From walkthrough to signed estimate — without retyping a number
The slowest part of most quotes isn't the math — it's the retyping. Measurements go in a notebook, the notebook goes to the kitchen table, and the same numbers get keyed three more times before the client sees a price.
Here's the workflow Stairkey is built around: measure once on site, and let the same numbers carry through takeoff, estimate, approval, and change orders.
1. Measure the rooms while you're standing in them
Open the Takeoff Builder on your phone during the walkthrough. Enter each room's dimensions, openings, and finishes as you go — that's the whole site visit's data entry.
Need a quick sanity check on quantities while you're there? The free construction calculators handle stairs, paint, flooring, concrete, and more, with feet-inch-fraction input.
2. Let the formulas turn measurements into quantities
Formula-driven quantity rules price the scope from the measurements — wall areas, floor areas, counts — so the takeoff becomes priced line items instead of a pile of numbers waiting for a spreadsheet.
Catalog item descriptions flow through to the client-facing estimate lines, so what the client reads is the clean version, not your shorthand.
3. Materialize the estimate — and keep your edits
The takeoff materializes straight into an estimate. Adjust prices, add lines, tune wording — and if the measurements change and you regenerate, your manual price edits and added lines survive.
That last part matters: it means you can refine the quote without fear of losing work when the scope shifts.
4. Send it and collect a real yes
Send the estimate with the built-in approval flow. The client approves in their portal, and the yes lands on the job record — not in a text thread you'll be scrolling for in August.
5. Put every change on the record
Mid-job additions get written up as change orders tracked against the original approved scope. The conversation, the price change, and the client's sign-off stay together, so the final invoice never comes as a surprise.
When the work wraps, the job becomes the invoice — same record, same numbers, payment status visible until it's paid.