EVERY FEATURE, BY THE PROBLEM IT SOLVES
Features
One source of truth for the bid, the proposal, the takeoff, the install, and the invoice — reconciled against a single pricing engine.
Quoting and proposals
| Feature | What it does | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Bid workspace | Header + line-item grid + room organization + multi-phase labor tracking in one screen. | One source of truth for everything being sold. |
| Product picker | Hierarchical category-tree modal for browsing your product catalog into a bid. | Reinstates the “shop the catalog” workflow estimators expect, without crowding the grid. |
| Save-as-new-version | Snapshot any bid before a major round of changes; come back to any prior version. | “Let me get back to the version we sent last Tuesday” actually works. |
| Bid duplication | Clone an existing bid as the starting point for a new one. | The next bid is almost never the first time you're quoting a similar job. |
| Copy items from another bid | Pull room or system blocks from any past bid into the current one. | Reuse the labor + parts pattern from a similar past job. |
| Portable .bgbid export | Round-trip a bid as a portable file for backup, transfer, or offline review. | Vendor lock-out concerns disappear; your data is always exportable. |
Customer-facing proposal output
| Feature | What it does | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| DOCX proposal generation | Renders a fully formatted proposal from a Word template with mail-merge fields. | Customers receive a professional document, not an export dump. |
| Multiple style variants | Standard, Narrow, Executive — same content, different presentation. | Match the proposal style to the customer (residential, commercial, luxury). |
| Auto-reconciling totals | Equipment, Cable, Programming, Installation, Design, Shipping, Tax, Surtax, Labor Tax, GST, Discount, GRAND TOTAL — all from one engine. | Visible rows always sum to GRAND TOTAL; sub-$1 line items are hidden from display but still in the total. |
| Good-Better-Best tiers | Group line items so the customer picks one at close. | Drive close rate with structured upsell, not freeform negotiation. |
| System summary section | Per-system rollups (Video, A/V, Zone Control, Prewire, Wire, Installation). | Customer reads a one-page summary before they hit the line-by-line. |
| Product detail appendix | Auto-generated images + spec text for every product in the bid. | Customers buy what they can picture; sales close on confidence. |
| Payment plan rendering | Multi-installment payment schedule on the proposal and on the customer portal. | Spell out deposit / progress / final without an extra doc. |
| Inline DOCX editor | Edit the rendered proposal in-place before sending. | Last-minute tweaks without leaving the app. |
| AI proposal drafter | Generates cover letter + scope of work + install notes from the bid contents. | First draft in 30 seconds; the estimator approves before send. |
Collaboration and access control
| Feature | What it does | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Real-time presence | “N also editing” chip with hover-list of names. | See who else is in the bid before you save. |
| Optimistic concurrency | Per-row version tokens; live banner when a peer's edit lands. | Two users editing the same bid never silently overwrite each other. |
| Live-update banner | “Another user updated item #5 — Reload to see.” | Stay aware of teammate edits without losing your in-flight changes. |
| Customer portal | Clients log in with email + password, read the revision you sent, comment, and reset their own password. | Customer feedback lands on the bid, not a forgotten email thread. |
| Ask about this line | A customer question attached to a specific line, answered from the bid. | “What's the difference between these two?” stays next to the line it's about. |
| Sign & approve / request changes | Typed-name approval with consent, recorded with the revision and a fingerprint of the PDF; or a change request with a note. | No “did they say yes on the call?” ambiguity. |
| Sent revisions | Edits stay private until Send update; the customer sees “Revision N · sent date” and earlier revisions' PDFs. | You and the customer are always looking at the same document. |
| Customer activity timeline | Sign-ins, proposal opens, comments, change requests, sends and signatures, on the bid. | Know what the customer did and when, without asking. |
| Share token links | A private link for someone without a portal login; choose its lifetime, extend it, or make it view-only. | Send a view to the architect or the GC without provisioning an account. |
| Agent access (MCP) | Per-user tokens for Claude Code / Claude Desktop: read bids, clients and products; draft lines and proposal text. | Hand the lookup-and-typing work to an assistant. |
| Agent drafts review | Every line or section an assistant drafts waits for a person's Approve or Discard. | An assistant never changes a bid on its own. |
| AI drafts approval gate | Proposal export blocked until AI-generated text is reviewed. | No accidental “Dear [CUSTOMER]” leaving the building. |
| RBAC + auth audit | Admin / sales / install / portal roles; every login + failure logged. | Know who did what, when. |
| Password breach checking | Pwned-Passwords integration on every password set. | Users can't pick password123. |
Pre-construction and engineering
| Feature | What it does | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Plan takeoff | Upload the plan PDF, place a marker per device on the takeoff sheet, draw the rooms. | Replaces the highlighter + clipboard takeoff method. |
| Marker counter | Per-room, per-device counts using point-in-polygon math, updated as you place markers. | Accurate quantities straight from the plan. |
| Add to bid from takeoff | Review each room-and-device count as a new line or an update, then add the ones you tick. | Plan → priced lines without retyping. |
| Panel schedules | Main and subpanels at 120/240, 120/208, 208Y/120 or 480Y/277; 1-, 2- and 3-pole breakers; GFCI / AFCI flags. | Built-in electrical engineering, no spreadsheet workaround. |
| NEC Article 220 load calc | NEC 2023: the standard method, and for a dwelling the optional method (220.82), with the code reference on every line. | Service sizing inside the bid — a calculation aid to verify with the AHJ. |
| Phase balance | Load per leg against a 20% / 35% imbalance convention (a trade convention, not an NEC rule). | Catch unbalanced panels before the electrician does. |
Field operations
| Feature | What it does | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Mobile install/tested toggles | Tap-to-mark per-item install + test status from the field. | Real-time job progress without paperwork. |
| Field crew quick-tap UI | Optimized for one-handed phone use in the truck. | Doesn't fight a touchscreen on a hot day. |
| Permit + inspection workflow | Track permit applications, inspector visits, checklist results, jobsite photos. | One place for the regulatory paper trail. |
| Job tracking | Status flow from sold → in-progress → installed → invoiced. | The bid doesn't end at signature; the job continues. |
| Bid sketches (Visio-light) | Lay out room → device connections inline in the bid. | Communicate intent to the install crew without leaving the bid. |
AI assistance
| Feature | What it does | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| AI proposal drafter | Cover letter + scope of work + install notes from the bid contents. | First draft in seconds; estimator polishes. |
| Combo suggester | Recommends companion products based on what's already in the bid. | Catch the missing wire / mount / bracket before the customer does. |
| Labor sanity check | Flags rooms where labor hours look off (too high or too low) for the items selected. | Reduces under-quoted jobs. |
| Good/Better/Best | Generates tier options for any line item. | Structured upsell without manual research. |
| Approval gate | Nothing AI-drafted reaches the customer until the estimator approves. | Operator stays accountable for what gets sent. |
Reports and exports
| Feature | What it does | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Bids dashboard | Searchable list with running totals across the pipeline. | Where's revenue this quarter, this month, this week. |
| Sales reports | Per-sales-person, per-period rollups. | Commission math without a separate spreadsheet. |
| xlsx exports | Full bid export to Excel, native formatting. | Hand-off to accounting in one click. |
| Inventory + purchase orders | Stock levels, PO generation, supplier terms. | The job's parts don't get lost between sold and shipped. |
Data foundation
| Feature | What it does | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Product catalog | Manufacturer, model, MFG number, supplier, pricing, MAP, electrical specs. | One place for everything you sell. |
| Electrical fields on products | Lumens, color temp, CRI, beam angle, amp rating, UL listing, wire gauge, wire run length. | Critical for lighting and electrical design. |
| Manufacturer + supplier mgmt | Track who you buy from, terms, markup rules. | Pricing inheritance, not per-bid retyping. |
| Bid ingestion + conflict resolution | Import legacy bids from CSV/xlsx; resolve duplicate-product conflicts in a queue. | Migration off legacy tools is a finite project, not an ongoing burden. |
| Schema migration system | Idempotent SQL migrations; SHA-256 drift detection; safe upgrades. | Your data is stewarded across versions, not stranded. |
A LOOK AT WHAT SHIPPED
Portal, electrical, takeoff and agents — in the product today.
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