For painting contractors
Room-by-room quotes the homeowner can read, and a deposit before the first drop cloth.
Interior repaints by the room or square foot, exterior jobs that wait on the weather, HOA and commercial repaints with a manager to answer to. Fee-Lion writes the itemized estimate, takes the deposit, keeps colour picks and change orders in writing, and collects the balance at the walkthrough.
Explore the live demo See the client portal
No signup, no password: walk around True Coat Painting’s workspace. Or start your free trial.
Sound familiar?
The paperwork side of the job.
- A lump-sum number for "the downstairs" gets haggled, because the customer can't see what's in it.
- The homeowner adds the hallway and two doors mid-job, and at final payment remembers it as "included".
- Colour decisions happen in a text thread, and the wrong sheen goes on the trim.
- Paint and sundries for three jobs go on one card at the store, and nobody knows which job used what.
- Exterior season is short, and a slow deposit pushes the job into the rain.
A real example
What an estimate looks like.
Line by line, the way you’d actually quote it: quantity times rate, tax worked out for you, and the deposit collected the moment the client approves.
- Your client opens one link and approves it, paying the deposit by card.
- Approved estimates turn into invoices in one click.
- Your logo, your terms, and your line items saved for next time.
Prepared for Hannah Becker — 31 Juniper St.
| Item | Qty | Rate | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Living room walls, 2 coats eggshell 520 sq ft × $1.85 | 520 sq ft | $1.85 | $962.00 |
| Living room ceiling, flat white 240 sq ft × $1.25 | 240 sq ft | $1.25 | $300.00 |
| Hallway walls and trim 1 ea × $425.00 | 1 ea | $425.00 | $425.00 |
| Primary bedroom walls, 2 coats eggshell 480 sq ft × $1.85 | 480 sq ft | $1.85 | $888.00 |
| Baseboard and door casing, semi-gloss 180 lf × $1.75 | 180 lf | $1.75 | $315.00 |
| Interior doors, both sides 6 ea × $85.00 | 6 ea | $85.00 | $510.00 |
| Prep: drywall patching, sanding and caulk 4 hr × $65.00 | 4 hr | $65.00 | $260.00 |
| Premium interior paint (approx. 9 gal) and sundries 1 ea × $465.00 | 1 ea | $465.00 | $465.00 |
Includes moving and covering furniture, masking and daily cleanup. Colours confirmed in writing before we start. Two-year warranty against peeling and blistering. Wallpaper removal not included.
Sent with Fee-Lion · example document, fictional client
How Fee-Lion fits
The parts that do the heavy lifting.
Room-by-room estimates
Walls by the square foot, ceilings, trim by the linear foot, doors each, prep by the hour, paint and sundries as one line. The customer sees exactly what they are buying.
More on estimates & proposalsDeposit on approval
Approve and pay the deposit by card in one visit to the link, so materials are covered and the start date is locked.
More on online paymentsChange orders as their own estimate
Added the hallway? Send it as a separate estimate on the same project. It's approved from their phone, timestamped, and lands on the final bill.
More on project managementColours and decisions on the record
Colour names, sheens and which rooms get what live in the project discussion and the shared checklist, so the crew and the customer read the same list.
More on the collab portalPaint costs per job
Photograph the store receipt onto the job it belongs to. Job reports show materials against what you billed.
More on expense tracking & bookkeepingCrew hours on the Job Clock
Tiles for Prep, Cut-in and roll, Trim and Touch-up. Your crew taps as they switch, and you see where the hours went on every room.
More on time trackingRequests that create the customer
A request form collects rooms, a preferred start date and photos of the walls, so you arrive at the walkthrough knowing the job.
More on request formsGood, better, best paint grades
Offer the same rooms in contractor, mid-grade and premium paint as packages on one estimate. The client picks in the portal and the total updates.
More on estimate optionsA day with Fee-Lion
How it actually plays out.
- Walk the house with Hannah, measure the rooms and note the nail pops. Build EST-1508 in her kitchen and send it before you leave.
- She approves that evening and pays the 25% deposit. Her colour picks go on the project's shared checklist: walls, ceiling, trim, doors, with sheens.
- Day one, the crew taps Prep on the Job Clock, then Cut-in and roll. The paint store receipt is snapped onto the job.
- Day two, she asks for the laundry room too. Send it as its own estimate on the project; she approves from her phone at lunch.
- Walkthrough with blue tape, touch-ups done. Convert to the final invoice with the deposit credited and the laundry room added; she pays by card from the link.
- Spring, the HOA manager emails about repainting 24 garage doors. Their company record already holds last year's job and invoices.
Live demo
Click around True Coat Painting.
A residential and light-commercial painter with room-by-room interior estimates, exterior jobs on deposit, a change order mid-job and an HOA repaint.
A real Fee-Lion workspace set up as True Coat Painting, with sample clients, jobs, estimates and invoices. No signup, no password. Changes are switched off, so click anything.
Questions
What people ask before they switch.
How do painters price interior jobs?
Most price by the square foot of wall area or by the room, with ceilings, trim (by the linear foot), doors and cabinets priced separately, plus prep time and materials. A typical range for interior walls in many US markets is roughly $1.50 to $4 per sq ft depending on coats, ceiling height, prep and region. Itemizing by room lets the customer cut scope instead of haggling over your rate.
How much deposit should a painting contractor ask for?
Many painters ask for 10% to 50% up front, enough to cover paint and secure the date. Some states limit deposits on home-improvement contracts (in California, the lesser of 10% or $1,000), so check your state. In Fee-Lion the deposit percentage is set on the estimate, paid by card at approval and credited on the final invoice.
What should a painting estimate include?
Rooms or surfaces, number of coats, product line and sheen, prep (patching, sanding, caulking, priming stains), what moves and gets covered, what is excluded (wallpaper removal, drywall replacement, lead-safe work), warranty, deposit, and how long the price holds.
How do I handle change orders on a painting job?
Write it down before you do the work: what is added, the price, and the customer's approval. In Fee-Lion, send the change as a separate estimate on the same project. The customer approves from the link, and it shows up in the job's history with a timestamp.
Do painters need to follow lead-safe rules?
For homes built before 1978, the EPA's Renovation, Repair and Painting (RRP) rule generally requires an EPA-certified firm and lead-safe practices when you disturb painted surfaces beyond small areas. Note the testing and lead-safe work on the estimate, since it changes the price.
Your next estimate could go out tonight.
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