How Apap Painting automated its job paperworkfrom new job to closeout

The problem

Job closeout

Closing out finished jobs was daily, manual work: each job was moved by hand to a monthly close sheet, then its hours report was pulled and attached. In busy season that took 40+ hours of office time a month.

New-job setup

Setting up each new job was just as manual. The project coordinator built every job by hand, checked its details one by one, and wrote every customer email from scratch.

What we built

Job closeout

• Every weekday, jobs marked complete move to that month's close sheet in Smartsheet, attachments and comments included.
• Each job's hours are pulled from VeriClock and attached as a report.
• One morning email to operations and HR, with a link to each row.
• A Needs Attention list for anything it can't settle.
• Each new month's close sheet is created automatically.

New-job setup

• Each awarded job arrives in Smartsheet already set up, with the quote and work order attached.
• Job details like the address and build year are checked automatically, with a lead-paint flag on pre-1978 homes.
• Customer emails are ready from the job's details and go out only when the coordinator ticks the box.

Results

Job closeout

• Live 21 days after kickoff, running every weekday since September 14.
• Closeout runs on its own every weekday.

New-job setup

• New jobs arrive ready for the project coordinator, whose time now goes to customer calls instead of setup.

“I've instructed everybody just to use the new sheet… I've been checking the hours, the reports… I think it looks great.”