Ideal Siding scaled faster with AI-powered estimating and real-time job costing using Beam
Ideal Siding is a fast-growing exterior remodeling company with over 100 locations across North America. Ian Hanley, who operates in the New York region, entered the trades after 15 years on Wall Street, looking to build something tangible in a rapidly evolving industry.
As he scaled his business, Ian needed a system that could keep up—one that would streamline estimating, as well as simplify his financial operations and compliance tracking.
Challenge
When Ian first entered the franchise, his workflow was fragmented and inefficient. Estimating required manually inputting measurements into custom spreadsheets he’d built then creating estimate drafts from scratch. While the company’s marketing efforts led to a good volume of opportunities to bid, the system to manage and track incoming leads and potential clients was not intuitive or easy to work with.
Even basic financial operations—like paying subcontractors—most often involved physically dropping off checks. As his Ideal Siding branch grew, it became clear that this workflow wouldn’t support scaling from early traction to a multi-million dollar operation.
“Putting in measurements, calculating the price, writing out the proposal… it was so redundant. And paying subs… I might as well use a carrier pigeon.”
Solution
Ian implemented Beam as the central system to power estimating, job costing, payments, and day-to-day operations.
AI-powered estimating that eliminates manual work
Beam transformed how Ian builds proposals. Instead of manually typing up scope and assembling estimates line by line, he now uploads inputs—such as Hover takeoffs, CompanyCam pictures, and notes—and generates a structured proposal in minutes. This removed one of the biggest bottlenecks in his business: proposal creation.
“The pain point for writing proposals has gone to zero… there's totally a sense of compounding, [the AI] builds on everything that it learns and also really you learn how to prompt and use it better.”
Real-time job costing and financial visibility
Beam’s job costing and budgeting tools gave Ian something he previously lacked: a clear, real-time understanding of project financials. Ian got his crew Beam Cards for field spending and immediate expense categorization, while they also utilized the Beam balance to pay subcontractors the same day. His team now has a live view into costs, margins, and project performance.
“We're big fans of the Beam account because of the same-day payments and transfers… And being linked right into the budgeting was a no-brainer.”
A simplified tech stack
Before Beam, Ian relied on a mix of spreadsheets, a separate CRM, timekeeping and accounting softwares, as well as multiple manual processes. Today, his workflow is streamlined into a tightly integrated system: he uses Hover to capture field measurements and generate takeoffs. He feeds the takeoff report into Beam to produce the estimate. From this flows his contract, budget, and payments. Then CompanyCam manages the field with documentation, notes, and lists. Instead of adding more tools to scale, Ian reduced complexity—making it easier to operate and expand his business.
“Beam was total growth by subtraction. Now, CompanyCam is like my Chief Operating Officer and Beam is becoming almost like my Chief Financial Officer.”
Results
Estimating time cut in half
Beam dramatically reduced the time required to build proposals, eliminating hours of manual calculations and formatting. This allows Ian to handle more volume while not sacrificing time with his family.
Increased close rates and stronger revenue growth
With faster turnaround times, more professional proposals, and an easy-to-use CRM, Ian has seen measurable improvements in how his business performs, reporting that year-over-year proposal conversion rates and overall growth is tracking ahead of prior performance since implementing Beam.
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