Fabrica
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Guide

How to run your shop in Fabrica.

Everything from your first login to AIA progress draws, the GC portal, time tracking, and getting paid — in the order you'll actually use it. Pick a topic on the left, or read it top to bottom.

01Create your shop

Fabrica is multi-tenant — your shop is its own private workspace. Start a 14-day free trial with no credit card; the first ten shops to sign up are on Founder 10, free forever.

app.fabricacrm.com/signup
Shop name — Atlas Architectural Millwork
you@yourshop.com
Create shop →Shop · 14-day trial
Signup arrives prefilled from the marketing site. No card now — you only pay when you choose a plan later.
Step by step
  1. Go to app.fabricacrm.com/signup (or click Start free on the marketing site).
  2. Enter your name, shop name, work email, and a password — or use Continue with Google.
  3. You land in your empty workspace on a 14-day trial with every feature unlocked.
  4. When the trial ends the app goes read-only until you pick a plan — your data is never deleted.
No card to start. You only enter payment when you choose to subscribe — see Plan & billing.

02The 10-minute setup wizard

First login walks you through five steps so you're billing real draws by lunch. You can skip any step and finish later in Settings.

Onboarding · step 3 of 5
1 · Shop info & addressDone
2 · Letterhead & EINDone
3 · First projectNow
4 · First estimateUp next
A progress rail tracks the five steps. Skip any and pick it back up from Settings.
The five steps
  1. Shop info & address — appears on every estimate and invoice.
  2. Letterhead & EIN — your logo text and tax ID for PDFs.
  3. First project — set up a live job to work against.
  4. First estimate — build a bid (you can import a takeoff — see Estimates).
  5. Invite your team — add estimators, PMs, and crew.

03Shop profile & branding

Settings → Shop profile is the single source for what shows on your documents and how labor is costed.

Settings · Shop profile
Shop hourly rate — $85 / hr
Weekly capacity — 280 hrs (7 × 40h)
Require approval on mobile timeOn
These three drive your PDFs, the Schedule capacity chart, and how labor is costed.
What to set
  1. Name, address, phone, email, EIN — rendered on estimate/invoice PDFs.
  2. Default payment terms — pick a built-in schedule (e.g. 50/40/10) or a custom one.
  3. Shop hourly rate — values estimated labor on the Costs tab.
  4. Weekly capacity (hours) — feeds the Schedule capacity chart. Leave blank to auto-calc as team size × 40h.
  5. Require approval on mobile time — when on, clock-ins land as "pending" until a foreman approves.

Payment schedule presets

Built-in milestone templates (including an AIA preset with retainage) appear in the schedule dropdown when you create a deal. Make your own reusable presets under Settings → Payment schedule presets.

04Team & roles

Invite by email or create accounts directly. Roles control what people see and do.

Settings · Team
Sam RiveraOwner
Lena Ortiz · drawingsAdmin
Tony Reyes · installWorker
Invite by email or create accounts directly. Roles decide who sees rates and who can change billing.
The roles
  1. Owner — full access, including billing and removing users. There must always be at least one.
  2. Admin — manage team, settings, and billing.
  3. Member — day-to-day office use (deals, estimates, invoices, projects).
  4. Worker — shop-floor role for the mobile time tracker; office rate values are hidden from members/workers.
Seats: Shop includes up to 10; Pro is unlimited. See Plan & billing.

05Pipeline

A kanban that knows what a stage means. Eight stages from Lead to Won, with probability that follows the stage and days-in-stage on every card so nothing goes quiet.

Pipeline
Lead
Meridian Plaza BuildoutNEW · 1d
Estimating
Vermillion Lobby$186k · 2d
Quoted
Granary Lane Closet$72k · 11d
Drag a card right to advance it — probability follows the stage, and days-in-stage flags anything stuck.
Working the board
  1. Click New deal (top right, or ⌘K → New deal). Add company, contact, value, and a payment schedule.
  2. New inbound shows a NEW badge; days-in-stage flags deals that are stuck.
  3. Drag a card to the next stage to advance it — probability updates automatically.
  4. Open a card for its activity feed, notes, documents, and contacts.
  5. When a deal hits Won, it becomes a Project.

06Estimates

Build a bid the way you actually price it — line items with description, qty, unit (ea / lf / sf / ls / hr), rate, tax, and optional retainage.

EST-2026-041
Rift-oak wall panels · 240 sf$38,400
Install labor · 60 hr$9,000
Total 10% retainage$52,140
Line items by unit (ea/lf/sf/ls/hr). Drop an XLSX takeoff and Fabrica parses it into rows.
Build & send
  1. From a deal or the Estimates page, create an estimate and add line items.
  2. Short on time? Import an XLSX takeoff — drop the spreadsheet and Fabrica parses it into line items.
  3. Send it from your shop's email; status moves draft → sent → viewed → responded → accepted.
  4. An accepted estimate feeds the deal value and the project's cost baseline.

07Invoices & AIA progress billing

Single invoices or full AIA G702/G703 progress series — 2 to 12 draws with retainage applied and the schedule of values rendered in the document.

INV-2026-119 · G702/G703
Draw 3
Current
Draw 4
Final
The draw strip: paid, current, and scheduled draws. Retainage is held per draw and released on the last.
Run a progress series
  1. On an invoice, switch from Single invoice to Progress series · AIA G702/G703.
  2. Set the number of draws; retainage is held against each draw and released on the last.
  3. Use the draw strip to see paid / current / scheduled draws and jump between them.
  4. Send a draw as a real PDF on your letterhead; replies thread to your inbox.
  5. The AR dashboard shows total AR, retainage held, overdue, and aging buckets.
Retainage is tracked for you — per draw, released on the final draw, and aged on the AR dashboard.

08Payments & follow-ups New

Record what came in, let recurring work re-invoice itself, and let overdue reminders send on their own.

Get paid
Check #4412 · $23,000Paid
INV-2026-031 · monthlyNext: Jul 1
INV-2026-029 · 7d overdueReminder sent
Record checks, ACH, wires, Zelle; recurring work re-invoices itself; overdue invoices nudge themselves.
Get paid faster
  1. Record a payment — check, ACH, wire, or Zelle — against any invoice. The balance updates and status flips to paid.
  2. Mark an invoice recurring (e.g. monthly service work) and it re-invoices on schedule.
  3. Turn on auto follow-ups so unpaid invoices get polite-but-firm reminders on a cadence, PDF attached.

09Job costing

Know which projects actually make money. Hours and material costs roll up per project, and cost rates are snapshotted at entry so history stays honest when rates change.

Vermillion Lobby · Costs
Hours
214.5
Labor cost
$18,232
Margin
31%
Labor (from time entries) + materials (from received POs) roll up here, valued at snapshotted cost rates.
Where the numbers come from
  1. Labor — from time entries, valued at each worker's cost rate (snapshotted at clock-in).
  2. Materials — from received purchase orders, booked to the project.
  3. Open a project's Costs tab for hours, labor cost, average rate, and margin against the estimate.

10Change orders

Signed mid-stream changes with the audit trail GCs expect — first-class objects, not a spreadsheet.

Change orders
CO-2026-014 · Add stair detail+ $12,400 · Approved
CO-2026-013 · Sub walnut for oak− $3,800 · Sent
Auto-numbered, positive or negative. Status flows draft → sent → approved → invoiced, with who signed off.
Create & track
  1. On a project, create a CO — auto-numbered CO-YYYY-NNN (race-safe across simultaneous creates).
  2. Enter a positive or negative dollar amount and a description.
  3. Status flows draft → sent → approved → declined → invoiced; who signed off and when is logged.
  4. GCs can approve COs from the client portal.

11Lien waivers

The form GCs hold payments over — tracked, in all four AIA types.

Lien waivers
Conditional progress · Draw 1Received
Conditional progress · Draw 2Sent
Unconditional finalNeeded
All four AIA types, tied to a project and optionally a draw. Track needed → sent → received → signed.
Manage waivers
  1. Create a waiver tied to a project (and optionally a specific draw).
  2. Pick the type: conditional/unconditional × progress/final.
  3. Track status needed → sent → received → signed.

12Insurance & COI

Standing policies and project-specific certs in one register, with color-coded expirations so a lapsed COI never blocks a payment.

Insurance & COI
General Liability · $2M/$4M218d
Workers Comp · Statutory18d
Umbrella · $5MExpired
Auto-color: green > 30 days, amber within 30, red expired — so a lapsed cert never blocks a payment.
Stay current
  1. Add policies — GL, Workers Comp, Auto, Umbrella, Builders Risk — with carrier and limits.
  2. Expirations color automatically: green > 30 days, amber within 30, red expired.
  3. Renewal alerts flag certs before they lapse.

13Projects

Every won deal becomes a project — your hub for the job from shop drawings to install.

Project · Vermillion Lobby
Drawings › Approval › Production › Finishing › Install › Punch
In this project's drawer3 estimates · 5 invoices · 2 COs
Every won deal becomes a project: a milestone tracker plus all its documents in one drawer.
Inside a project
  1. Milestone tracker: Drawings → Approval → Production → Finishing → Delivery → Install → Punch.
  2. A drawer holds the project's estimates, invoices, change orders, waivers, and COIs in one place.
  3. The Costs tab shows live job costing (see above).

14Schedule & capacity New

Every won job on a timeline you can drag like a calendar — and a capacity chart that tells you if the month actually fits.

Schedule · June
Atrium Suite
Vermillion 22F
Capacity · week of Jun 22112% — overbooked
Drag to move a job, stretch to re-date. The capacity bar recomputes live against your weekly shop hours.
Plan the floor
  1. Open Schedule from the sidebar; switch between Week and Month zoom.
  2. Drag a job to move it; stretch its edges to re-date.
  3. The capacity chart recomputes live against your weekly shop hours (set in Shop profile).

15Time tracking & reimbursements

Your crew clocks in from their phone; you see the truth. A mobile PWA crew app plus desktop approval and reporting.

Time tracking
Mike H. · CNC + face frames38.0h · approved
Tony R. · lobby east wallPending
Home Depot run · receipt photo$214 reimb.
Crew clock in from their phone (geo at both ends). Foreman approves; photo-receipt reimbursements track too.
Daily flow
  1. Workers add the app to their home screen and tap to clock in / out; geo is captured at both ends.
  2. If approval is on, entries land pending for a foreman to approve.
  3. Forgot to clock out? Workers file a time-edit request; an admin approves in one click.
  4. Reimbursements: workers snap a receipt photo; you approve on desktop and money-owed updates.
  5. Pull per-project / per-worker reports with custom date ranges and CSV export.

16Purchase orders

Track materials out to vendors — and straight into job cost.

Purchase orders
PO-2026-031 · Rift oak veneerReceived
PO-2026-032 · Blum hardwareOrdered
PO-2026-033 · Solid surfaceDraft
Mark a PO received and the material cost books straight into that project's job-costing totals.
PO flow
  1. Create a PO — auto-numbered PO-YYYY-NNN — with vendor, line items, and an expected date.
  2. Status moves draft → ordered → received (late expected dates get flagged).
  3. Mark received and the material cost books into that project's job-costing totals (reversible).

17Client portal New

One passwordless link per project lets GCs and designers see status and sign off — without an account.

portal.fabricacrm.com/p/vermillion
Drawing R3 — rift oak revisionApproved
CO-2026-014 — add stair detailApproved · +$12,400
Note to GC — "install moves to July 7"
One passwordless link: the GC sees status, photos, drawings, invoices — and one-click approves. Revoke anytime.
Share & collect approvals
  1. On a project, generate the portal link and send it to the GC/designer.
  2. They see status, progress photos, drawings, and invoices — and can one-click approve drawing revisions and change orders.
  3. Add a note ("install moves to July 7") and revoke the link any time.

18Plan & billing

Two plans, same product — the only difference is team size. Shop is $99/mo (or $75/mo billed yearly) up to 10 seats; Pro is $199/mo (or $165/mo billed yearly) for unlimited seats plus priority support. Manage everything in Settings → Plan & billing, without leaving the app.

Settings · Plan & billing
Shop
$99/moUp to 10 seats
Pro
$199/moUnlimited + priority
Choose Shop checkout opens right here — no redirect
Subscribe, switch plans, update your card, and cancel — all inside the app via embedded Stripe Checkout.
Subscribe & manage
  1. Subscribe — pick Shop or Pro (monthly or annual); checkout is embedded right in Settings.
  2. Switch plans any time — changing tier or monthly↔annual prorates the difference.
  3. Update your card in-app; cancel keeps access through the paid period, and you can resume before it ends.
  4. Cancel anytime — your data stays and exports are always free.

19Integrations & API

Wired to the tools you already use.

Settings · Integrations & API
Email / SMTP sendConnected
Quote-request API12 webhooks
QuickBooks exportComing
Send PDFs from your own domain, drop website leads straight into the pipeline, fire Zapier webhooks.
Connect things
  1. Email — send PDFs from your own domain; replies thread back to your inbox.
  2. Quote-request API — a public endpoint so your website's contact form drops leads straight into the pipeline.
  3. Zapier webhooks — fire outbound events to thousands of apps. QuickBooks export is on the roadmap.

20Tips & FAQ

A few things that save time once you know them.

Search · ⌘K
halton ⌘K
Deal · Vermillion LobbyEstimating
Invoice · INV-2026-119Draw 3
One keystroke jumps to any deal, contact, project, invoice, CO, waiver, or COI.
Quick answers
  1. Search anything with ⌘K — deals, contacts, clients, projects, estimates, invoices, COs, waivers, COIs.
  2. Will it replace QuickBooks? No — QB stays for bookkeeping; Fabrica runs operations. (QB export is coming.)
  3. Bring data in — CSV for contacts/clients, XLSX for estimate line items.
  4. Is my data private? Strict cross-tenant isolation — another shop can never see your records.
  5. Trial ended? The app goes read-only; pick a plan and you're back in instantly. Nothing is deleted.

Ready to set up your shop?

Fourteen days free, no credit card. The wizard has you billing AIA draws by lunch.

Start free for 14 days →