A siding job is priced from the outside of the house and paid for by what's underneath it. The material bill is set the day you order. The labor is a crew for two weeks. The margin is decided by the sheathing behind the old siding, the windows the client picks after the quote, and the days the lift sits in the driveway waiting for weather.
Obra keeps each job as its own project, with the windows as an allowance and the repairs as change orders, so you know what the house made you before the last piece of trim goes on.
Material by the line
Set up the budget the way you bid it: siding and trim, wrap and flashing, windows, fasteners, dumpster, lift, labor. When the invoices come in, they go against the right line and the job's page shows the gap. The cost code guide has a list you can copy.
Windows as an allowance
The window allowance is the number most likely to move. Budget it on its own line, log the window invoice against it, and turn any upgrade into a change order before the order goes in. The allowance overage guide shows the wording that keeps the client on your side.
What's behind the old siding
Rotten sheathing, missing flashing, a wall with no wrap at all. Take the photos, write the change order, get it approved before the wrap goes on. Obra adds it to the contract so the margin reflects the real job. The change order guide is a five-minute read.
The margin on each house
When the last invoice is paid, the job's page shows the contract, total cost and margin. Compare your fiber cement jobs with your vinyl jobs and your window-only jobs. The markup and margin guide helps you set the number to aim for.
What Obra isn't for a siding contractor
Not a visualizer, not a CRM, not estimating software. Obra is the money on each job, in English and Spanish, from receipts your crew already sends, exported clean to the accountant.