Challenge
QTO Expert prepares quantity takeoffs for construction contractors. To grow online, the business needed three things: a website that turns visitors into takeoff orders, a place where contractors can buy ready-made project takeoffs and follow their own orders, and one system for the admins, data operators and takeoff experts who do the work.
Approach
We started from the four people who use the product: the contractor buying takeoffs, the admin running the business, the data operator loading project data and the expert doing the takeoff. Each got a portal with only the screens and permissions their job needs. All four portals work from one shared set of projects, files and order statuses, so an update made by one role is what every other role sees.
Solution
Contractors browse and buy existing project takeoffs, open the files for everything they own, and order a new takeoff for their own project. Every order shows its current phase, how far along it is and how long it should take. Admins see payments, manage users and roles, and oversee every order. Data operators upload project data and files. Takeoff experts pick up orders, complete the takeoff, upload the finished files and update the status, which the contractor sees in their portal straight away.
Screens
Architecture
- Public landing pages for marketing and lead capture
- Angular front end for the four role-based portals
- NestJS API with Prisma over PostgreSQL
- JWT sessions and OAuth sign-in, with role-based access over one shared set of projects, orders and files
- AI chatbot: OpenAI with retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) over a vector database
- Hosted on AWS
Automation
The platform includes a chatbot built on OpenAI. It uses retrieval-augmented generation (RAG): answers are grounded in content stored in a vector database rather than the model's general knowledge.
Implementation
- Step 01Designed the landing pages and the four portals in Figma
- Step 02Defined roles and permissions for customers, admins, data operators and experts
- Step 03Built the landing pages
- Step 04Built the customer portal: project purchase, file access, takeoff orders and progress tracking
- Step 05Built the admin, data operator and expert portals on the same project and order data
Outcome
QTO Expert now sells ready-made takeoffs and takes new takeoff orders online. Contractors follow each order's phase, progress and expected timeline on their own, and the team runs payments, data and delivery from portals built for each role.