11 Apps for Painting Contractors to Know

Painting Business Apps

Painting business apps are digital solutions that streamline key business operations that impact your company's daily operations. They handle field- and office-based tasks such as job management, invoicing, dispatching, customer data verification, etc.

Our research produced the following best painting business apps:

• ServiceTitan Mobile

• Joist

• GoCanvas

• PaintScout

• ServiceTitan Invoice Generator

Let’s explore their features, starting with ServiceTitan:

1. ServiceTitan Mobile

ServiceTitan Mobile is a cloud-based, dedicated software solution built specifically for trade companies, including painting businesses. It has Android, iOS, and tablet versions, making it a valuable tool for field workers.

Painting field techs use ServiceTitan Mobile and its partner integrations to communicate effectively with the office and streamline workflows.

Here’s a breakdown of the benefits techs enjoy from using ServiceTitan Mobile:

Painters arrive fully informed

Painters’ ability to transform buildings and satisfy customers’ specifications depends on having the right information. They need to be aware of the nature of the job beforehand to pick suitable paint colors, buckets, tools, and so on.

ServiceTitan Mobile’s cloud nature empowers technicians to access every customer’s details saved in the CRM (customer relationship management) system, including their names, property information, and addresses. 

This eliminates the inefficient and error-prone system of using scribbled notes, and back-and-forth office calls to save and verify the information.

The software also enables paint techs to listen to the recording of the intake call, catch details customer support might have missed when creating the work order, and clarify ambiguities. This equips painters with all the information they need to arrive at the job site fully prepared.

ServiceTitan Mobile App also has a GPS tracking feature that lets customers track technicians’ arrival in real time. Customers can use this real-time tracking system to effectively plan their appointments instead of peeping through the blinds whenever a truck hoots or passes.

Roofers have access to every job history

ServiceTitan Mobile allows painters to access homeowners’ complete job history, including previous invoices, paint quality and type, repair pictures, voice notes, and services provided.

Painters can use the above information to upsell the exact services customers need and get ideas for conversational icebreakers to smoothen the sales pitch. This boosts conversions and increases the revenue generated per service call.

Say goodbye to missing paperwork

Business owners who have relied on paper documents understand their inherent vulnerabilities all too well. Physical records are prone to a host of problems:

1. They can be easily misplaced or lost entirely, leading to critical information gaps

2. Over time, ink can fade and paper can deteriorate, making documents illegible

3. Exposure to moisture, whether from spills or environmental conditions, can irreparably damage or destroy important records

4. They're susceptible to fire damage, potentially wiping out years of crucial business data

5. Paper documents take up significant physical space, often leading to cluttered and inefficient workspaces

6. Searching through paper files is time-consuming and labor-intensive, reducing productivity

7. Sharing and collaborating on paper documents is cumbersome, especially for remote teams

8. They're difficult to back up, making disaster recovery challenging

These limitations not only hinder daily operations but also pose significant risks to the long-term security and accessibility of vital business information.

Even worse, field techs may forget to fill out special forms due to their laser-sharp focus (and rightly so) on the painting project. Consequently, they’ll fill out the forms in the office later, when their recollection of events is fuzzy and input inaccurate information as a result.

To prevent such a problem, we built ServiceTitan Mobile to enable technicians to upload documents to the cloud, which team members can access.

Project and crew managers can also upload job forms to the software and program them to appear at specific stages of the job cycle. This compels techs to complete the relevant forms before leaving.

Create estimates with ease

Techs can be your number one revenue generator due to their closeness to customers, if they know the right prices and can generate accurate estimates.

ServiceTitan Mobile helps you change tool and equipment prices from one location to reflect current economic conditions. It also sources photos from the catalogs of reputable suppliers and manufacturers.

This enables technicians to build good-better-best painting estimates using clear photos and accurate prices, increasing deal-closure rates.

Check out our free estimate template for creating eye-catching proposals.

Spot upsell opportunities

Personalized sales pitches work tremendously well, as customers respond to suggestions relevant to their current needs. For example, a customer with an older house is more likely to accept a suggestion to strip and repaint their exterior.

That’s why ServiceTitan Mobile has a property details checker highlighting information such as property size, age, and room number. This allows techs to accurately predict customers’ needs and recommend an appropriate upsell.

Keep a clean pricebook

Disorganized and outdated pricebooks create numerous challenges for companies, including:

1. Inaccurate pricing that can erode profits or lose sales

2. Time wasted searching for correct information

3. Reduced customer trust due to inconsistent pricing

4. Missed upselling opportunities

5. Difficulty in training new staff on pricing structures

6. Increased risk of pricing errors in quotes and invoices

These issues can significantly impact a company's efficiency, profitability, and customer relationships, and tend to increase in magnitude as companies scale and add more service offerings.

ServiceTitan’s Pricebook Pro platform allows you to maintain an organized pricebook that employees can access from mobile and desktop devices. You can also import existing pricebooks and their data into the platform instead of creating new ones from scratch.

Improve customer experience

Seamless processes improve customer experience. Some customers prefer digital communication to in-person visits and phone calls, user-friendly job booking interfaces instead of lengthy forms, and flexible mobile payment options instead of just cash.

That’s where ServiceTitan Mobile excels.

The application allows techs to provide different payment options. Customers can pay via cash, checks (using tablets’ in-built cameras), and payment cards (using swipers).

ServiceTitan also allows customers to book appointments online, talk directly with painting companies via SMS, and know the technician assigned to their house.

Using ServiceTitan to provide excellent service increases customer retention, drives repeat business and encourages referrals.

Before switching to ServiceTitan, Arizona Painting used a fragmented tool suite of Excel, Word, and Google Sheets. This introduced inefficiencies into the company’s operations, leading to revenue bloats.

With ServiceTitan, the company’s leads and revenue increased by 60 percent, and its profit margin improved by five percent.

“Using ServiceTitan is something that everybody in our industry needs if they want to know how well their business is doing and how to improve it,” says Joe Campbell, owner of Arizona Painting. 

To enjoy these benefits and take your company to the next level, book a demo so our staff can walk you through the tool’s other features and help you maximize its value.

2. Joist

iOS and Android – $8, $14, or $32 monthly.

Joist painting business software helps companies manage customer data, collect payments, and build invoices from the office and job site. It has a freemium plan business owners can use to try out the platform before committing financially.

The mobile app allows techs to create attractive estimates using frequently used items and job photos. Customers can then digitally sign the estimate virtually or physically, indicating their agreement with the quoted prices.

Furthermore, the application enables users to manage finances and create and send customized invoices to customers. These invoices can be paid via credit cards or e-checks. You can also break the payment into phases so the customer pays based on the job’s progress.

Let’s say you have an interior painting job. Instead of forcing the customer to pay the entire fee upfront, you can divide the payment milestones into 20 percent upfront, 50 percent after priming, and 30 percent once the final coat is applied. 

Staggering the payments this way reduces the risk of not receiving any payment after completing a job.

Joist also has a CRM, QuickBooks integration, and a financing option created in partnership with reputable lenders. This enables painting business owners to make customer details accessible to all employees and technicians, allowing them to easily close high-ticket upsells.

You can download the application to your mobile device from Google Play Store or the Apple App Store.

3. GoCanvas

iOS, Android, and Windows – $49 or $79 per user each month.

GoCanvas is a job management platform designed to meet home service providers’ unique needs.

Used by over 5,000 companies, the software assists business owners in managing new painting projects, recurring services, and valuable first-party data insights. It eliminates clipboards and manual data entry processes.

People also use the platform’s offline mode to capture data in areas without internet coverage. Every detail captured during the network outage automatically syncs with other updates immediately after you move to areas with an internet connection.

With a version for both desktop and mobile devices, GoCanvas connects the field to the office. Users can track job progress and instantly give approvals to subcontractors from anywhere in the world.

This business software has multiple partner integrations, including QuickBooks, Procore, and Hubspot. This helps collate data from different sources into one central location.

4. PaintScout

Only has a web-based application – $99 for each user and more for enterprise clients.

PaintScout is software for building estimates, facilitating sales, and saving customer data. Its features help businesses streamline workflows and grow without the management burden of scaling.

Its integrated communication feature helps with follow-up. You can create and schedule tailored follow-up messages to be delivered to customers at specific times via email or SMS.

This ensures you don’t miss out on the opportunity to convert warm leads into loyal customers.

With the offline mode, field techs can create estimates and work orders and record job details in rural regions with poor broadband access or lacking internet connectivity. Once techs return to areas with network coverage, every bit of information entered into the system automatically syncs with previous updates.

Additionally, customers can pay and access financing using the web-based application. This increases deal-closure rates and ensures companies sustain a stable cash flow.

The platform also has an administration dashboard that tracks key performance metrics such as sales, close rate, and the average bid. It also shows the estimates created, closed, and open.

This helps painting business owners discover bottlenecks before it’s too late.

PainScout integrates with other tools, such as Stripe (which facilitates credit card payments), Wisetack (which provides financing), and QuickBooks (which manages accounting needs).

You can sign up for PaintScout’s two-week free trial without a credit card. Once it’s exhausted, you can either pay for the premium plan or contact the sales team to be enrolled in the enterprise tier.

5. ServiceTitan® Invoice Generator

Free on ServiceTitan

Though beneficial, allowing field techs to complete invoices poses two major challenges.

First off, techs can enter inaccurate data or find it hard to create invoices on their own. Second, techs may stray away from brand guidelines or forget to collect important details.

To resolve these challenges, we designed an easy-to-use invoice replete with all the necessary fields, including customer names, service prices, and other details.

Giving techs these templates ensures they collect the right details and adhere to your company’s accepted invoicing standard. This ensures they create accurate invoices that further enhance brand recognition.

Painter Calculator Apps

These apps are programmed with formulas for complex calculations, such as the gallons of paint a room will consume and the best way to price an entire project to be profitable.

Below are the key painting calculator apps we’ve tried, tested, and confirmed to work efficiently.

• ServiceTitan® Labor Rate Calculator

• Lowe’s Paint calculator

• Sherwin-Williams paint calculator

1. ServiceTitan® Labor Rate Calculator

Free on ServiceTitan

Setting prices that factor in overheads, running expenses, and employee wages is vital. Otherwise, you risk jeopardizing your painting company’s future. 

ServiceTitan’s Labor Rate Calculator helps you determine the amount to pay employees and the hourly rate to charge customers. Input business metrics such as billable hours and overhead into the tool, and wait as it calculates a profitable price to charge for your services.

2. Lowe’s Paint Calculator

Free on Lowe’s

The popular retail home improvement company of the same name created Lowe’s Paint Calculator. This tool reveals the amount of paint and billable hours it will take to paint an area. It needs the area’s dimensions, access points, molding values, and paint coverage.

3. Sherwin-Williams Paint Calculator

Free on Sherwin-Williams

This provides the quantity of paint required for interior and exterior projects. It has three painting calculation modules. 

• The quick calculation module uses the standard size of windows and doors.

• The custom calculation module allows users to input extra details such as surface texture and molding and the dimensions of baseboards, windows, ceilings, and doors.

• The deck calculation module for measuring the quantity of paint required to cover deck floors of specific dimensions.

Utility Apps for Painters

Utility painting apps streamline tasks that, although mundane, still significantly impact the delivery of quality service and subsequent profitability. They include finding and matching paint palettes and creating sample images to send to clients.

Here are the top three painting utility apps we identified during our research:

• ServiceTitan service business checkup

• Nix Paint

• Paint Tester

1. ServiceTitan® Service Business Checkup

Free on ServiceTitan

This tool helps businesses determine their company’s financial state and performance in less than one minute. This helps to mitigate risks, uncover potential competitive advantages, and correct issues before they worsen. 

To use the service business grader, insert key details such as headcount, average ticket size, and the number of jobs completed within the last month on the first page and click “Next.”

Then, select an answer that best answers the question prompts on the next page, and wait as the system generates a business health report.

2. Nix Paint

iOS and Android

The Nix Paint app combines four different tools: Nix Mini, Nix Pro, Nix QC, and Nix Spectro devices. The app uses a splash and dust–resistant sensor to identify the CIELAB, HEX, and RGB values of the paint color used on a surface.

Nix Paint allows you to match colors to a free library of 300,000 paint brand colors. You can also create and share custom libraries and purchase premium ones from leading paint manufacturers.

3. Paint Tester

Free on the Apple App Store

Paint Tester is used to see how a room will look when painted with different colors. 

Simply upload the image of the area to be painted, pick a color, and use the smart feature to apply it to the walls without affecting other items or excluded spaces.

You can then download the image and deliver it to customers to confirm if the chosen color and texture match their expectations. This prevents repaints and can inspire customers to create unique designs.

How Do You Choose The Best Apps for Painting Contractors?

Rather than using apps discriminately, pick one with features appropriate for your business needs. You can do that by using the following criteria:

• Features: Scrutinize each tool’s features. Check review platforms and the tool’s documentation to confirm it has the features required to resolve your challenges.

• Use cases: Make a list of your business's current challenges and pick a tool that solves them. For example, if tracking employee billable hours is challenging, you’ll need a centralized timesheet tool.

• Ease of use: Tools with complex interfaces take time to master. Employees may spend hours figuring out each button rather than focusing on the job. Ensure the tool has an easy-to-understand interface, video guides, and a responsive service desk.

• Support: Again, check reviews to confirm if the support desk responds promptly to queries. You wouldn’t want to be stuck with an unresponsive support team when the tool malfunctions in the field.

Over to You

Operating a painting company without technology means losing vital paperwork, keeping customers waiting for longer periods, and failing to identify revenue opportunities.

Therefore, invest in the right technology to grow your painting company. You can get separate tools to streamline accounting, invoicing, and job costing.

However, we often advise home service providers and small businesses like yours to opt for mega applications like ServiceTitan, instead of paying for different tools. 

This saves costs, eliminates the challenge of switching between tools, and reduces the number of interfaces new employees have to learn during the onboarding process.

ServiceTitan is a software solution that helps painting companies run their business more efficiently by automating essential processes like invoicing and customer management. Join over 100,000 contractors nationwide who use the platform to boost revenue.