The Sales-to-Production Handoff Checklist: What Production Needs on Every Approved Job

The most expensive sentence in roofing is "I thought sales told them." A job gets sold cleanly — inspection done, estimate signed, homeowner happy — and then stalls, because the details production needs live in the salesperson's phone, notebook, and memory instead of on the job record. Materials get ordered from the wrong line of the estimate. The crew arrives without knowing about the gate, the steep driveway, or the decking allowance the homeowner agreed to. Production learns what was promised by calling sales, and sales is on another roof. The handoff is not paperwork after the sale; it is the moment the sale becomes buildable. In pipeline terms it is the move our roofing sales pipeline guide calls Approved — and that stage change should only happen when the checklist below is complete on the record.

Approved is a checklist, not a feeling

A signed estimate makes a job real, but it does not make it ready. Treat the handoff as a completeness check with a named owner on each side: sales is responsible for everything on the list being on the record, and production is responsible for reading it and asking its questions before the job is scheduled — not from the driveway on install morning. If an item is missing, the job is not handed off yet, no matter what stage the board says. That one rule prevents most handoff failures, because it replaces "I assumed it was in there" with a short list anyone can verify in two minutes.

1. The signed scope, exactly as sold

• The final signed estimate itself — the version the homeowner approved, not an earlier draft — with grouped line items and the full total
• If tiered options were offered, which tier was chosen, restated as a single complete scope (our "good, better, best" guide covers that restatement)
• Exclusions stated on the estimate, so production is never blamed for work that was never sold
• The decking rule exactly as written: the per-sheet unit price, any included allowance, and the pause-and-approve point past it (see change orders and hidden deck damage)
• Terms that affect the build: schedule window promised, warranty terms sold, and any deposit or payment terms production will be asked about

2. Measurements and the material specification

• The measurement report the estimate was built from — squares, pitch, and the linear feet for eaves, rakes, ridges, and valleys — attached to the job, not re-typed from memory
• The exact products sold, named the way they will be ordered: shingle line and color, underlayment, ice-and-water coverage, drip edge, ridge and ventilation products
• Flashing decisions made at the inspection: what gets replaced, what stays, and any chimney, skylight, or wall-intersection work in the scope
• Anything unusual that changes ordering or labor: extra tear-off layers noted at inspection, spaced or plank decking, steep or cut-up sections, access that affects delivery
• Gutters, siding, or other non-roof items if they were included — the items most likely to be dropped when a scope is summarized in a text message

Production should be able to build the material list from the record alone. The test is simple: if the salesperson went on vacation the day after signing, could production order and build this job without a single phone call? Anything that fails that test is a handoff gap, and it is cheaper to close it at the desk than at the supplier counter.

3. Property and jobsite facts

• The job address and the homeowner's preferred contact — plus who else production may hear from (a spouse, a tenant, a property manager) and who can approve changes
• Access facts: gate or garage codes the homeowner shared for the job, where the crew can park, where a dumpster or trailer can sit, and any driveway or landscaping limits
• Site conditions from the inspection: power and water access, steep or narrow access, overhead lines or tight staging areas
• Household facts that affect scheduling and the day itself: pets, tenants in place, work-from-home or shift-work hours, HOA or permit constraints the homeowner mentioned
• Pre-existing conditions near the work area, with the before photos from the field photo checklist filed on the same record

4. Photos, claim details, and the paper trail

• The inspection photo set — every slope, penetrations, valleys, ventilation as found, and interior leak evidence — filed on the job record, not left in a camera roll
• For insurance work: carrier, claim number, adjuster name and contact, the approved scope as it stands, and the status of any supplement already filed or still needed (the documentation shape is in what a photo report should include for insurance supplements)
• The signed documents themselves — estimate or contract approval and any change orders already agreed — saved with the job paperwork
• Every promise made outside the estimate, written down: the referral to a neighbor, the small extra the rep agreed to, the "we will take care of that vent" — if it was promised, it is part of the job

5. The money state, as production will be asked about it

• Deposit: whether one was collected, how much, and how it was paid — or plainly that none was collected
• What remains due and when the homeowner expects to pay it, including any progress payment in the terms
• For insurance jobs, which parts are homeowner-paid upgrades or differences versus claim-paid scope, so the crew is never the one explaining the split
• Who receives the invoice if it is not the homeowner — a property manager, a landlord, an estate — recorded before Completed, not discovered at Invoiced

What each missing item costs

The handoff check itself: read-back before scheduling

A checklist only works if someone runs it. Keep the routine short enough to survive a busy week: when sales moves a job to Approved, production (or the office, in a small shop) reads the record against the five sections above and either accepts it or sends back a specific list of what is missing — "no measurement report, decking rule not stated" beats "this job is not ready." Questions go on the job record where the homeowner's file lives, not in a side text thread that the next person cannot see. Only an accepted handoff gets scheduled. In storm weeks this discipline matters more, not less: the storm season playbook makes the same point about Approved jobs with no production step being the real backlog — most of them are handoffs that never actually completed.

That is the workflow GableFlow keeps on one record: when a job moves to Approved on the six-stage pipeline (Lead → Prospect → Approved → Completed → Invoiced → Closed), the branded estimate, the photo report, the claim details, the documents, and the invoices and payments are already on the same job — visible to sales, production, and the office under team roles (owner, admin, manager, and user), instead of being forwarded piecemeal from one phone to another. See how GableFlow's pipeline and job features hold a job together from lead to closed, or check the flat $40/month pricing — every feature included, unlimited seats, no per-seat fees, with a 7-day free trial.