Free tools & guides
Every free tool and guide we publish, in one place. Nothing here asks for a credit card, and the tools give you a straight answer whether or not we ever work together.
See if AI search tools can find and recommend your shop.
Can your job software run AI? Three questions, a straight verdict per job you want automated.
Price any change in full — labor at its true rate, loads, and profit — before the work starts.
53 free calculators — measuring and conversions, bulk materials, interiors, lumber and masonry, exterior and site work, geometry, steel and sheet goods, and home systems from HVAC sizing estimates to solar panel counts — waste in, math shown.
Fourteen screening tools with the formulas printed: cap rate and cash-on-cash, a full rental analyzer with a five-year projection, BRRRR, California closing costs, Long Beach property tax on the Prop 13 basis, fix-and-flip and hard-money math, affordability, equity and LTV, mortgage, refinance break-even, rent vs buy, short-term rental — and the Long Beach ADU cost and ROI flagship. Education only, not investment advice.
The two-way check for the priciest confusion in contracting: 20% markup is a 16.7% margin.
Turn a wage into the burdened cost per hour your bids should actually carry.
Score any finished job: gross profit, margin, and what each labor hour earned.
Your direct Google review link and a printable jobsite QR card, from your Place ID.
What your job software lets you automate, platform by platform.
Your state’s notice, filing, and enforcement deadlines — read off the statute itself, cited, with a printable Job Compliance Pack.
The pre-mobilization checklist, COI expiration tracker, and chase templates — paperwork you run yourself.
The 10-minute self-check that gets a pay application through the GC’s desk the first time.
What roofs, remodels, plumbing, and electrical work actually cost in Long Beach.
Copy-and-paste scripts and setup steps for catching the calls your shop misses.
Plain-English articles on putting AI to work in a contracting business — lead follow-up, estimating, reviews, and the paperwork that eats your evenings. Each one includes something you can copy and use the same day.
Does anything here cost money? Nothing here asks for a credit card, and the tools give you a straight answer whether or not we ever work together.
Can I check the math behind the tools? Every tool shows its math and its sources.
Is any of this legal advice? Nothing here is legal advice; deadline tools cite the statute they read.
What kinds of tools and guides are here? Free tools — an AEO Readiness Check, a Software Check, a change order pricing worksheet, markup and labor-cost calculators, a job profit scorecard, and a Google review link generator — plus 53 field calculators, fourteen real estate screening tools, lien deadlines, a sub compliance kit, a pay app packet, and Long Beach cost guides.
The tools above cover the leaks most shops share. A Snapshot is the one-on-one version: 15 free minutes with Xavier to pressure-test what you found and map your next step. No pressure either way — you leave with a short list you can act on yourself.
It starts with booking your free call — then a few quick questions ahead of it, so the call itself is spent on your shop, not on background.
Plain answers about AI for contractor shops — no hype, no sales talk inside the articles. What the words mean, what the main tools are good at, what things really cost, and how to use them safely on real work. Start anywhere. Each article stands on its own and takes a few minutes to read.
The three words everyone mixes up, sorted in plain language.
ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Copilot — what each is good at, rough cost shape, and who should pick which.
The follow-up and paperwork work agents handle well, and the judgment calls that stay with you.
Copy-and-use examples for follow-ups, review requests, change orders, customer emails, and job postings.
A short decision path for a shop starting from zero: one job, one tool, two weeks on real work.
Subscriptions, per-use charges, extra seats, and learning time — the full bill, not the sticker.
What client information should never go into an AI tool, and the simple ways to work around it.
Want a read on your own shop? Tell us about your business and we’ll tell you where AI can actually help — free. The Snapshot
For supplier, association, and dealer sites: our embeddable calculators put five working tools on your own pages free — your visitors get the math without leaving your site.
