What must an Ontario roofing contract include, and how does the app get it signed and paid?

What does Ontario require in a roofing contract?

The province publishes a guide for home renovation and roofing businesses (updated 25 September 2024) that sets out the rules plainly. "You must have a written agreement for any contract worth more than $50," and the contract generally has to carry the items below. The guide points to the regulation for the complete list, so treat this table as the floor, not the whole law.

How does the 10-day cooling-off period work for a roof sold at the kitchen table?

A contract "negotiated or signed in person, at a place other than your place of business" is a direct agreement, and the province is clear that "a customer has the right to a 10 day cooling-off period if they sign a contract at their home." Within those ten days the customer "may cancel the contract for any reason and without having to pay any cancellation fees," and you "must then provide a refund, including any deposits, within 15 days of the customer's notice of cancellation" (Ontario's guide for roofing businesses).

Two more lines from the same guide matter for estimating. If an estimate is part of the contract, you "cannot charge more than 10% above the estimated cost" unless the customer asks for different or extra work and you have signed a change to the contract. And the province recommends "that deposits are not more than 10% of the total project cost": a recommendation, not a law. The app does not decide any of this for you. It carries your terms, keeps the signed copy and every change order on the job, and makes the numbers easy to get right.

How does a homeowner sign the proposal?

From a link. The homeowner opens the proposal on their own phone or computer, reads the scope, the price, your terms and the roof measurement clause, and signs. The signed copy is filed on the job beside the measured roof, and you both get it by email. The order is fixed on purpose: confirm, then sign, then schedule. Only signed work reaches the dispatch board, so a crew is never sent to a roof nobody agreed to.

When the site visit finds something the measure could not see, such as a second layer or rotten decking, the job page has a Confirm on site screen. The revised estimate is written as a new paper from the site numbers, and the one already signed is never touched.

How do roofers take deposits and get invoices paid?

By card, online, into your company's own Stripe account. This is Nameplate Pay, the payments add-on we already run for a Toronto trade company: the deposit can be taken at signing, invoices are paid from a link, and the receipt goes to both sides. Blue Crane takes no cut of your payments; Stripe charges its own fee, to you, under your account. Card numbers never touch our servers. Paid by cheque or e-transfer instead? Mark it paid and the job's money line updates the same way.

What does the owner see once the money moves?

Each job carries its price, its cost and what is left, and the money tiles compare this month to last. Change orders and their credits stay on the job they belong to, so the final invoice matches what was signed plus what was changed, in writing.