Tile estimates and invoices, waterproofing included.

Price by area, tile size and pattern.

Tile contractor software has to price what a single square-foot number hides: a floor, a backsplash and a shower wall are three different jobs, and a 24-inch porcelain in herringbone is not a 12-inch ceramic laid straight. In Jobkore each area is a section and every line has its own unit, square feet for tile, linear feet for edge profiles and curbs, each for niches and benches.

Build the waste into the quantity. Around 10 percent for straight-set tile, 15 for diagonal or herringbone, about 12 for large format, and closer to 20 for natural stone you have to sort for color. Thinset and grout run their own waste. A bid that forgets the pattern is a bid that runs short on the last wall.

Load the Flooring & Tile trade pack and your catalog starts with floor tile, backsplash, shower surround and natural stone installs, floor and shower grout repair, floor leveling, subfloor repair and transitions. Change the national-average prices to yours once, and every estimate starts from your numbers.

The waterproofing is the part that matters.

The homeowner's real question is whether the shower will leak in five years, and whether you actually know waterproofing. Answer it on the estimate, because the cheap bid does not. Name the backer or uncoupling membrane over a wood subfloor. Name the waterproofing system at the tub, the shower walls and anywhere water will sit. Paper-faced board behind a shower is a tear-out waiting to happen.

For a shower pan, spell out the pre-slope to the drain (a quarter inch per foot), the pan membrane or mud bed, and the curb flashing, and say if you flood test before tile goes on. Plan niches, benches and shelves before the backer goes up, not carved in after, and put each on its own line.

Leaks behind tile take a year to show and then mean a full tear-out. The line items are how you show the homeowner you are not the installer who skips them. More on pricing a bathroom remodel.

Spec the setting materials, not just the tile.

The details that decide whether tile stays put are the ones nobody sees. Use the thinset the membrane manufacturer calls for; some uncoupling and waterproofing membranes require unmodified mortar, and the wrong one voids the warranty. Back-butter large-format tile and use a large-notch trowel, or it sounds hollow and pops within months.

Put movement joints at the perimeter, at changes of plane and across large fields, or the tile will find its own crack line. Choose the grout for the job: cement grout for most joints, epoxy for showers and stain-prone backsplashes. Seal natural stone and cement grout with a penetrating sealer, and finish exposed edges with metal profiles where the tile has no bullnose.

None of that needs a paragraph on the estimate. It needs a line or a spec note, so the homeowner is comparing your install with the next bid's, not just your tile price with theirs.

Who supplies the tile, and what the demo costs.

Settle the tile question up front. If you supply it, it is in your price. If the homeowner is still choosing, put the tile in as an allowance, a budget they sign knowing it will be reconciled, and price the labor to set it as its own line. When their pick comes in over the allowance, the difference goes on the invoice as a change order they sign online.

Demolition of existing tile is its own line, not something to tile over. It is loud and dusty, so containment belongs on the estimate too, and you will sometimes find rotted subfloor under it; carry an allowance for that as well.

Set expectations on stone and handmade tile, which have natural variation and some lippage no installer can remove. Write it down before the job so it is not a complaint after. Photos help: up to 20 on the document and 6 on a single line.

Deposit, progress, and paid at grout.

Most tile jobs are a deposit to cover materials, sometimes a payment when the waterproofing and pan are done, and the balance at completion. Put them on one invoice with a payment schedule, each row named and dated in the order the money comes in. Payments fill the rows in order and the last row is always the balance.

The homeowner pays by card or bank transfer from the invoice link, or you record a check from a general contractor you set tile for. Stripe charges its standard rate and Jobkore adds nothing on top. Late payments get reminders at 1, 7 and 14 days.

Invoices and payments sync one way to QuickBooks Online, so your bookkeeper is not retyping anything.

Hank knows the tile traps.

Jobkore includes Hank AI™, an assistant that knows the trade you picked at signup. Tell him the job by typing or with a voice memo: walk-in shower, 60 by 36, curbless, 24 by 48 porcelain on the walls, 2-inch hex on the floor, one niche, bathroom floor in herringbone, wood subfloor. He drafts the estimate by area, priced from your catalog first, with the waste for each pattern.

Turn on a review before sending and he checks it against a tile list: no waterproofing line, the wrong thinset for the membrane, a small trowel on large format, no movement joints, stone left unsealed, tile quoted with no prep or backer. He can add the missing line or an allowance and never changes your prices in a review.

Jobkore does not do tile layout design or scheduling. It does estimates, change orders, invoices and payments, in English or Spanish. Related trades: flooring, remodeling and plumbing. See the pricing page.