The short version
- The board uses your word: job, claim, or deal.
- Underneath, Bench keeps one record for it. We call that an Event. You never type it.
- Every job moves through the same four hand-offs: acquire, sell, fulfill, close.
- That's how one product runs a retail reroof and an insurance claim without two apps.
Your words stay
When we set up your board, the columns use your words. If your office says job, the board says job. If you run claims, it says claim. Underneath, Bench keeps one record for that thing, and we call it an Event. You'll never have to type that word. It's there so one product can run a retail reroof and an insurance claim without two apps and two boards. The word on screen is yours. The record underneath is the same.
Four hand-offs every job goes through
Every job in every trade moves through the same four hand-offs. You win the work. You sell it. You build it. You get paid. Bench calls those acquire, sell, fulfill, and close, and every board sits on those four. Your stages go inside them.
Acquire: until you own a qualified lead. Sell: everything it takes to get a yes. The inspection lives here. Fulfill: you sold it, now you build it. Close: invoice through paid.
Insurance work doesn't get a fifth column. It adds steps inside sell, fulfill, and close.
Keep it to about ten stages
A stage is a column you'd report on. A step is a task someone checks off inside it. Owners who build twenty columns end up with a board nobody moves anything on, because every job has to crawl through all twenty. About ten stages across the four hand-offs is where boards stay fast. We start from yours and trim. We don't start from ours and force.
Questions
Do I have to call it an Event?
No. You keep saying job, claim, or deal, and that's what the board shows. Event is the name of the record underneath so one product can serve more than one trade.
Can I add a fifth hand-off for insurance?
No. Insurance adds steps inside sell, fulfill, and close. It doesn't get its own column.
What's the difference between a stage and a step?
A stage is a column you'd report on. A step is a task someone checks off inside it. Keep the stages to about ten across the four hand-offs.
Keep going
- Insurance jobs run on the same board. They just have more steps.
- A person runs the inspection. Agents run the paperwork.
Every Bench word above is on Glossary / FAQs, in plain English.