Address book & leads

When you're comparing prices on a trade in Quote Comparison, you add subcontractors to it one at a time. Search for someone you've dealt with before, or add a new contact on the spot.

Adding a subcontractor to a trade

Start typing a name into the trade's subcontractor field. If there's a match in your company's Address Book, pick it from the list. If there isn't, an option appears to add whatever you typed as a new contact — pick it and fill in their details: company name, contact name, email, phone, and postcode.

The Address Book is shared across your whole company, not tied to one tender. A subcontractor you add while pricing one job is already there, ready to pick, the next time you price another — there's nothing to re-enter.

Leads vs quotes

A subcontractor sitting on a trade with no price yet is a lead. Its cell is a free-text field, not a number — jot down what's happened so far ("called Sam, emailed plans Tue") and Estimator+ highlights the call and email words as you type. That gives you the chase state of every sub on a trade at a glance, without a status dropdown to keep updated.

The moment that subcontractor gives you a real number, the cell stops being a chase log and starts being a quote. See Enter quotes for how the different kinds of prices work, and Pick the price for what happens once you've got one you trust.

Keeping the Address Book tidy

Because contacts are company-wide, it's worth a moment's care when adding one: search first, and only add a new contact when you're sure they're not already in there under a slightly different name. A tidy Address Book is what makes the "just search and pick" flow fast on the next tender — everyone on your team is drawing from the same list, so a duplicate you create today is a duplicate they'll be choosing between on the next job.

Working a trade full of leads

Early on a trade, before any real numbers have come in, the whole row can be leads — nothing but chase notes across the board. That's normal. The highlighting on each lead's note is there so you can tell, at a glance across a busy trade, who's been called, who's been emailed, and who you haven't touched yet, without opening each one to read it.