Most field forms ask the rep to grade things: frame condition good, fair or poor; stucco good, fair or poor. Reps tap “fair” thirty times a house, and the quoter learns nothing from it.
A grade doesn’t tell the quoting desk what to charge for. A photo of a rotten buck, with one sentence saying how far the rot goes, does.
Capture the exception, not the norm
Most openings on most houses are ordinary. The field form should cost zero extra taps on an ordinary opening and ask for detail only when something is wrong. In Aperture™ that is one set of condition chips:
- Stucco work
- Buck work
- Rotten wood
- Structural damage
- Water intrusion
- Electrical conflict
- Alarm wiring
- Access issue
A chip is a line item, not a grade
Each chip means the same thing: there is extra work here, and the quote has to charge for it. When a rep taps one, two things become required:
- A special photo showing the condition. The opening can’t be marked complete without it.
- A one-line note telling the story for the quoter: “Bottom 8 inches of the left buck is soft”, or “Alarm contact on the sash, customer wants it reinstalled”.
Why both
The photo proves the condition and the note sizes it. Together they let the quoter price the work without calling the rep, and they give you evidence if the customer later asks why the price went up.
What happens on the quoting desk
In the export, each opening's flags and notes sit right beside it. The quoter scans for flagged openings and adds the matching charges: buck replacement, stucco patch, extra labor for access. Nothing is buried in a paragraph of rep notes.
Mistakes to avoid
- Too many chips. Every new chip is a decision on every opening. Add one only when the quoter actually prices it differently.
- Grades sneaking back in. “Worn”, “rusted” and “good” are grades. If the photo shows it, the photo already says it.
- Notes without photos. A note no one can verify starts an argument later.
Try it on paper first
Take your last ten jobs that came in over budget on labor. List what caused the extra work. That list, probably six to ten items, is your set of condition chips. Make each one require a photo and a sentence, and watch how many “surprises” at install stop being surprises.