Back-office systems for commercial drywall & framing contractors.
KLYX builds back-office systems for commercial drywall and metal stud framing subcontractors. We connect field records, change orders, RFIs, submittals, bids, purchasing, and equipment records so work reaches the person who can move it forward. We also build contractor websites. Start with an Operations Review of your existing people, tools, and handoffs.
Book an Operations ReviewYour crew can frame the added wall today. Getting the direction documented, the extra priced, and the package submitted is a different job. That second job competes with every RFI, material delivery, bid invitation, and pay application in the office. The work is real. The record is scattered.
KLYX is built for commercial drywall and framing shops doing roughly $5–30M a year. Some also carry ACT ceilings, insulation, or paint. An owner may still be the person everyone asks. At a larger shop, the GM or VP of Operations sees the same problem from a different chair: good people spend their day reconstructing what happened.
We start with the route the work actually takes. What arrives from the field? Who decides whether it is extra? Where does pricing wait? What does accounting need before it can bill? Then we scope the system around those answers. Your people keep the judgment. The record stops depending on someone remembering to forward a message.
The work is done. The record is not.
Unpriced extras. Finished walls. Unfinished change orders.
A soffit changes. A wall moves. A foreman is told to add backing after the area was released. The labor lands on your job cost immediately. The extra can sit in a text thread until someone asks why the margin moved. Capture the direction, location, date, photos, and people involved while the work is still easy to explain.
The system connects that record to a potential change, a pricing owner, and a next action. It can prepare a draft package and flag missing support. Your PM decides entitlement and scope; your estimator or authorized reviewer approves the price. Submitted, approved, and billed remain separate statuses. None means the other two happened.
Explore the systemFraming-depth questions should not live in an inbox.
A head-of-wall detail, framing depth, or level-of-finish question can affect several rooms at once. A board, track, or assembly submittal may need another review before procurement can act. Track the question against the drawing and specification revision, the affected area, the reviewer, and the response needed.
AI can assemble a draft from the records you provide. It cannot decide the correct assembly or make a technical commitment for your company. The workflow keeps unanswered questions visible, connects responses to the people doing the work, and separates an RFI answer from an approved change in scope or price.
Explore the systemBid invites are not bids.
An estimator sorting board, tape, and finish package invitations is doing necessary coordination. They are also unavailable to estimate. Put invitations, due dates, scope fit, drawing access, addenda, and the go/no-go decision into one queue. Then show the estimator which opportunity is ready for takeoff and which is still missing information.
The point is more capacity for qualified bids. A workflow can organize the package, identify changed documents, and prepare follow-ups. It does not invent quantities, production rates, or a price. Track invitations reviewed, packages made ready, bids submitted, and the reasons work was declined. Use your own history to judge the result.
Explore the systemBoard, track, and compound need a job-specific record.
A quote is not a purchase order. A purchase order is not a confirmed delivery. Board type, stud and track requirements, compound, insulation, and ceiling materials need a clear connection to approved scope and the area being stocked. Backorders and substitutions should reach the person who can decide what happens next.
Connect requests, quote comparisons, approved POs, delivery confirmations, and shortages. Purchasing commitments stay with an authorized buyer. Your team can see which order belongs to which job and whether the field has what it needs for the next work area, without treating every vendor email as a new investigation.
Explore the systemYour next rental may already be on your equipment list.
Lifts, stilts, lasers, and shared tools move as crews move. A finished job can still appear to have equipment assigned. A truck can become a storage location nobody else knows about. Record what you own, where it was last assigned, who signed for it, and when it is expected back.
Then connect utilization to the job. A lift-heavy project should carry a reviewed equipment allocation instead of leaving every equipment dollar in overhead. That history gives your estimator something better than a guess next time. Equipment tracking can be the whole engagement or part of a broader operations build.
Explore the systemA complete pay app needs more than a finished scope.
The application is ready except for a lower-tier waiver. Or the backup is in a different job folder. Or the latest rejection message went to someone who is out that day. Give each pay-app package a checklist based on that job’s actual requirements, with an owner for each missing item.
Email and document triage can identify the job, surface an action, and route the record to the right place. Your team reviews classifications and sensitive documents before distribution. This is an administrative workflow, not a legal determination that a waiver is correct or that payment is due.
Explore the systemRun your own numbers.
Open CO count × average unbilled CO value = the dollars sitting in that queue. Use actual values when you have them. Separate work awaiting a price, work awaiting submission, disputed changes, approved changes, and amounts ready to bill. Those queues need different decisions.
Track the age of each item alongside its value. Dollars multiplied by days is dollar-days of exposure, not a cash balance. If you want a financing estimate, use your actual funding rate and a clearly defined period. Do not confuse an operational example with a forecast of what KLYX will recover.
For estimating, record hours spent preparing bid packages and hours available for takeoff and pricing. For equipment, compare the owned register with rental invoices over the same period. Look at job assignments and availability before concluding a rental was avoidable. Your records decide the opportunity.
Built by someone who has done the job.
Chris Estrada spent six years handling change orders and tracking RFIs inside a commercial drywall subcontractor. His largest client to date is a $15M commercial drywall and metal stud framing company that also paints. That is the experience behind KLYX. It is not a claim about that client’s financial results.
The first conversation can start with a real soffit change, a missing response, or a bid package nobody has time to organize. Bring a representative example with confidential details removed. We will trace who touches it, where it stops, and what a workable next action would look like.
Keep the stack. Fix the handoffs.
Procore, Autodesk, Bluebeam, Microsoft 365, QuickBooks, and Foundation can all hold pieces of the job. Naming a tool does not establish that your account exposes the records or permissions a particular build needs. The audit checks access, versions, available integrations, and the team’s current habits before proposing a connection.
A useful workflow names its source of truth. It also explains what happens when a drawing is superseded, a message cannot be matched to a job, or someone is unavailable to approve a draft. Those exceptions belong in the design from the start. More software alone does not settle them.
1. Review how work moves.
Talk through active jobs, office responsibilities, and the records you already use. Leave with a map of the handoffs and a ranked list of what to investigate and fix first. The Operations Review sets the scope of the operations audit.
2. Audit and agree on the build.
Follow representative work through the office. Confirm access, missing inputs, approval boundaries, and the measure of success. Agree on a written scope before implementation. Start with the workflow that has a clear owner and a checkable result.
3. Test with your people.
Pilot the agreed workflow on a limited scope. Review the drafts, exceptions, and records together. Train the people who use it and name who maintains it. Expand only after your team can explain what the system did and what still needs their decision.
Drywall office questions. Direct answers.
How do drywall subcontractors track change orders?
Start with a potential-change log tied to field evidence: direction, date, location, photos, drawing revision, and the person responsible. Give pricing, submission, approval, and billing separate statuses. KLYX connects those handoffs so an extra does not disappear between a foreman’s note and the PM’s next action.
Why do drywall change orders go unbilled?
A field direction can become completed work before anyone assembles a price or a submission package. Missing support, an unclear pricing owner, and an approval that never reaches accounting can all stop the process. That is a systems problem. The audit traces which handoff is failing in your office before proposing automation.
Can AI write a change order for a drywall contractor?
It can help prepare a draft from approved source records: the field note, scope description, supporting documents, and pricing inputs your team supplies. It should identify missing information rather than invent it. Your authorized reviewer checks entitlement, quantities, labor, rates, and the final submission before anything goes to the GC.
How can a drywall estimator bid more jobs without hiring?
First separate estimating from the coordination around it. Invite triage, document collection, addenda tracking, due dates, and follow-ups can have a repeatable workflow. That can create more time for takeoff and pricing. Whether it increases submitted bids depends on your actual bottleneck, available capacity, and the opportunities you choose to pursue.
Does this work with Procore, Foundation, or QuickBooks?
Those are among the environments KLYX assesses, alongside Autodesk, Bluebeam, and Microsoft 365. Compatibility depends on your account, permissions, available interfaces, and the records required for the workflow. We confirm the proposed connection during the audit. We do not promise every named tool can exchange every field automatically.
Will my foremen have to learn a new app?
We start with the way your foremen already report work and move between jobs. The review looks for the smallest useful change to that routine. A new application is not assumed. The final capture method depends on your existing tools, required information, and what the field can reliably use.
Does AI submit anything to the GC without approval?
External submissions, prices, technical answers, and purchasing commitments stay behind an authorized review step in the proposed workflow. We define who can approve each action and what evidence they need. A prepared draft is not an approved submission. Exception handling and access permissions are part of the agreed implementation scope.
What does it cost?
One-time implementation projects range from $5,000–$30,000, depending on scope. We start by reviewing your workflows and identifying what’s worth fixing first. Focused builds start at $5,000, with broader implementations across agreed workflows up to $30,000. Integrations, revisions, and support are defined in the agreed scope. Third-party software fees are separate.
Do you work with drywall contractors outside Arizona?
Yes. KLYX is based in Phoenix and works with commercial specialty subcontractors nationwide. Reviews, audits, implementation sessions, and training can run remotely using representative records and screen sharing. Any on-site work is discussed during scoping. The workflow is built around your office and jobs, wherever they are located.
Can you track our lifts and tools across jobs?
Yes, equipment tracking is a standalone or bundled offer. The goal is a usable record of ownership, location, responsibility, expected return, service due, and utilization by job. We review how transfers get recorded before choosing a method. Hardware, a new app, or a particular partner product is not assumed.
Do you build websites for drywall contractors?
Yes. KLYX builds and rebuilds commercial subcontractor websites around capabilities, relevant projects, safety and licensing information, service area, prequalification, and recruiting. The readers include GC estimators, risk teams, owners’ representatives, and potential hires. Content structure and schema support search visibility; they do not promise placement on a bid list.
What size drywall company is this for?
The primary fit is a commercial drywall and metal stud framing company doing roughly $5–30M a year, often with several jobs running and a small office. Some also carry ceilings, insulation, or paint. The Operations Review tests fit against recurring work, responsible people, and a realistic implementation scope.
Let’s put your back office
to work.
We’ll discuss how work moves through your company, identify where to investigate first, and determine the scope of an operations audit.
Walk away with a map of how work moves through your office and a ranked list of what to investigate and fix first.
A real conversation. With the person who builds it.