrounding metro. Owner time savings, labor reductions, and close rate improvements are based on actual before/after measurements, not theoretical projections. We've refined these numbers over dozens of implementations across HVAC, plumbing, electrical, roofing, and flooring contractors. Your results depend on your starting point (contractors already using some software see smaller gains than those on paper and spreadsheets) and how fully you implement each system. The Operations Review provides more precise projections for your specific situation, including which milestones would deliver the biggest impact for your particular pain points.
How long until I see a return on investment?
Depends on your payment approach and business size. Milestone-based builds require upfront investment ($4,000-12,000 per system) but deliver faster ROI once systems go live because everything activates at once. Monthly bundle pricing spreads the cost but takes longer to build since development hours are limited each month. Most contractors see break-even between months 12-24. Larger operations with higher labor costs and more leads typically break even faster because the percentage savings translate to bigger dollar amounts. The calculator's interactive timeline shows exactly when you'd cross into positive territory based on your specific inputs.
What's the difference between milestone and monthly payment?
Milestone: You pay for each system as it's completed ($4,000-12,000 per milestone). Faster build, larger upfront investment, quicker ROI. Best for contractors who want everything built within 3-6 months and have cash reserves or financing available. You're essentially buying the systems outright. Monthly bundle: Your monthly fee includes development hours that build systems over time. Lower upfront cost, longer build timeline, steadier cash flow. Best for contractors who prefer gradual implementation or want to test the relationship before committing to larger investments. You're spreading the build cost across many months while also getting ongoing support.
What if my admin hours are lower than the calculator shows?
You might be underestimating. Most contractors don't count time spent searching for information across texts, emails, and apps. They forget the customer calls asking "when will my job be done?" that interrupt actual work. They don't track re-entering the same data into QuickBooks, their spreadsheet, and their calendar. Or fixing mistakes from manual processes, like invoicing the wrong amount because someone misread a timesheet. Track your actual time for one week before assuming automation won't help. Write down every interruption, every search, every duplicate entry. The real number usually surprises people.
Do I need all 8 system milestones?
No. The calculator lets you uncheck systems you already have or don't need. Many contractors start with just website + CRM + quoting (the lead-to-quote pipeline), then expand into job tracking and time tracking once that foundation is solid. Each milestone delivers its own ROI independently. Some contractors never need payroll integration because they use a payroll service that handles everything. Others skip workflow automation because their operation is small enough to manage manually. The calculator shows exactly which systems drive which savings, so you can make informed decisions about where to invest first.
What's included in the monthly service cost?
Development tiers include ongoing development hours, 24/7 system monitoring, bug fixes, and complete platform infrastructure. That infrastructure covers Google Workspace (email, calendar, Drive), AppSheet database licensing, Make.com automation platform, Wix website hosting, and domain registration. SEO tiers include blog content creation, Google Business Profile optimization and management, local citation building, and traffic growth services. No hidden platform fees, no surprise charges for "extra users," no annual price increases locked into contracts. What you see in the calculator is what you pay.
How does this compare to ServiceTitan or Jobber pricing?
ServiceTitan starts around $299/month base but charges $100-300 per technician on top of that. A 5-person crew runs $1,500-2,000/month for software alone, with no marketing, no custom development, and no lead generation included. Add their marketing module and you're looking at $2,500-3,500/month. Implementation takes 6-12 months and costs $5,000-15,000 upfront. Jobber is more affordable ($39-199/month) but offers limited customization and no marketing services. You're adapting your business to their templates rather than building systems around your actual workflow. Our approach: custom-built systems for your specific workflows, marketing included in the monthly price, flat pricing regardless of team size within your tier, and you own everything we build. No per-seat math that punishes you for hiring. No implementation fees. No fighting software designed for a different industry.
What if I'm not ready for a full system?
Start with your biggest pain point. Website losing leads because forms don't work and you respond too slowly? Start there. Drowning in quote requests and spending hours on each estimate? Build quoting first. Can't track where jobs stand without calling three people? Job tracking database. The calculator shows ROI for whatever combination you select, and partial implementations still deliver meaningful returns. Many of our best clients started with a single $8,000-12,000 milestone, proved the value, then expanded over time. You're not signing up for a $65,000 commitment on day one unless you want to.
What happens after the build is complete?
Your monthly costs drop to "mature" pricing 12 months after build completion. Development needs decrease once systems are stable, tested, and your team knows how to use them. You're not paying for 20 hours of development when you only need 5 hours of tweaks and monitoring. The calculator reflects this automatic transition in the 5-year projection. Most mature clients stay on Essentials ($500/mo) or Light ($1,200/mo) tier for ongoing support, monitoring, and occasional improvements. Some stay on higher tiers because they want continuous feature development or expanded marketing.
Do I own the systems you build?
Yes, completely. Your domain is registered in your name with credentials you control. Your website runs on your own Wix account that you can access anytime. Your database lives in your Google Drive with full export capabilities. Your automations run on your Make.com account. If you decide to leave tomorrow, everything keeps running. We hand over all credentials, documentation, and training materials. You can hire someone else to maintain it or learn to do it yourself. We never hold your data hostage, never charge "exit fees," and never disable systems because you cancelled. This is the opposite of how ServiceTitan and most SaaS platforms work, where stopping payment means losing access to everything including your own customer data.
How long does implementation take?
Timeline depends on your payment approach, tier selection, and how many milestones you're building. Milestone-based builds move as fast as you can pay. A contractor writing checks for each milestone could have a full 8-system implementation done in 4-5 months. Monthly bundle builds depend on your development hours. Steady tier (~20 hrs/mo capacity) completes a full system in about 24-30 months. Active tier (~40 hrs/mo) cuts that roughly in half. Most contractors land somewhere in between, starting with milestone payments for their most urgent needs, then switching to monthly bundles for ongoing development and expansion.
What do the "mature" prices mean?
After your system is fully built and stable for 12 months, you likely don't need as many development hours. Mature pricing reduces your monthly cost automatically to reflect this reality. Steady tier drops from $2,100 to $900 at maturity. Active drops from $3,700 to $1,700. You're paying for maintenance, monitoring, and light improvements rather than heavy construction. The calculator factors this transition into the 5-year projection, which is why ROI accelerates in years 3-5. Some clients choose to stay on higher tiers even at maturity because they want continuous marketing expansion or new feature development. The choice is yours each month.
Your Next Step
You've seen the numbers. Now the question is simple: what would you do with 10-15 extra hours every week? More jobs? More time with family? Actually taking a day off without your phone buzzing constantly?
That's what integrated automation delivers. Not in theory, but in practice, for contractors across Oklahoma City, Edmond, Norman, and the surrounding area.
The calculator gave you an estimate. The Operations Review gives you a plan.
15 minutes. No pitch, just clarity on what's possible.
Let's Talk About Your Business
Every Oklahoma contractor has different needs, workflows, and growth goals. We don't sell one-size-fits-all packages. Instead, we build custom automation systems designed around how your specific business actually operates.
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Built for Contractors
We speak your language. No tech jargon, no corporate nonsense. Real solutions for real field service businesses.
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Proven Systems
Working with contractors across Oklahoma. Your competitors are already automating. Time to catch up or get ahead.
Fast Results
Most businesses see time savings within the first two weeks. Stop doing paperwork, start running jobs.
Flexible Engagement
Choose the pricing model that fits your business stage. We have options for growing contractors and established companies alike.
Long-Term Partnership
We're still supporting contractors we started with years ago. No disappearing after launch. Your business evolves, your systems evolve with it.
Honest Consultation
We'll tell you if automation isn't right for your stage yet. Really. Free consultation means actual advice, not a sales pitch.
