Painters: three coats, one message, one invoice.
Painting is priced by the room, the wall or the day, and almost always agreed verbally on site. Which means the money conversation happens once, on a Tuesday, standing in a passage — and everything after that is reconstruction.
Orbit is in development. Join the waitlist and we WhatsApp you when it opens.
finished 3 bedrooms and passage in parkhurst 6800, they added the ceiling 900
Tracking that now ✅
ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLE
Where it goes
What costs a painter money after the job.
The scope changes while you are on the ladder
The ceiling was not in the quote. Neither was the second coat the client asked for once they saw the colour. Both got done and only one of them is on the invoice, because the other happened in conversation.
Paint is bought in bulk and used across jobs
Twenty litres of PVA covers three jobs. Unless it is split across them as you go, one job carries the whole cost and looks unprofitable while the other two look better than they were.
Day rates need a day count
Four days becomes five and nobody wrote down which. The client remembers four.
What Orbit does about it
One message, at the end of the job.
Orbit is being built for exactly this: a way to write things down that takes less effort than not writing them down. One line into WhatsApp at the end of the day — the address, the rooms, the amount — and the job exists with a value against it. Add the ceiling as its own line the moment it is agreed, and the invoice will carry it because the record does.
When the job is finished, ask Orbit to invoice it. The draft comes back with the customer, the address and everything you told it, priced as you told it. You read it, correct anything, and send it yourself. Nothing goes to a client without you pressing send.
Paint and consumables go in the same conversation. Tell Orbit what you bought and which job it was for and it stays with that job, so at the end of a month you can see what a room actually costs you to paint rather than what you assumed when you quoted.
What it keeps for you
- Jobs by address, with rooms, coats and the agreed price
- Scope changes captured on the day they are agreed
- Paint and consumables split across the jobs that used them
- Draft invoices and a live list of who still owes
Orbit drafts. You send.
Questions
Painters ask us this.
Can I add work that was agreed verbally on site?
That is the case Orbit is being built for. Send the line the moment it is agreed and it joins the job as its own item, so the invoice shows the extra separately instead of hiding it in a total the client will query.
Do I have to itemise every room?
No. Say as much or as little as you want. "3 bedrooms and passage, 6800" is enough to make a job with a value; "parkhurst 6800" is enough too. The detail you give is the detail the invoice can show.
Can Orbit price by the day?
Yes — say the days and the rate. Orbit is being built to carry both onto the invoice so the client sees five days at your rate rather than a single unexplained figure.
Is there an app to install?
No. Orbit is a WhatsApp conversation. If you can send a message you can use it, which is the entire design brief — no download, no login, no training.
Orbit for other trades
Orbit for painters.
Orbit is being built now. The list is free, it commits you to nothing, and founding pricing is locked for the people on it.