Roofing CRM: What Small Contractors Need (2026)

You are on a roof in the afternoon, or driving from a leak on one side of Houston to an inspection on the other. The phone rings. You cannot take it. After hail moves through, that homeowner is already calling the next company.

A roofing CRM is the list that keeps that caller, and the proposal you already walked, from disappearing. Everyone who asked about a roof gets a next step and a date you can update from the driveway. A CRM for roofing contractors holds the storm call, the inspection, and the open claim in one place.

Any trade can start from CRM for Contractors: What to Require (2026). This page is the roofing week.

What a roofing CRM has to handle

Judge the product by the jobs you already lost.

• A call or a web form never got written down.
• The caller hung up while you were tied off, and nobody wrote back.
• An inspection was promised, and you drove to an empty house.
• Photos of the damage sat in a text the office could not search.
• A proposal went out, and nobody checked while the homeowner waited on the adjuster.
• The tear-off lived in a group text, so the crew and the dumpster were two plans.
• The job was paid and walked, and nobody asked for a review.

Put every call and form on one list

Every person who asked needs one record: the missed call, a text with a ceiling stain, a form on your site or maps listing, the neighbor who stopped while the crew was on the street, and the agent who asked who you trust with a claim.

Write a name if you have one, a number, the address, and the job in their words. "Water stain in the back bedroom after last night's rain" is more useful than "leak." Note how they found you, and when you will call. A dripping leak is a different queue from a roof they have considered since the last hail.

Use one business number. A short form, or a link for the photos they promised, beats retyping between roofs. So does importing the sheet you already keep. If a new record needs a laptop, you will skip it in the driveway. The neighbor on that street counts only if the address is written down before you leave.

Write back the same day

Plenty of people will not leave a voicemail. They dial the next roofer. A missed-call text goes out when the call rings out, so they know a real company saw it.

Name the company, say you missed them, and ask what is going on and what part of town they are in. Promise only a window you will keep. When hail has the trucks booked, an evening you can meet beats an hour you cannot. No repair instructions in the text. If they describe a collapse, a limb through the house, or someone hurt, tell them to call emergency services.

Wording, consent, and opt-out are in Missed Call Text Back for Contractors (2026). That guide is not legal advice. Confirm the rules for your state and your provider, and let people opt out. The reply belongs on the same list as the web form, with a task to call back.

Schedule the inspection, then the crew

The inspection is the sales visit. Put the time and address on the lead, remind them the day before, and let them move it. An empty house across Houston costs the afternoon you needed on a sold roof. Ask about dogs, gates, and roof access before the ladder comes off the truck. Say you will look, take photos, and send a proposal. Do not name a price before you have been up.

The crew day starts after they say yes. Put who is going, the address, the material, and the dumpster on one calendar, including a second crew, so the morning is not a group text. Show the start date on the job. Routing can wait until someone else assigns several crews. On a phone, tell a booked tear-off from an open estimate, and keep two callback windows on days you are tied off.

Name the pipeline the way you talk

• New lead. A person and a description. Nothing scheduled.
• Inspection booked. A time to get on the roof.
• Inspected. You have been up, and the finding is written down.
• Proposal sent. Scope, material, and price are with them. This column goes quiet first.
• Waiting on insurance. An adjuster is coming, or a claim is open. Give it a date. It is not a pile you will remember after the next storm.
• Contract signed. Deposit, material, and a tear-off date still have to land.
• On the schedule. Crew, dumpster, and start day are one plan.
• Installed. The roof is on and walked. The invoice and the review can still be open.
• Not now. They want to wait. Lost means they hired someone else or told you to stop.

An active leak can move in a few days. A replacement that waits on a carrier takes longer, so use a real date. The software does not know whether a claim was approved. You write that down and move the stage.

Keep photos and notes with the job

Save what you saw, in a place the office can open a week later: slope, layers, soft deck, flashing, pipe boots, and whether the marks look like hail or ordinary wear. One sentence is enough. "Lifted tabs on the north slope, soft deck at the valley" can become a proposal. A camera roll sorted by day cannot.

Put that sentence on the lead the day you inspect. Photos belong on the job, or in a folder the note names, when files are stored only after the work is sold. The homeowner should be able to share those pictures with their carrier. The software will not measure the squares, file the claim, or write a supplement. The list should show that the photos went out, and the day you will ask about the adjuster.

Follow up, then ask for one review

Proposals go quiet because a spouse has to see the number, the carrier has not answered, or the week got away. Follow-up is the stage plus a dated task. A schedule you can copy is in How to Follow Up on an Estimate (2026). Name your company, the roof, and one question. Do not send it twice, and do not cut the price before they say price is the problem.

A repair can get a note in a couple of days and one more about a week later. A claim gets a longer gap. When they say it was approved, talk about an open week.

Ask once, after the walkthrough and after you are paid. Name the job. Point them at the listing they already use. If they ignore it, stop. Do not offer a gift for a positive review. The sites that show reviews forbid that trade. If the roof leaked again, fix it first. Send the first asks yourself.

What to skip

• Forecasting, territories, and lead scores.
• A promise that the software approves insurance, picks a shingle, or knows your city's wind rules.
• Aerial measurements and a material catalog, unless you already price from those screens.
• New invoicing, if a tool you tolerate already sends the bill.
• Crew routing, while you are the person on the roof.
• A blast to the whole customer list. A storm week is a poor time to text people who did not ask.
• A setup that needs a free week. Ten open proposals should fit in an afternoon.
• A per-person fee you have not multiplied out. Read the vendor's current page.

How to choose

A spreadsheet will not raise Thursday's proposal while you are on a tear-off. Buy a follow-up tool for missed calls and quiet proposals: leads, stages you name, and a dated next step. Buy a field product when you need routing and invoicing. Fix whichever leak is losing jobs this week. A CRM does not measure a roof.

1. Add the last ten price requests, including anyone waiting on a carrier.
2. Move each one to a stage you would say out loud.
3. Date every lead that is not scheduled or lost.
4. Change one stage from your phone.
5. Find the quietest proposal without scrolling. The date should have raised it.
6. Ask what goes out if you never press send, and how you turn that off.
7. Read what stays free, what expires, and what the headcount costs.

If step 5 fails, stop.

The first week

• One business number, and one list.
• Open proposals, this week's missed calls, and referrals you have not called.
• Stages that include waiting on insurance and on the schedule.
• A date on every open claim.
• A missed-call text in your words, with replies on the list.
• A form or photo link on the site and the listing.
• Two callback windows on roof days.
• One review ask per paid job, after the walkthrough.

Before you leave the truck, you should see missed calls with no task, proposals with no reply, claims with no date, and finished roofs with no review ask.

Where Puffly fits

Puffly is a CRM for local service businesses, built in Houston. The free CRM is leads, contacts, companies, deals, stages you can rename, tasks, and a branded form. Name a stage "waiting on insurance" and date the task. Add people by hand, import a canvassing sheet, or put the form on your site. No card is required to start, and that set does not expire.

Missed-call text back is free for the first 14 days. After that it stays on a paid plan. Puff, which drafts a follow-up and points at who to call next, is paid. A draft waits until you approve it, unless you turn sending on. Quotes a customer can accept, a booking page, review asks, and work orders with photos from the roof are paid too. Paid plans include the people on the account without a per-person charge. Current plans are on the pricing page.

Puffly does not measure a roof, file a claim, write a supplement, route a fleet, or replace your accounting. It does not tell hail from wear. The same limit is on the page for roofers, and city pages start at Houston trades. Use it for the missed call, the undated proposal, and the claim you meant to check. You still decide what gets sent.