What is Square Away, and who is it for?
Square Away is software for running the business side of a small custom shop: woodworking, cabinets, furniture and remodeling, from one person up to about ten. Leads, booked calls, estimates, proposals with e-signature, invoices, payments and follow-ups all sit on the job in one place, instead of in a spreadsheet and three separate apps. It was built by Allen, a woodworker who runs his own shop, around how custom work actually gets quoted, sold and paid for.
How much does Square Away cost?
There are three plans. Bench is $29 a month for one person, Shop is $89 a month with 3 team seats, and Crew is $199 a month with 10 team seats. Every plan includes estimates, proposals with e-signature, invoices and payments, lead forms, online booking and the client portal. Shop and Crew add cut planning, drawing reads, social posting, QuickBooks Online payment sync and Shop Hand AI, and the first 15 founding shops get 14 days free, then half price for life.
How do I do estimates and cut lists for cabinets in Square Away?
Every job starts with an estimate: add your materials and labor, and anything you pick from your price book fills in its own cost, so you enter your prices once and reuse them on every job. On the Shop and Crew plans you can upload a cut list, a designer's PDF or a phone photo of a sketch, and Square Away reads the parts off it. You check each part against the original and tick it, and the checked parts go into the cut planner and onto the estimate.
Does Square Away have a cut list optimizer for plywood and boards?
Yes. Plan my cuts, on the Shop and Crew plans, lays your parts out on sheets and boards, tells you how many to buy, allows for your blade thickness, and draws every sheet so you know where each cut goes. For board stock like 4x4 posts or 1x6s it crosscuts first, then rips, and prints the rip sizes on your part labels. Miters are measured long point to long point, and it plans straight cuts, the kind a table saw or panel saw makes.
Can I send a proposal with options the client picks from?
Yes. A proposal can hold Pick one groups (like with or without install), Pick any groups (a mantel, a bookcase or both) and optional Add-ons, and the total follows what the client picks. If you price two versions of a job, turn on Either/or on the estimate so the client picks one and the prices are never added together. The client accepts, e-signs your contract, and then pays online.
How do I take deposits and milestone payments for custom work?
Each proposal has its own payment schedule, such as a deposit, a production deposit and a balance due, set in dollars or a percent. Clients pay online by card or bank transfer once your bank is connected through Stripe, or you mark a check, cash, Venmo or Zelle payment as paid yourself. Square Away's own fee on a bank transfer is 1%, capped at $150 a payment, however big the job.
Do my clients get a client portal?
Yes, on every plan. Clients log in with just their email, no password, on a page with your logo and brand color, and see what needs them next: a signature, a payment or a file to approve. They also see their proposals, invoices, payments, your updates and which of your stages their job is in, plus projected start and finish weeks once it's on your production board.
How do small shops track a production schedule in Square Away?
With the Production board, a timeline of your shop's builds, so you can give clients honest start dates. Build days start from the estimate's labor hours, big jobs run one at a time in the main lane, and small pieces like mantels and shelves go in a filler lane that never pushes the big jobs back. Give a job a promised-by date and the board shows you when the schedule runs past it.
Can I put the job on a TV in the shop?
Yes. Shop TV puts your production board, job tickets, cut lists, today and this week, and what's late on a TV in the shop, and it never shows prices or money. You need a TV with a small computer plugged into it, like a mini PC, and a keyboard, paired with a 6 digit code. From a job or a cut plan you click Send to TV, and your phone works as the remote.
Does Square Away work on my phone?
Yes. It runs in your phone's browser and sits on your home screen like an app, with the same account and the same jobs as your computer. From the phone you can add a lead, add job photos, check your calendar, work out fractions at the saw and see what came in. It isn't in the App Store or Google Play yet.
Founding shops get 14 days free, then pay half price, locked in for good.
Book your setup call30 minutes on video with Allen, the woodworker who built it. We set it up on one of your real jobs.