An install isn't a long mowing visit. It has a contract, phases, a deposit, materials, and the change the customer asks for on day two. Shortcut runs installs as Projects: an estimate with phases and a break-even, a contract the customer signs online, change orders that start with a crew lead's photos, and invoices that follow the payment schedule. Your maintenance routes keep running on the same Dispatch page.
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The problem with installs
Maintenance software treats an install like one long job: one price, one invoice at the end. The work doesn't run that way. It's sold with a deposit, built in phases over days, changed halfway through, and paid in parts, while the maintenance crews still need their routes. When the install lives in a spreadsheet and a group text, the change order is a conversation nobody wrote down, and the margin is a surprise at the end.
How Shortcut does it
Build the estimate from your price book: materials, labor, and equipment at cost plus markup, grouped into phases. Labor hours come from each item's rate, and the panel shows budget hours, direct cost, overhead, break-even, and margin against your target as you go.
Send it by email or text. The customer ticks the optional items they want, asks a question if they have one, signs by typing or drawing, and pays the deposit now or later. The signature is kept with the revision they agreed to.
Approved work waits in a backlog until it's ready. Schedule each phase to an install team and Shortcut works out the days from the hours and the team size. A drag-and-drop timeline shows the whole project, and a rain day shifts the phases behind it.
A crew lead taps Need a change, adds photos and rough hours, and says whether the crew kept working. The office prices it and sends it, the customer approves and signs from a link, and the new work lands on the schedule.
A deposit invoice goes out on approval. Progress invoices are drafted as phases pass review, time-and-materials phases bill from measured hours and materials used, and closeout drafts the final invoice. Customers pay on the same invoice page as your maintenance work.
Crew hours come from the time clock, matched to time on site. Each phase review shows hours against budget and margin against what was sold, and closeout shows realized margin against sold, phase by phase.
Watch · 2:35
The real product, start to finish, on a demo company's example data.
A 20-minute call to see if Shortcut fits how you run.
Billing
Payment schedules start from a preset you choose in Settings: 25/50/25, 30/40/30, 50/50, or 100%.
| Invoice | When it's billed |
|---|---|
| Deposit | On approval, sent automatically |
| Progress | When a phase passes review, drafted for the office to send |
| Time and materials | Measured crew hours at the phase rate, plus the materials used |
| Change order | On its own invoice when it's signed, or added to the next invoice |
| Final | At closeout, drafted from what's left on the contract |
Project invoices sync to QuickBooks Online like any other invoice.
Pricing
One price per crew, with unlimited users and every feature. No add-ons, no onboarding fee, no contract.
$180per crew
per month
Save 20%Pay yearly: $144 per crew per month. That's $432 back per crew, every year.
Running 1 or 2 crews? Start a 14-day free trial, no card.
Pricing, switching, and what Shortcut does today, in plain words.
Software that runs an install from estimate to closeout: the estimate and contract, the phases on the schedule, change orders, deposits and progress payments, and the margin as the work happens. Shortcut does it in Projects, next to your maintenance routes.
Yes. They open the estimate from an email or text, tick any optional items, and sign by typing or drawing. They can pay the deposit right away or later.
A crew lead can start one from the field with photos and rough hours. The office prices it and sends it, and the customer approves and signs from a link, or declines. Signed work lands on the schedule, and a fixed-price change order gets its own invoice or joins the next one.
Yes. Each phase is fixed price or time and materials. Time-and-materials phases bill from the crew's measured hours at the phase rate, plus the materials used.
Both run from the Dispatch page: maintenance routes in one view, installs in another, with a today and a week view for install teams. A crew pulled onto a project shows an On install chip on the maintenance board.
The phase, the checklist, the budget hours, and the materials to log, in the crew app, which works offline. The lead declares progress with photos, and anyone on the crew can flag a change. Crews never see prices.
Each phase review shows hours against budget and margin against what was sold, and the project page projects the final margin from actual labor and materials. Closeout shows realized margin against sold, phase by phase.
$180 per crew per month, or $144 billed yearly, with installs, every other feature, and unlimited users included.
Book 20 minutes with the team that built Shortcut. Bring an install you sold this year, and we'll walk it from estimate to closeout.
Rather skip the form? Open the calendar. Running 1 or 2 crews? Start a 14-day free trial, no card.