From First Call to Paid: A Flat Glass Job

Flat glass work looks simple from the outside: a window, a mirror, a shower door. The money is in the details. Every piece is a custom size. It's priced by the square foot, rounded the way your supplier rounds. Some of it you cut from sheets in your own shop, some you order made to size and can never send back. Doors and showers legally need safety glass. A 3/8" shower door weighs more than one person should carry. Get one of those wrong and you either eat the glass or bring the crew back.

The Flat Glass screen walks every job through the same steps, in order, and remembers where each one is:

Openings → Estimate → Payer → Approval → Glass → Shop → Schedule → Install → Billing → Payment → Closed

The whole row of steps is always at the top of the job, and you can click back to any earlier step to check or fix something. Glass, Shop, Schedule and Install can be switched off in Flat Glass settings if your shop doesn't use them. A mirror retailer who never cuts glass can drop the Shop step, for example.

Underneath, it's a normal Suprata job with a normal estimate, invoices and appointments. Open the standard job page, in the job's … menu, opens the classic work order. Anything done there, such as a payment taken on the invoice page or a visit booked on the calendar, shows up on the Flat Glass screen within a few minutes.

This article follows one real-looking job from start to finish: Maria Delgado calls about a fogged kitchen window, and while you're there she wants a new shower door.

Starting a job

Book it the way you book any job: from a call, the New Job form, or New job on the Flat Glass board. Choose your Flat Glass job type and save, and you land on the Flat Glass screen instead of the plain work order.

Jobs also start from the website. Requests from your online quote form arrive with the customer's openings and photos already filled in. See Online glass quote requests.

1. Openings

An opening is one piece of glass, or a set of identical pieces. Press Add an opening and fill in the piece builder:

• What is it? Window, door glass, sidelite, shower door, mirror, tabletop and so on. This decides the labor that goes on the estimate and which safety-glass questions are ticked for you.
• Where ("Kitchen, left of the sink") and the Mark. Marks are given automatically (W1, W2 for windows, S1 for shower glass, M1 for mirrors) and follow the piece everywhere: the estimate, the order to your fabricator, the shop cut list and the installer's checklist.
• Width and Height in inches. Fractions are fine: 23 7/8, 23-7/8 or 23.875 all work.
• Shape, if it isn't a rectangle: out of square, rake (sloped top), arch top, circle, or from a template.

How was it measured?

This is the most important answer on the screen, so give it every time:

Why the fuss? A piece of made-to-order insulated glass ordered on a phone measurement is a piece you'll pay for twice. So Suprata won't let a rough size reach the fabricator or the cutting table. Quote from rough sizes all you like; measure before you buy. (Your admin can switch this rule off in Flat Glass settings. We don't recommend it.)

While any opening is on rough sizes, the step offers Book a measure visit. The customer gets a text with the time, and the job stays where it is until the sizes are in.

Safety glass and site details

The Safety glass check asks the building-code questions for each opening: in a door, beside a door, in a shower, beside stairs, near a pool. Tick anything that applies. If the glass type you choose isn't tempered or laminated, the piece builder says so in red before it can go on an estimate.

Site details hold what installers need: gate codes, parking, floor, the contact on site, and the year the building was built (it matters for the lead-safe rules on homes built before 1978).

When every opening is in, Save the measurement sheet puts a PDF of every opening, its size, how it was measured and a sketch of any shaped piece on the job.

Emergencies: a broken storefront at 9 p.m. needs securing before it needs glass. Board-up adds the board-up (and the after-hours charge, if you tick it) to the estimate and, with Send someone now ticked, books the visit on the spot. The permanent glass carries on as a normal job.

Showers have their own designer that works out every panel from three wall-to-wall measurements. See Designing a shower enclosure.

2. Estimate

Each opening becomes its own group of lines, priced from your price list:

• The glass line: billable square feet × the glass type's price per sq ft.
• Edgework, holes, notches and cutouts, each as its own line.
• The install labor for that kind of opening.

Here's Maria's kitchen window, measured at 23 7/8 x 35 1/4 with an insulated Low-E unit at $16.50 per sq ft:

Each side is rounded up to the next inch (24 x 36 = 6.00 sq ft), the usual way glass is billed. Small pieces are charged at a minimum size, 3 sq ft unless you change it. Both are set in your price list; see Setting up your glass price list.

Her shower door, 3/8" clear tempered at 27 1/2 x 71 3/4, with a flat polish on every edge, two hinge cutouts and two holes for the handle:

The glass is billed at 28 x 72 = 14.00 sq ft, but the edgework is charged on the real edge, 16.54 ft, because that's what the polisher actually runs. The door weighs about 67 lb, so it's flagged Two-person lift and the schedule will ask for two installers.

Open How it was priced under any glass line to see the billable area, the rate and the weight. The Estimate panel on the right keeps the running total, with the margin for people who can see costs.

Add hardware, kits and services below the openings: the services row (trip charge, measure visit, glass disposal and the rest), your Quick kits, or search for any price list item. Hardware and kits can be attached to one opening, so they print with it, or to the job as a whole.

Changing a price. People with permission to override prices can type a new price on any line. Hand-set prices are marked, and Re-price from the price list leaves them alone while it brings every other line up to today's prices.

Quote options

Customers often want to see the upgrade. Add a quote option makes a copy of the estimate you can change: put laminated glass on the window instead of annealed, or low-iron on the shower door. Each option keeps its own glass per opening and its own total. The customer approves one option and the others are cancelled.

3. Payer

Who pays? Either the customer, or Another account pays: a builder, property manager, landlord or contractor you've set up to be billed for other people's jobs. The estimate and invoices move to that account while the job stays on Maria's history. See Billing accounts: fleets and other payers.

If that account has a payer agreement ("Smith Builders: 15% off glass, 10% off labor"), the estimate re-prices itself when you save. Add their PO or work order number and the project name so they print on the invoice.

There's a box for an insurance claim number, but it's for reference only. Flat Glass doesn't bill insurers; the customer claims it themselves.

4. Approval

Lock the estimate for approval first, so nothing changes under the customer's signature. You can unlock it again until it's approved. Then:

• Send it to the customer by email or text. They open it on their phone and approve it themselves, and this screen updates the moment they do. With quote options, they get a link for each and approve the one they want.
• Approve in person. Record who approved it, with a signature. The disclosures that apply are listed with checkboxes: Safety glass explained, Customer-supplied sizes (always signed) and Made to order. Each is saved with the exact wording the customer saw.

Need to change an approved estimate? Use New version on the Estimate step. The approved one is replaced by an editable copy, and the customer approves again. Once the job has been billed, changes go on the invoice instead.

The deposit. If you take deposits, approving the estimate creates the deposit invoice, and made-to-order glass isn't ordered until it's paid. See Deposits on made-to-order glass.

5. Glass

Where does the glass come from? Each piece gets one of three answers:

• Cut from your sheet stock. Glass types you cut in your own shop (annealed, mirror, most single-strength work) show Cut from and the warehouse, with the square feet on hand. The piece goes on the shop's cut list.
• Take it from stock. For glass you keep but don't cut, such as pre-sized units.
• Order made to size. Tempered, laminated and insulated glass goes to purchasing with everything the fabricator needs: the size, the glass and its makeup, the edges, holes and their positions, the shape, and the piece mark (job number plus mark, like 2318-S1) so it can be matched to this job when it arrives. Tick several pieces to send them to one fabricator together.

Review and confirm shows exactly what will happen before anything moves. Anything ordered puts the job on hold as Waiting for Parts to Arrive. Sending to purchasing doesn't place the order itself; your purchasing team does that. See Purchase orders: from request to receiving.

A piece that can't be ordered yet says why, right on its row: it's still on rough sizes, or the deposit hasn't been paid.

When the fabricator gives a date, the customer gets a "your glass is on order" text with it.

6. Shop

Pieces cut from sheet stock wait on the Shop step, and on the shop's Shop Cut List, until each one is Cut, Edged and Ready. When the last piece is ready and nothing is still on order, the job moves to scheduling by itself and the customer is told their glass is in. See The shop cut list and remnant rack.

7. Schedule

Pick a day, a time window, at the customer or in your shop, and who's going, then Book it. The crew size comes from the heaviest piece: Maria's 67 lb shower door asks for 2 installers, and if you book only one you're asked to confirm.

Glass still on order? The step says so: You're done here for now. Press Done for now and move on. The job comes back to the booking queue by itself when the glass arrives, or as soon as purchasing has a delivery date if your shop books against dates (Flat Glass settings, A job is ready to schedule). If the customer wants a date today, Book it anyway: the visit is held with the job and goes live when the glass lands.

8. Install

The installer works down a checklist made for a phone, also on My Day:

1. On my way texts the customer.
2. Before photos: the broken glass and anything already wrong around it, like rot or cracked tile.
3. The glass: each piece ticked Arrived and checked: right size, no chips or scratches, then Mark installed. A piece that doesn't fit or breaks goes straight to Remake.
4. Sealant and safety: the sealant, its lot number and the temperature. The cure time is worked out from your sealant settings and goes to the customer with the "work complete" text. Tick that you checked the safety mark (the "bug") on every tempered or laminated piece.
5. After photos.
6. Work completed: the customer signs.

Visit done, coming back finishes today's visit and sends the job back to scheduling for the pieces still to go in. Mark the install complete finishes the job and creates the invoice. If something is missing, such as photos or the signature, it lists exactly what.

Remakes

Glass breaks, measurements are wrong, fabricators make mistakes. Remake records why and who pays, keeps the original piece on record, and cuts or orders a new one (S1 becomes S1-R1). See Remakes: when a piece has to be made again.

9. Billing

The final invoice is a straight copy of the approved estimate, on whoever pays, so nobody re-keys anything. Two things are added:

• Less deposit: the deposit invoiced at approval comes off.
• Remakes the customer pays for, at today's prices.

Want the money before the install? Invoice now to take payment early creates the invoice as soon as the estimate is approved. Completing the install later won't bill twice.

10. Payment and closing

Cash / check records a payment right on the job. Card opens the invoice's normal pay screen. While money is owed, the job sits on hold as Pending Payment so it shows on the unpaid-work lists.

When every invoice is paid, the deposit invoice included, the job closes itself, and the review request goes out if you've turned it on.

Comebacks. A unit fogging a year later? On the job's … menu, Start a comeback. Pick what went wrong and which pieces, and a no-charge warranty job opens with those pieces copied at the same sizes. Tick Ask the fabricator for replacements under warranty and the replacement goes to purchasing as a no-charge request against the original fabricator.

The board

Flat Glass → Board shows every open job by step, what each is waiting on and how long it's been there. The tiles along the top filter it: Running late, To measure, Waiting for deposit, Waiting for glass, In the shop, Waiting for payment and Quote requests.

Common mistakes

Ordering on a phone measurement. "The customer measured it" is a size, not a measurement. If you'll use it, mark it Customer's size and approve in person so they sign for it. Otherwise book a measure visit. A remade 40 sq ft insulated unit costs more than every measure visit you'll do this month.

Picking non-safety glass for a door or shower. The piece builder warns you, but only if the safety questions were answered. Answer them on every opening.

Editing the glass line's price to hit a number. Use a payer agreement, a quote option with cheaper glass, or a price on the labor line. A hand-edited glass rate gets left behind every time the price list changes.

Booking a heavy piece for one installer. The two-person flag comes from the glass weight. Ignore it and you're paying for a dropped door and a worker's comp claim.

Leaving a broken piece on the job instead of using Remake. If the original isn't recorded as remade, the cost never shows up in your numbers, the fabricator never gets the return, and a customer who supplied the wrong size never gets the bill.

Related

• Setting up your glass price list
• Deposits on made-to-order glass
• The shop cut list and remnant rack
• Remakes: when a piece has to be made again
• Designing a shower enclosure
• Online glass quote requests
• Commercial Glazing: from bid to closeout