The 9-step pipeline that runs every job

Most contractors run a four-status pipeline in their head: new, working on it, done, paid. That works at five jobs a year. At forty, you'll forget something.

Here's the nine-status pipeline we recommend, what each one means, and the single next move for the office or crew when a job lands in it.

1. Lead

Someone has reached out. You haven't quoted yet. Could be a phone call, an inbound from your website, or a referral from a past customer.

Next move: schedule the walkthrough. Lead-stage jobs that sit more than a week are usually lost.

2. Estimated

You've walked the job and sent the estimate. The customer has it. They haven't decided.

Next move: follow up at 48 hours. Not a hard sell — a polite "any questions on the scope?" If three follow-ups go unanswered, archive as Lost.

3. Approved

The customer signed the estimate. You have permission to schedule and order materials. Deposit may or may not be paid yet.

Next move: collect the deposit (if not already paid) and put it on the schedule. Don't order materials until the deposit clears.

4. Scheduled

Job is on the calendar. Materials are ordered. Crew assignments are set.

Next move: 24 hours before start, send the customer a 'we're starting tomorrow' message. Saves a lot of 'is anyone coming?' calls.

5. In progress

Crew is on site. Work is happening. Daily updates are useful here — even just photos uploaded to the job.

Next move: any time scope grows by more than a few hundred dollars, file a change order immediately. Don't batch them at the end.

6. Awaiting payment

Work is done. Final walkthrough completed. Invoice has been sent. Money is in the customer's hands but not yours yet.

Next move: auto-reminders at 7, 14, and 28 days past due. If the invoice is more than 45 days late, that's a phone call from the owner.

7. Closed

Paid in full. Job is in the books. Customer record is complete with photos, signed approvals, and the paid invoice.

Next move: ask for a review. The day after final payment is the peak of customer goodwill. Tomorrow is too late.

8. Lost

Estimate went out, customer went silent or chose someone else. Archive but don't delete — these are leads to re-warm in six months.

Next move: tag with the reason if you know it (price, timing, scope mismatch). Patterns emerge over time.

9. On hold

Approved but the customer wants to wait — financing, weather, life event. Different from Lost; the deal is still live.

Next move: set a follow-up date and stop everything else. On-hold jobs that don't have a reactivation date attached are dead jobs in disguise.

Why nine and not four

Each status answers a question your office manager has to answer five times a day: 'Where's the Patel job at?' If the answer is 'in progress' you know the crew is on site. If it's 'awaiting payment' you know to chase the invoice. Four statuses don't carry that information.

The dashboard view that uses it

The pipeline is most useful as a board view — columns for each status, cards for each job, drag between columns as jobs move. A glance at the board tells the owner: how many leads are sitting too long without follow-up, how many estimates are aging past 14 days, how many in-progress jobs have a final walkthrough coming this week, how much money is sitting in 'awaiting payment.'

If your board has six jobs in 'Estimated' that have been there more than 21 days, that's a follow-up afternoon. If your board has four jobs in 'Awaiting payment' over 30 days, that's a phone-call afternoon. The board makes operational priorities self-evident in a way that a job list does not.

Hand-offs between statuses

The status changes are also the natural hand-off points between roles. Estimator works in Lead and Estimated. Office manager owns Approved through Scheduled. Foreman owns In progress. Billing owns Awaiting payment through Closed. When everyone knows who's responsible for what stage, jobs stop falling between people.

The mistake we see: solo operators trying to do all five roles at the same time. The status pipeline doesn't help if one person is wearing every hat — but the moment you hire a second person, the pipeline tells you exactly where to cut the labor. Most shops start by hiring an office manager and giving them everything from Approved to Awaiting payment. Estimator and foreman stay with the owner.

When to deviate

Service work often skips stages. A clogged drain doesn't really need 'Estimated' as a distinct status — it goes from Lead directly to In progress in a single 90-minute visit. That's fine; the pipeline is a framework, not a checklist. Service-heavy trades typically run a 5-status variant: Lead → Scheduled → In progress → Invoiced → Paid.

Large multi-phase work needs more statuses, not fewer. A $400k commercial buildout might run with sub-statuses inside 'In progress' — Demo, Rough-in, Drywall, Finish, Closeout. Each one is itself a phase with its own milestones.

Adapt to your shop. The point isn't 9 vs 4 — the point is that every job's location in the pipeline should be self-evident to anyone in the office without a phone call.

The bigger insight

The pipeline isn't just a sorting tool. It's a memory device. Solo contractors run on memory and it works until it doesn't. Five jobs is fine. Forty isn't. The pipeline is what lets you scale past your memory's limits without dropping balls.

When your business outgrows your head, you're going to use a tool of some kind to externalize the work. The question is whether you build that tool ad hoc (spreadsheets, sticky notes, separate inboxes per job) or pick one that's purpose-built. Either way, the underlying structure is going to look like a pipeline.