Everyone sees their price. No one sees your margin.
Selections are where custom jobs go sideways: undecided finishes stall the schedule, and allowance overruns turn into arguments at the end. PieceWrk runs them as a live, shared list where each party only ever sees the numbers meant for them.
The mechanic
One line item. Four different truths.
The reason builders keep homeowners, subs, and suppliers in separate email threads is that putting them in one system usually means putting your margin on the table. PieceWrk treats that as a data problem instead of a discipline problem.
One selection, one record
Interior door package: 14 doors
| Line | YouEvery number | Your subWhat they get paid | Your supplierWhat to order | The homeownerWhat it costs them |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Supplier order | $2,400 | hidden | $2,400 | hidden |
| Install labor | $900 | $900 | hidden | hidden |
| Your markup | $660 | hidden | hidden | hidden |
| Customer price | $3,960 | hidden | hidden | $3,960 |
Everyone sees their price. No one sees your margin.
Not a setting someone can forget to switch on. The separation is enforced in the database, on every request, for every party.
Budgets
Allowance, fixed, or spec: set per category, not per job.
Real jobs are a mix. The tile is an allowance, the front door is already specced, the interior doors are a fixed price you negotiated last month. PieceWrk lets each category be what it actually is, and tracks the position live as choices land.
Allowance
A budget the customer chooses within. The allowance-versus-spent position updates as selections are made, so nobody discovers the overage at closeout.
Fixed
Settled and priced. Visible on the list so the customer knows it’s handled, without inviting a decision that isn’t theirs to make.
Spec
Your call, priced accordingly. Documented in the same place as everything else, so the scope of the job stays in one list.
When it goes over
An overage is a change order, not a conversation.
When a selection lands above its allowance, the difference is already a documented, priced change rather than something you have to raise, justify, and reconstruct from memory two months later.
The customer sees the choice they made and the price of that choice. You see the whole picture. Neither of you is relying on a remembered conversation.
Common questions
- Can the homeowner see what I paid my sub?
- No. The supplier order, the install labour, your markup, and the customer price are separate values, and each party is only served the ones they are entitled to. It is enforced in the database, not by a setting someone has to remember.
- What is the difference between an allowance, a fixed price, and a spec?
- An allowance is a budget the customer chooses within, and overages become a change order. A fixed price is settled and not open to selection. A spec is decided by you and priced accordingly. Every category on a job can be set differently.
- Does the homeowner need an account?
- No. Selections reach the customer through a token-gated portal link: no login, no password, nothing to reset when they come back to it three weeks later.
Run one job’s selections through it.
Bring a job with a messy allowance schedule. That’s the one where the difference shows up fastest.