Working with work orders and crews
Work orders turn a sold estimate into work someone does. Each covers exactly one trade — roofing, gutters, siding — and carries what that crew needs. They live on the project’s Construction tab, grouped by trade. XBuild can draft them from the signed estimate, always as a proposal you review first. This feature is available on select XBuild plans. If you don’t see it in your account, contact support@x.build.1. What a work order carries
2. The lifecycle
When every work order is complete and no open tasks remain, the Construction tab says the job looks ready to close out — a suggestion, never a gate.
3. Let XBuild propose the work orders
- On the Construction tab, choose to seed work orders from the estimate. This needs a signed estimate on the project.
- XBuild proposes one work order per trade, each with a title and the trade’s line items.
- Review — edit titles, trades, lines, and amounts, or remove proposals you don’t want.
- Confirm. Only then are the work orders created, all as drafts. What’s created is exactly what you approved.
4. The crews roster
Crews are who you dispatch to: internal crews and subs. From the Construction tab, choose Manage crews, then add a crew with a name, an optional trade, and a type — Internal or Subcontractor. Edit or archive from the same list. The roster is deliberately light — no logins, no scheduling calendar. Work orders and costs point at a crew, which is what makes “what do we spend per roof with this sub?” answerable over time. Crews archive rather than delete: an archived crew leaves the pickers but keeps its name on every historical work order and cost.5. Troubleshooting common issues
- The seeding option says it needs a signed estimate. Work orders seed from the contract, not the draft — get the proposal signed first (see E-signatures and authorization), or create work orders manually in the meantime.
- I edited the estimate but the work order didn’t update. By design — lines are a snapshot of the work as sold. Edit the work order’s lines directly, or cancel it and create a fresh one. For work added after signing, use a change order.
- I can’t put two trades on one work order. One trade per work order keeps per-trade scheduling, costs, and profit clean. Create one per trade — seeding does this automatically.
- I don’t see the Construction tab. It’s part of the gradual rollout. If the rest of the project page looks current and the tab is still missing, contact XBuild Support.