P. 02
Why the silence costs you money
A homeowner cannot see your work. They see a torn-up backyard, a truck that was there Tuesday but not Wednesday, and an invoice. What the report prevents, line by line, in a table you can hand to your PM.
Free field guide · 9 pages
The Friday email that gets your progress payments released on time.
One page, twelve minutes, and homeowners stop asking what you did this week. The template, the color rules, and the ledger that makes your freebies count.
- 9 pages, fill-in-the-blank
- Sections A through G, copy them today
- Email only. Phone is optional.
9 pp. · PDF
Contents
What’s inside
P. 03
The three-color system, and the habit that hides four weeks of work
Red at 0%, yellow at 1 to 99% with a real percentage, green at 100% and it never goes back. The instinct to leave a phase red until it is finished is the single most expensive habit in client communication.
P. 04
Sections A and B: the phase list in build order
Pre-construction from design approval through long-lead materials, then every construction phase from site protection to final punch list. The client learns your process by reading the same list every Friday.
P. 05
Section C: the Goodwill Value Ledger
Every complimentary item with a dollar value attached, priced at full retail rather than your cost, totalled cumulatively. A gift with no price is worth nothing and quietly resets what the client thinks free means.
P. 06
Draw schedule tied to milestones, plus the deposit-cap note
Each draw against a trigger, so the report itself documents that every payment was earned by work already in place. Includes the California deposit cap and front-loading rules under Bus. & Prof. Code §7159.5, with instructions to verify the rule in your own state.
P. 07
Schedule, weather, and the most under-used box on the page
Screenshot the actual seven-day forecast for the client’s zip code every week, before Thursday rather than after it. Then Section G: what is coming, and what you need from them, with a date attached.
P. 08
The 12-minute Friday routine
Six steps with a time next to each, from pulling the week’s photos to sending before 4pm. Written so it can be handed to a project manager with this page attached. Includes the two-line email that goes with the report.
P. 09
Your first report is due Friday
Pick the active job with the most nervous homeowner and send them a report this week, even if the only honest thing on it is a permit number and a forecast. The second one takes twelve minutes.
Preview
Actual pages, not a mockup
Spreads from the 9-page file you get.
Who wrote this
Jose Rojas
@joserojasbuilds
Jose still builds. These guides are written out of jobs that were actually run, which is why the details are unglamorous: gate widths, dumpster tonnage caps, and the sentence you say when a homeowner asks for a number while you are standing in the dirt.
Who this is for
This is for you if
- Pool builders, hardscape and outdoor-living contractors, remodelers and GCs running $50k to $500k residential projects
- Anyone who has heard “what did you even do this week?” on a Friday afternoon
- Contractors running two or more active jobs, where the update is the first thing that slips
- Owners who want the Friday update delegated without it getting worse
This is not for you if
- Homeowners. This is a contractor-side documentation system, not a way to check up on your builder.
- Anyone running a single job they are on site for daily and speaking to the client every morning already.
- Contractors who want legal or accounting advice. The payment-schedule pages are orientation only. Licensing and payment rules vary by state, so verify with your board and your attorney.
Before you give us your email
Questions
I already text my clients photos. Is this not the same thing?
Photos tell them something happened. They do not create a record. The report is a timestamped log of what was complete, what the client selected, what they added, and what the weather did, written by you before there is a dispute. That is what a withheld progress payment argument turns on.
Twelve minutes a week per job. Really?
Once the template exists, yes. Page 8 breaks the routine into six steps with a time on each. The first report on a job takes longer because you are building the phase list. After that you are only touching lines that moved.
I already pay for project management software. Do I have to switch?
No. Rebuild Sections A through G in whatever you already use, whether that is Google Docs, Notion or your PM tool. Structure matters more than software, and the guide is written that way on purpose.
9 pages · Free · PDF
Have it in your inbox before you leave the truck.
No call, no calendar link. Enter an email and the guide is on the next screen.