- Roofing CRMs track sales well; margin lives in job cost.
- Measure cost per square — labor, material, disposal — on every job.
- Log tear-off surprises and supplements the day they happen.
- Review margin per job weekly, not only at the end of the season.
Where roofing contractor jobs make and lose money
- Labor per square. Crew hours per roofing square (100 sq ft) against the estimate.
- Tear-off and decking. Hidden rot and extra layers found on day one.
- Material waste. Ordered squares against installed.
- Supplements. Insurance supplements approved — or not — after the work.
Key terms: Cost code · Change order (CO) · Fade
A worked example
A 42-square re-roof sold at $36,500. Labor came to $9,800, material $13,900, and disposal and other costs $1,600:
Track the same figures on every job and the crews, suppliers and roof types that erode margin become visible within weeks.
The roofing contractor software stack
Most contractors in this trade run four or five systems. The names below are common examples, not a ranking.
AccuLynxJobNimbusRoofrEagleViewother aerial measurement reportsThe numbers worth tracking weekly
- Gross margin per job, after all costs
- Crew hours per square
- Material waste
- Supplements pending
- Cash collected against invoiced
How to choose roofing contractor software
Five questions to ask any vendor before a trial — each is about whether the software fits how this trade actually makes money.
- Does the CRM's job carry through to job costing, or does accounting start over?
- Can crews record hours and squares installed per job?
- Are insurance supplements tracked from request to payment?
- Does it show margin per job, not just sales and close rate?
- Can material orders be compared with squares actually installed?
Then trial it on a finished job where you already know the answer. The construction tech stack guide covers how the pieces connect.
Where Constructelligence fits
Constructelligence sits on top of the accounting system you already run — Sage 300 CRE and QuickBooks Desktop are connected today, with Viewpoint, Sage Intacct and others in build — and forecasts every job weekly by cost code, so a job's margin eroding on labor or waste shows up in the week it starts. It reads read-only, installs on your own infrastructure and replaces none of the tools above. See it in the demo.
Software for other trades
Each roofing job's squares, contract, labor, material, disposal and supplements, with cost per square and margin calculated.
9 columns: 7 you fill in and 2 calculated by formula and filled down 200 rows, so nothing is worked out by hand. In the Excel version, 6 columns reject entries of the wrong type (a date column only takes dates, an amount column only numbers), the header row stays frozen with filters on it, and the workbook opens on an Instructions sheet that lists every column below.
Every column, and how it is captured
| Column | Type | What goes in it |
|---|---|---|
| Job | Text | Job number exactly as in your accounting system (e.g. J-1104), so rows join to job cost. |
| Squares | Number | Enter a number. |
| Contract | Amount ($) | Contract value including approved change orders. |
| Labor | Amount ($) | Enter the amount in dollars. |
| Material | Amount ($) | Enter the amount in dollars. |
| Disposal | Amount ($) | Enter the amount in dollars. |
| Supplement | Amount ($) | Enter the amount in dollars. |
| Cost per square | Calculated | Calculated: ([Labor] + [Material] + [Disposal]) ÷ [Squares] |
| Margin % | Calculated | Calculated: ([Contract] + [Supplement] − [Labor] − [Material] − [Disposal]) ÷ ([Contract] + [Supplement]) × 100 |
See it on real-looking numbers
Constructelligence is a construction intelligence platform: it reads your ERP, project and field systems read-only and does this arithmetic every week, for every job. The demo runs it on a sample eight-job portfolio.
Try the demoJoin the private betaFrequently asked questions
What software do roofing contractors use?
A roofing CRM for leads, estimates and production (such as AccuLynx, JobNimbus or Roofr), aerial measurement reports (such as EagleView), and accounting software such as QuickBooks for job costing.
How do roofing contractors calculate cost per square?
Add labor, material, disposal and equipment for the job and divide by the squares installed (one square is 100 square feet). Compare it with the estimate's cost per square for every job.
How can a roofing company improve job profitability?
Track crew hours and material per square on every job, record tear-off surprises and supplements, and review margin per job weekly rather than only at the end of the season.
What is a roofing square?
One hundred square feet of roof area. Roofers price, order material and measure crew productivity per square.
Can a roofing CRM do job costing?
Most roofing CRMs track estimates, production and some job costs; many contractors still need accounting software for labor, overhead and true margin per job.
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