By Friday, nobody remembers what that job actually cost.
The receipt is in the truck door. The change order was a phone call. The photo is buried in your camera roll. Darby catches all three the minute they happen — on your phone, standing on the jobsite.
No sign-up. The demo opens a real, loaded account you can tap around.
Where the money goes missing
It is not one big leak. It is fifty small ones.
✕The receipt that never made it out of the truck
✕The extra work you said yes to on the phone
✕The estimate you sent three weeks ago and never chased
✕The invoice that went out and just sat there
Darby fixes this one way: it makes catching the fact faster than forgetting it. Snap, tap, done, back to work.
The front door
Open the app. It tells you what needs you.
The Home screen leads with one list: Needs your attention. Red first, then orange. These are not reminders you set — Darby works them out on its own from what is sitting unfinished. You cannot swipe them away. They only leave when the thing is really handled.
Overdue 6 days — send the reminder
They opened it 2 days ago — time to nudge them
Built but never sent — it can't get approved sitting here
Approved — not on the calendar yet
Costs
Snap the receipt. Keep moving.
At the counter with sand and cement on the ticket, tap New Expense, then Snap the receipt. Darby reads the total, the store, and what it was for, and shows it back. Wrong? Tap the number and fix it. Pick the job — today's is already picked — and save. You're back in the truck in about fifteen seconds.
Reads the total off the photo — no typing at the counter
Today's job is pre-picked
The receipt picture stays attached
No receipt? Type it in — five seconds
The whole point
Know what each job actually made
Every job is one folder. At the top, two numbers side by side: Expected profit — what you thought you'd make when you priced it — and Real profit — what you're actually making. That gap is the whole game, and most guys never see it until the year is over.
Expected profit: $4,200 (Example)
Real profit so far: $3,150 (Example)
Labor $2,400 / $1,800 budget · 33% over (Example)
Next time you bid that work, your number is right
Estimates
Estimate from the truck seat
Instead of "I'll get you a number tonight," build it in the cab. Open the job, tap New estimate, type "stuc" and your price list drops down. Tap the line, put in the square feet. The total updates the whole time. Hit Preview, then Send Estimate — with your logo and your color on it. Replies come to your normal inbox.
Search your price list, tap, type the quantity
Deposit percent, notes, and terms built in
The customer signs on their phone — typed name, dated and stamped
Your phone buzzes the second they approve
Getting paid
From approved to paid, one tap at a time
From an approved estimate, tap "Approved — turn it into money." Set the due date, hit Send Invoice. If it goes past due, a Send Friendly Reminder button shows up on its own. When the check comes, Mark as Paid — Check, Cash, Card, or Other. Partial payments are fine; it tracks what is still owed.
One tap from approved estimate to invoice
Reminder button appears on its own when it goes late
Check and cash recorded in seconds
It tells you when they opened it — and when they didn't
Morning and night
6:30am, before your boots are on
Your phone buzzes once. Not ten times. Once. It reads like a person talking: the few things that need you today, and what's on the calendar. At the end of the day, tap Report for what's still open, money in and out, and what's scheduled tomorrow.
One morning push, not all-day noise
Open items carry forward until they're really done
No signal? Photos and expenses save on the phone and upload later
What it costs
$1,270 one-time setup
$197 a month
That covers everything. Hosting, support, updates. No per-user fee, no add-on tier, no upsell to unlock a feature you already needed.
Darby$197/mo — everything included
Jobber Grow$199/mo
Knowify Advanced$249/mo
Buildertrend$339/mo and up
The setup fee is real work, not a sign-up charge. Your price book gets loaded with your prices and your real costs, so the profit numbers mean something on day one.
Straight talk about what Darby does not do
Every app in this business oversells. So here is the honest list, up front, before you spend a dime. None of this is broken — it is just not there, or it needs setup first. Better you know now than three months in.
Darby does not connect to your bank. It knows what you tell it and what you snap a picture of. Nothing gets pulled from an account automatically.
No QuickBooks or Xero sync. At tax time, you or your bookkeeper still work off Darby's numbers by hand. Darby tells you job profit; it is not your general ledger.
Card payments need setup before they work. Out of the box you send the invoice and mark it paid yourself when the check or cash comes in. Processing fees are not included in the $197.
Emailing straight from Darby needs an account connected during setup. Until then, every estimate and invoice still becomes a live link you share by text — and Darby tells you that plainly instead of pretending it sent.
Automatic, hands-off texting needs setup. The Text the link button, which opens your own phone's messages with the link ready, works today.
Real profit is only as good as what you log. Buy $400 of lath and never snap the receipt, and Darby shows that job making $400 more than it did. It can't see money it was never told about.
One login per company. Your crew does not have their own accounts and can't log their own hours or photos yet.
Right now Darby runs on Central time for everyone. If you're outside that zone, the day-boundaries would read wrong until we set your zone.
No time clock, no payroll, no GPS on the crew, no lead pipeline. This is estimate, schedule, photo, cost, invoice, profit. That is the job it does.
Bring your last finished job.
We'll put it into Darby while you watch — the estimate, the receipts, the photos, what you actually cleared on it. Takes about twenty minutes and you'll know right then if it's worth $197 a month to you. Setup takes about a week; you're running on it the following Monday.
Darby