Tech for Roofers: The Software Stack That Actually Makes Money

The short version: a roofing company's stack is measurements → CRM → sales → production → payments, in that order, because a roof you mismeasured is a roof you lose money on. Buy the measurement first, the CRM second, and argue about everything else later. Written for the owner deciding between AccuLynx, JobNimbus, and the seventeen other tabs open right now. Also see Roofers, AI for Roofers, and Payments for Roofers.

The stack, in the order that matters

1. Aerial measurements. EagleView (~$15–$25 per report) or Hover (~$25–$50 per report) before you ever climb a ladder. Squares miscounted is margin gone — the industry data calls it the top profit leak, and it's the cheapest software you'll buy.

2. CRM built for roofing. AccuLynx or JobNimbus — job tracking from lead to final payment, crew scheduling, photo documentation for adjusters. This is the spine; everything else plugs into it.

3. Sales and estimating. Leap (quote-based, roughly $200+/mo) for in-home selling with good-better-best options, or your CRM's native estimating if you're disciplined. The job of this layer: the quote goes out before you leave the driveway.

4. Production documentation. CompanyCam (from ~$29/user/mo) — time-stamped, GPS-tagged photos of every slope. For insurance work this is the file that gets claims paid; for retail it's the review-request attachment.

5. Payments. Deposits, draw schedules, ACH on balances — the full treatment is in the payments guide.

6. Accounting. QuickBooks Online with the CRM synced, or your bookkeeper quits by March. Pick the CRM first; the accounting follows the integration, not the other way around.

The main platforms, honestly compared

AccuLynx — from ~$69/user/mo. The roofer's CRM: job tracking, crew scheduling, material ordering, and the aerial-ordering integration. Best for: replacement-focused shops doing insurance and retail. The catch: it's roofing-only — diversify into siding and gutters and you'll outgrow it or run two systems.

JobNimbus — from ~$39/user/mo. Cheaper, more flexible, strong on the sales pipeline and boards. Best for: growing shops that want one system across roofing, siding, and gutters. The catch: needs more setup discipline; out of the box it's a blank canvas, which is a feature and a hazard.

JobProgress — quote-based. Deep on the selling workflow (presentations, financing, e-sign). Best for: in-home sales teams. The catch: production-side features are thinner; pair it with CompanyCam or regret it at the adjuster meeting.

Leap — quote-based (~$200+/mo). The sales-presentation layer with instant financing and digital contracts. Best for: shops where the close happens at the kitchen table. The catch: it's a sales tool, not a CRM — it needs a system of record underneath.

The honest answer for most 3–10 crew shops: JobNimbus or AccuLynx as the spine, CompanyCam for photos, Leap only if your close rate says the kitchen-table presentation is the bottleneck. Buy the spine once; bolt on the rest.

Buy vs. build: when custom software makes sense

For 95% of roofing companies, the answer is buy. Off-the-shelf wins until you're running 15+ crews across multiple markets.

Build when the software is the advantage:

• A homeowner portal with the drone photos, the draw schedule, and the crew's arrival window — the thing that wins the $25,000 job against the cheaper bid.
• An insurance documentation engine that assembles the adjuster packet (photos, measurements, line items) in one click instead of one afternoon.
• Storm-response routing your CRM can't express — triaging 400 hail claims across 12 crews by damage severity and adjuster appointment.

A real build starts at $25,000–$75,000 plus 15–20% a year in maintenance. Nearshore senior engineers cut that roughly in half. Nova is an AWS partner offering dedicated 2–3 person senior-engineer teams engaged through a first consultation — the consult is free, and the engagement starts with a scoped project, not a sales gauntlet. If you can't name the revenue it unlocks, you don't need it.

Most "custom" needs die at the integration layer: CRM plus Zapier or Make covers adjuster follow-ups, review requests, and QuickBooks sync for under $200/mo. Build only when the software wins the contract — and if you can't name the contract, you don't need the build.

What the whole stack costs: 1 crew, 5 crews, 15 crews

1 crew (owner-operator): ~$250–$400/mo. Hover pay-per-report (~$25–$50 each), JobNimbus single user (~$39), CompanyCam one seat (~$29), QuickBooks Simple Start (~$35). You are the CRM's best user and its only user — keep it simple.

5 crews: ~$1,200–$2,000/mo. JobNimbus or AccuLynx for 6–8 users ($240–$550), CompanyCam for the crews (~$200), EagleView subscription or volume reports, Leap if the kitchen-table close matters (~$200+), payments and review tools on top. This is the band where the stack pays for itself in one recovered replacement quote a month.

15 crews, multi-market: ~$4,000–$7,000/mo. Full AccuLynx or ServiceTitan deployment, dedicated sales layer, production documentation across every job, integrations via API or middleware. At this size the question flips from "what does it cost" to "what does the wrong stack cost" — one mismeasured 40-square job wipes out a year of software spend.

Where shops waste money

ServiceTitan for a 3-crew roofer. It's a magnificent platform built for 20+ truck mechanical shops. A 3-crew roofer pays for dispatch logic, pricebook machinery, and reporting depth they'll never open. AccuLynx at a third of the price does the roofing job better.

Drone hardware before drone process. The $2,000 drone gathers dust; the $25 EagleView report gets used on every quote. Buy reports, not aircraft, until volume justifies the pilot.

A CRM nobody opens. The most expensive software is the one the sales rep ignores. If the quote still goes out as a PDF from a laptop, you bought a database, not a system. Tie one thing to it — commission, scheduling, anything — or cancel it.

Paying for leads instead of reviews. $3,000/mo to a lead broker buys shared storm leads your competitor also bought. $289/mo to Podium plus a real review process buys stars that compound. After a hailstorm, the 4.9 with 300 reviews wins the neighborhood; the lead broker's list is everybody's.

FAQ

AccuLynx vs JobNimbus — which one? AccuLynx if you're roofing-only and want the deepest roofing workflow. JobNimbus if you're growing into siding and gutters or want the cheaper, more flexible board. Both beat a spreadsheet by a mile.

Do I really need aerial measurements? At ~$15–$50 a report against a $18,000 job with 8–12% margin, one miscounted square costs more than a year of reports. Yes.

Can I run a roofing company on Housecall Pro? For repairs and service, yes. For replacements with draws, insurance documentation, and crew production tracking, you'll outgrow it. Start there if you're repair-heavy; migrate when replacements pass half your revenue.

When does custom software make sense? When you can name the contract it wins — the homeowner portal, the adjuster-packet engine, storm triage at scale. Otherwise, buy.

This month: buy the aerial measurements, pick the CRM spine, sync QuickBooks, and turn on review requests with drone photos attached. The sales layer and the custom portal come after the foundation earns them. Then measure: quotes out within 24 hours, days-to-paid, review count. When the stack is working, read Payments for Roofers so the processors don't take their cut of every $18,000 roof.