The handoff from sales to production can be a bumpy road. The salesperson and/or designer has already established a relationship with the homeowner, but a new crop of employees will show up at the front door for the follow-through. To help the project manager feel confident and prepared, Dale Contant, owner of Atlanta Design & Build, in Marietta, Ga., developed this hand-off job form.

The sheet, filled out by the sales department and the project manager during the initial in-office kick-off meeting that precedes the site visit with the client, lets the project manager know whether everything is ready for a smooth job start.

“We developed this by taking bits and pieces from what other remodelers in our peer review group were doing that would fit our process,” Contant says. Most of the items on this checklist refer to additional checklists and forms that help with construction decisions.

Contant, a process hound, keeps three binders for each job: the first, which has everything that goes along with a job from contracts to time sheets, is kept in a master file and never leaves the office; the second is the project manager’s book that stays in the truck or on the jobsite; and the third is for the designer or salesperson to have as a reference since sales handles the next round of jobs in the pipeline. This hand-off sheet, which is reviewed and signed by both the salesperson and the project manager, stays in the master file.

—Stacey Freed, senior editor, REMODELING.

A. Three sets of estimates

Sales and production check that there are three sets of estimates: Sheet 1 has all the details and quantity information but no line-item pricing. “This is the one that might [end up] on the table at the jobsite,” Contant says. Sheet 2 has prices, costs, and markups and is used by the project manager to budget the job. Sheet 3, the final division cost summary, includes divisions such as HVAC, plans and permits, and framing so the project manager can see overall numbers per division instead of leafing through a 30-page detailed estimate.

B. Before photos

These are good to look at and review at kick-off before the project manager heads out to the jobsite. They are placed on a shared computer drive.

C. Selection summary

This refers to a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet that’s used by sales/design when the client is selecting fixtures, tile, etc. This portion lets the project manager determine which products are critical to schedule timing and which selections have been made. “The same goes for a form we have for customer-supplied items,” Contant says. “This way production knows when those will arrive.”

D. Special requirements

“This highlights which trade partners we’ll need on site,” says Atlanta Design & Build owner Dale Contant. “It triggers the project manager’s thought process of who they will have to contact after the meeting. Some of the division subs have already been contacted and priced into the project. The project manager must contact the remaining subs. Anyone in the office or on the jobsite will know who is working the project. Then they make the decision of who to use going forward.”

E. Sign-off

Both parties must sign off on the checklist. The start date is determined at kick-off; schedule completion occurs within three days of that.