The six jobs, and what most shops use today
Nobody sat down and designed this stack. It grew, one app at a time, usually after something went wrong.
| The job | What most epoxy shops use | Own app? |
|---|---|---|
| Catch the lead, know which ad paid for it | Phone, email, a form on the site | No |
| Quote the floor and win it | A quote app or a spreadsheet | No |
| Book the crew around cure time | A shared calendar | No |
| Order and count resin, flake, topcoat | A spreadsheet, or memory | No |
| Show the finished floor, ask for the review | Camera roll, Google profile | No |
| Keep the books and pay the taxes | Accounting software | Yes |
Five of the six can live in one place. The sixth should not. More on that below.
1. Catching the lead and knowing which ad paid for it
A homeowner sees your truck, your yard sign or your Facebook ad. Then they call, or they fill in a form. Two things have to happen fast. Somebody answers, and the lead gets written down somewhere that nags you.
What good looks like. Every call and form lands in one list. Each one carries a source, so you can tell the yard sign from the ad. A missed call turns into a text back inside a minute. And nothing sits for three days because the one guy who takes calls was grinding a floor.
What shops use. General field service tools like Jobber and Housecall Pro all catch web form leads. Workiz leans hardest into phone handling, with call recording and routing built in. Some shops bolt on a call tracking service such as CallRail just to get a number per ad.
Does it need its own app? No. This is the first thing a CRM should take off your plate, and nearly all of them do some version of it. The part that's rare is source tracking you can report on. If the software can't tell you which ad produced last month's floors, your ad budget is a guess.
2. Quoting the floor without giving away the margin
This is where an epoxy shop is different from a plumber, and where general software starts to show its edges.
A plumber quotes a job off a price book. You quote off square footage, slab condition, how much grinding it needs, flake rate, how many coats, and what you'll sell as an upgrade. Then you want three options in front of the homeowner, because a single price is a yes or no question.
What good looks like. You measure the garage, pick a system, and the software does the coverage math. Good, better and best come out on one screen. You see your own margin before you send it. The homeowner signs on your phone, in the driveway, while they're still excited.
What shops use. A lot of shops still quote in a spreadsheet, then retype it into something that looks nice. Jobber, Housecall Pro, Kickserv and ServiceM8 all build tidy quotes with e-signature. What we did not find in any general tool was coverage math for resin, flake and topcoat. That part stays in your head or your spreadsheet.
Our own take on this job sits on the estimating software page, and the wider market is covered in the estimating software guide.
3. Booking the crew around cure time
Cure time is the thing general schedulers get wrong. A coat goes down and the floor is unavailable for hours whether anybody is standing on it or not. Try telling a calendar built for service calls that.
What good looks like. You book a crew, not a technician. The job blocks the floor for the full cure window, so nobody double books day two. Weather shows next to the week, because a cold slab changes the plan. The customer gets a text when the truck rolls instead of calling you to ask.
What shops use. Honestly? Google Calendar, a whiteboard in the shop, and a group text. That combination works at two trucks and falls apart at four. Every tool on this page schedules better than a whiteboard, so this is an easy upgrade.
Our version is on the scheduling and dispatch page.
4. Resin, flake and topcoat
Material is your second biggest cost after labor. It's also the job almost no software covers for this trade.
What good looks like. The quote tells you what the floor will burn before you order. Stock counts down as jobs go out. You get a flag when Thursday's floor needs more topcoat than the van holds. And at month end you know what you spent per square foot, not just what you spent.
What shops use. A spreadsheet. Sometimes a very good one. In our July 2026 read of the general tools, FieldPulse came closest on inventory, and it markets that hard. Reviews rate its real depth lower than the ads suggest, so test it on your own material list. ServiceTitan has full inventory and costing, at enterprise scale and enterprise price. We found no inventory module in Jobber, Housecall Pro, Kickserv, ServiceM8 or Markate, and it sat on the top tier in Workiz and on a higher plan in Service Fusion.
About "we found no module." It means we could not confirm one in that review. It is not proof the feature is missing, and vendors ship new things constantly. Ask them directly before you rule anything out.
5. Photos, reviews and proof
Epoxy sells on before and after. A garage that was gray and cracked on Monday is a showroom on Friday, and that photo is worth more than any brochure you'll ever print.
What good looks like. Photos attach to the job, not to a camera roll with 4,000 pictures in it. A finished floor can go on a public gallery page without you touching a website. The review request goes out while the homeowner is still standing on the new floor, because a week later they've moved on.
What shops use. Housecall Pro is the strongest of the general tools here, with real review and marketing features. Most of the others attach photos to a job and stop there. A public project gallery is rare, and it's the piece that keeps earning after the crew leaves.
See five of the six in one place
Twenty minutes, one of your real floors. Quote it, cost it, and look at it on a phone.
Sign up now6. The books, which no CRM should pretend to own
This one keeps its own app. Keep it that way.
Your CRM should know what a floor sold for and what it cost you. That's operations. Bank feeds, sales tax, quarterly filings and a clean set of books at year end are accounting, and that belongs in accounting software with a human who knows your state.
Same line applies to pay. Software can work out gross pay from hours and the structure you run. Your accountant files the taxes. Any vendor who tells you one login replaces your bookkeeper is selling you something.
One platform or five apps?
Both answers are defensible. It depends on your size and your patience.
A stack of apps wins when one app is excellent at the single thing you care about most, and you barely open the rest. Nobody should rip out a tool that's working.
One platform wins when numbers have to meet. Material cost can't tell you margin unless it sits next to the job it was used on. Crew hours can't tell you labor cost percent unless they sit next to revenue. The moment you want a number that comes from two apps, the stack starts charging you.
It charges you in time, which is why it never shows up on a price comparison. Somebody retypes the quote. Somebody updates the material sheet on Sunday night. Somebody hunts for the photo of the bay that had the crack in it. That's an hour here and an hour there, and it's always the owner's hour.
Where CoatHQ fits, and where it doesn't
This one's ours, so weigh it that way.
CoatHQ covers five of the six jobs above. Leads with source tracking, quotes with coverage math for resin, flake and topcoat, crew scheduling, material and job margin, plus photos, a public gallery and review requests. Texting and email to customers are in there too. Both plans carry unlimited users, so a crew that doubles in June doesn't move the bill.
Be clear on what sits where. Leads, quotes, e-signature, scheduling, reviews and the gallery are on Grow, at $147 a month with a partner referral. Material inventory, job costing, the crew scoreboard, voice commands and multi number call tracking are on Pro, at $297. If material and margin are why you're reading this page, Pro is the plan to price. Extra locations are $97 each.
Where we don't fit: we do one trade. If coating is a sideline next to lawn care or plumbing, a general platform suits you better. And we don't do your books, by design.
If you only replace one app this year
Pick the app that's holding a number you need and can't see.
- You don't know your margin on last month's floors. Replace the material spreadsheet. It sets your margin and nobody updates it after a busy week.
- Leads go cold before you call them. Replace the notebook. Follow up beats everything else on this list for return.
- You're quoting at 10pm. Replace the quote spreadsheet. Quoting in the driveway closes more work than quoting at your kitchen table two days later.
- Crews are standing around. Replace the whiteboard. A real schedule pays for itself in one saved day.
One at a time. A shop that replaces everything in one week usually ends up back on the spreadsheet by month two.
Frequently asked questions
What software do epoxy flooring contractors use?
Most run four to six things at once. A CRM or a notebook for leads, a quote tool or a spreadsheet, a shared calendar for the schedule, a second spreadsheet for resin and flake, the phone camera roll for photos, and accounting software for the books. Very few shops chose that stack on purpose. It grew on them.
Is there one app that does all of it for an epoxy shop?
Close, but never the books. A coating specific platform can carry leads, quotes, the schedule, material counts, job margin, photos and review requests. Bookkeeping belongs in accounting software and your accountant should file the taxes. Any vendor telling you one login replaces your bookkeeper is selling you something.
Do I need coating specific software or will a general field service app do?
A general app handles booking, invoicing and getting paid fine. The gap shows up at material and margin. Coverage math for resin, flake and topcoat is not in a plumbing tool, so it ends up in a spreadsheet beside the app. If coating is most of your work, buy the tool built for it.
What is the first app an epoxy shop should replace?
Whichever one holds a number you need and cannot see. For most shops that is the material spreadsheet, because it sets your margin and nobody updates it after a busy week. If leads are going cold instead, fix lead follow up first and leave material for later.
How much does software for an epoxy flooring business cost?
We will not print other vendors' prices, because they change and a stale number helps nobody. Ours are public. CoatHQ runs $147 a month on Grow and $297 on Pro, both partner prices that need a referral code, or $497 for the full platform without one, with unlimited users either way, plus $97 for an extra location. Add up what your current apps cost together before you compare. Most owners never have.