Article

Roofing companies: get paid for your records

Last updated October 17, 2026

A roofing company keeps years of paperwork it never reads again. Estimates, supplements, change orders, crew notes, photos, callbacks. A buyer pays to license records like these to train AI models, and what it pays for is how each roof went from a quote to a finished job, not who lived under it. Here is which of a roofer’s records count, what has no value, what you keep, and how it works with Polyshares.

What a roofer’s record is

Think of one roof. A lead comes in after a hailstorm. Someone measures it, writes an estimate, and sends it. The homeowner files a claim. The adjuster comes back with a scope and a number. The estimator writes a supplement for what the adjuster missed. The crew tears off and finds rotten decking. A change order goes out. The job gets done, photographed, walked and invoiced. A year later, a callback for a leak at the chimney.

Every step of that is written down somewhere in your systems. Not neatly, and not in one place, but it is there. The estimate is in the quoting software. The supplement is in email. The change order is a PDF with a signature on it. The crew notes are in the job app. The callback is in the scheduling tool.

That trail, roof after roof, year after year, is the record. It shows how a roofing company priced work it couldn’t fully see, argued the scope with an insurer, handled what the tear-off found, and stood behind the result. Polyshares says, on its data licensing page, that the value of a record “is in reasoning that was captured while the work happened.” A roofer’s record is almost nothing but that.

See your estimate

The estimate chain, roof by roof

An estimate is a price with a reason attached. The reason is the part with value. This is our own description of what sits in a roofing estimate, not a list from any buyer.

The measurements: squares, pitch, ridge and hip length, valleys, the number of layers to tear off. The scope: what is included, what the homeowner asked about and was talked out of, whether the gutters are in or out. The line items: shingles, underlayment, ice and water shield, flashing, decking allowance, disposal, permit. The options: three-tab, architectural, designer, and which one the homeowner picked. The outcome: won, lost, or never answered.

Then the versions. Version one is what the estimator saw from the ground or the drone. Version two is after the ladder went up and the second layer was found. Version three is after the adjuster’s scope. Version four is the deal. Side by side, the versions show how a scope was argued and settled. A single final price shows none of that.

Most roofers keep the estimates for the jobs they won, because those became job files. Keep the lost ones. A lost bid records a price the market said no to, with a date on it. Five hundred lost bids over ten years show where the ceiling was each season and how it moved. The estimates and quotes page goes through this across the trades.

The supplement and the adjuster

Roofing is the trade where a third party argues the scope on insurance jobs. That makes the roofer’s record unusual, and this is our own observation.

A supplement request says: the adjuster’s scope missed the drip edge, the starter course, the extra layer, the steep charge, the code upgrade for ice and water shield. Here is the photo. Here is the line in the code. Here is the price. The adjuster’s reply says yes to three, no to two, and here is why. The roofer answers again. That exchange is a negotiation over scope, in writing, with evidence attached, hundreds of times a year.

Polyshares says a thread “where two people disagree about a quote and work it out carries judgment that cannot be manufactured.” A supplement thread is exactly that. It is also the kind of record that lives in email and in the claims software, not in the estimate folder, so count it separately.

The change order: what the tear-off found

Every roofer has the same story. The decking looked fine from the attic. The tear-off found 22 rotten sheets where the estimate allowed for six. The change order went out that afternoon.

A change order is a decision under pressure. The scope moved, here is why, here is what it costs, here is who approved it and when. Ten years of change orders, by cause, is a record of everything a roof hides from an estimator and how the company handled each surprise. Rotten decking. Flashing that wasn’t there. A second layer under the first. A skylight nobody mentioned. The price of each, and whether the homeowner or the insurer paid it.

As our own description, this is the part of a roofing record that cannot be written after the fact. Nobody remembers in October what the decking looked like on a Tuesday in May. The change order does.

The job file: crew notes, photos, the final walk

The job file is what was actually done. The work order with the crew, the start date and the materials pulled. The daily notes: how far they got, what slowed them down, what they found. The photos from the first walk, the tear-off, the dry-in and the final. The materials reconciliation: 14 sheets quoted, 22 used. The hours booked against the hours estimated. The final walk with the homeowner and the punch list.

Put the job file next to the estimate and you can see the gap between what was quoted and what it took. That gap, by job type and by year, is how an estimator gets good. It is also the thing a reader of the record can’t get anywhere else, because nobody publishes their misses. Polyshares says a record showing a problem “being misdiagnosed, argued over, and finally resolved” is worth more than “a clean table of finished numbers.” Your job files are the resolved part.

Warranty and callbacks

The callback log is the part owners hide and the part that completes the record. A leak at the chimney a year later. A ridge vent that lifted in the first storm. A homeowner who called about a nail in a tyre.

Each callback says which job went wrong, what the diagnosis was, what it took to fix, and whether it was the install, the material or the house. Ten years of callbacks, next to ten years of job files, is the company’s quality record on paper. As our own advice, don’t clean it out before anyone looks. The callbacks that were the roofer’s fault and the ones that weren’t are both reasoning.

The CRM: storms, canvassing, referrals

A roofing CRM is the record of how the company found its work. Leads by source: storm, canvass, referral, website, insurance agent. The number of calls it took. Which estimate version closed it. Which leads went cold and why. The close rate by source by year, which shows what happened when the storm cycle changed.

This is our own description. Polyshares lists CRM history among the systems it licenses from, alongside Slack and Teams, Drive and SharePoint, email, support tickets, design files, call recordings, and accounting and ERP exports. In a roofing company, the CRM is thinner than the estimate chain, but it is the part that ties each roof to how the lead came in.

Why a buyer wants them

A buyer licenses records like these to train AI models. Polyshares says it licenses “the operating record a business produces by running,” builds the anonymised records into data sets, and supplies them to labs. It does not say which labs take which data.

What moves the price, in Polyshares’ words on its home page: “depth of operating history and how much visible reasoning the record contains move the number far more than raw volume does.” And: “the length and texture of the record matter more than headcount or revenue.” A roofer with 15 years of estimate chains, supplements and change orders has depth and texture. That is the case for a roofing record, in Polyshares’ terms, and the page on what data buyers want from a trade business walks the same test through four trades.

De-identified before anyone reads it

The first worry is the customer list. Here is what Polyshares publishes.

On its data handling page: “Names, emails, phone numbers, account numbers, and addresses are removed or replaced by a specialist PII partner before Polyshares or any buyer sees the record.” Then: “Roles, timestamps, and the work itself are kept.” So the estimate keeps its squares, its pitch, its versions and its outcome. It loses the homeowner. The change order keeps the 22 sheets. It loses the address.

Polyshares says someone on its team reads the anonymised sample before pricing. If anything in the sample reads as identifying, “the record goes back for another pass before pricing continues.” Buyers see de-identified listings only, carrying a code instead of your name. “Two named people are the only ones at Polyshares who see a company’s identity alongside its data.”

And before any of that: “Intake asks for record counts, not files or exports.” “Nothing leaves your systems until Polyshares has made an offer and you have accepted it.” You can find out what the record is worth without sending a file. Isn’t that the order you’d want?

What Polyshares has paid

Polyshares publishes four deals, each a “perpetual exclusive license to the operational record,” “anonymized before delivery,” with the company’s name kept confidential. One of them is a roofing company, home services, at $450,000. The others are a general contractor at $300,000, a solar company at $275,000 and a global marketing agency at $110,000.

Polyshares says typical deals run $100K to $2M and above. Polyshares does not publish how many years of records or how many crews sat behind the roofing deal, so we can’t tell you what that roofer had. Polyshares says: “We look at the record before we price it. We do not pay for something we have not seen.” A past deal does not predict an offer. The published deals page keeps the list.

How it works with Polyshares

These are Polyshares’ published terms:

The company pays no fee and no commission. “Money moves one way, from us to you.”
The structure is a licence to defined operational data, non-dilutive, with no equity and no debt. “A license is not a sale.”
Intake is “three quick questions, then the detail once your account exists. About two minutes.” It asks for record counts, not files.
Polyshares reviews the record and returns an offer within one to two weeks, and terms are papered right after.
Nothing leaves the company’s systems until an offer has been made and accepted.
A specialist PII partner removes or replaces names, emails, phone numbers, account numbers and addresses before Polyshares or any buyer sees the record.
Payment is net 30 to 60 once the data is approved, anonymised and delivered.
Licences cover defined systems and a defined term, and are exclusive by default. Resale or use beyond the licence scope is not permitted.

Polyshares also says confirming ownership starts with the company, because only the company holds its customer contracts, and that a company should have its own counsel review any licence before signing. We say the same.

Worth two minutes to see your range? The estimate asks five questions.

What you keep

Under Polyshares’ published terms, “you keep the business and the underlying data.” The company “keeps operating exactly as before, with the same data, the same systems, the same customers.” The estimates stay in your quoting software. The job files stay in your job app. The crews keep working. What is licensed is a de-identified copy within a defined scope and term.

What this means for a roofing company

Here is the count, as our own description of what a roofing company usually keeps and not a list from any buyer. Polyshares decides what it licenses.

Estimates and proposals, with the measurements, the options and every version, won and lost.
Supplement requests to insurers and the adjusters’ replies, with the photos and the code citations.
Change orders, with the cause, the cost and the approval.
Job files: work orders, crew notes, daily reports, material reconciliations, hours.
Photos, from the first walk to the final.
Warranty records and the callback log, with the diagnosis on each.
Crew scheduling, and how it moved when the weather did.
CRM history: leads by source, calls, estimate versions, outcomes.

Count the years, not the documents. A roofer that has quoted since 2011 has 15 years, whether that is 4,000 estimates or 40,000. Then list the systems: the quoting software, the old quoting software, the claims tool, the job app, the email account the supplements went out from, the scheduling tool, the CRM. That list is most of what the estimate on this site asks for.

What is never included

Here is what sits outside the record, as our own description, and where Polyshares’ published terms draw the line.

Customer personal details. Names, emails, phone numbers, account numbers and addresses are on Polyshares’ list of fields removed or replaced before anyone at Polyshares or any buyer sees the record. They were never the thing being bought.

Payment details. Card numbers and bank details are not part of how a roof was done. Polyshares’ list names account numbers. For a card number written on a scanned estimate, as our own advice, keep that page in your own cabinet and raise it at discovery.

Anything a client owns. Polyshares says its licence “does not cover what you hold on behalf of your own clients.” A roofer working as a subcontractor for a builder may hold the builder’s drawings and specs under contract. Polyshares says material held for a client under an agreement that gives the client ownership “cannot be licensed regardless of value, and only the contracts separate the two.” Find those contracts first.

Health and employee files. A homeowner’s medical details on an accessibility job, or a crew member’s personal file that ended up in the job folder, are personal information. Polyshares says anonymisation happens before anything moves, and that no buyer with regulatory exposure will accept a record carrying personal information. Ask Polyshares before you apply if any of your records sit near those lines.

What Polyshares licenses is decided by Polyshares, in the offer, after it has looked at the record. We can only tell you what is usually in and usually out. The safety page says the same in plain words.

Where we fit

We, TrustPast, explain the process and give you a range with our estimate. Five questions, two minutes. The estimate is ours, not an offer. The estimate names the buyer that fits your headcount; when that is Polyshares, you apply to it yourself, through the estimate’s link. Polyshares pays us a referral fee. You pay us nothing. We never see your files.

Before you apply

Four things to do first, as our own advice:

Find the estimate chain. The quoting software, the old quoting software, the PDFs with “v2” and “FINAL” in the names, the carbon books. Count the years, not the documents.
Find the supplements and the change orders. They live in email and in the claims tool, not in the estimate folder. They are the argued part of the record.
Find the job files and the callback log. An estimate with its job file and its callback is a complete story. Alone, it is a price.
Ask your counsel about anything held for a builder or a client. Only the contracts say what is yours. Don’t tidy the rest; the PII partner handles the names.

Then answer the five questions. If the range is worth your time, apply.

Alex, TrustPast

Questions and answers

Does the buyer want our customer list?

No. Polyshares says names, emails, phone numbers, account numbers and addresses are removed or replaced by a specialist PII partner before Polyshares or any buyer sees the record. The measurements, the scope, the versions and the job notes are kept.

Do we have to send our files to apply?

No. Polyshares says intake asks for record counts, not files or exports, and that nothing leaves your systems until Polyshares has made an offer and you have accepted it.

Do the insurance supplements count?

This is our own description of what a roofing company keeps; Polyshares decides what it licenses. A supplement is a negotiation over scope, written down, and Polyshares says the value of a record is in reasoning captured while the work happened.

Do we keep the records afterwards?

Yes. Under Polyshares’ published terms, a licence is not a sale. You keep the business and the underlying data, and the company keeps operating exactly as before.

What has a roofing company been paid?

Polyshares’ published deals include a roofing company at $450,000. Polyshares says it looks at the record before it prices it, so a past deal does not predict an offer.

What does it cost us?

Nothing. Polyshares says there is no fee and no commission, and that money moves one way, from Polyshares to the company. Polyshares pays TrustPast a referral fee; you pay us nothing.