The Roofing CRM Data Fields You Actually Need (And the Ones That Are Noise)

I watched a rep open a lead record last month with 43 custom fields. Forty-three. "Favorite color of homeowner." "Pet name." "Garage door color." He couldn't tell me the claim number without scrolling past three collapsed sections, but he could tell me the dog was named Biscuit.

This is what happens when a CRM rollout is run by someone who's never worked a storm. Every manager who's ever had a "wouldn't it be nice to know" thought has added a field. Nobody removes one. Three years in, reps pencil-whip a data-entry form instead of selling roofs, and reports are garbage because half the fields are 60% blank. If you're shopping for a CRM or cleaning up the one you have, this is the short list of what matters. Everything else is noise. For broader evaluation: roofing CRM buyer's guide.

The 12 Must-Have Fields

Required at the stage where they become relevant, not upfront. More on stage-gated data in lead stages.

Property address. Structured , street, city, state, zip separate. Free-text addresses create phantom duplicates.

Insurance carrier. Dropdown, not free text. "State Farm" vs "statefarm" vs "SF" is the difference between useful report and useless one.

Claim number. Required when lead becomes a claim. Your primary key with the carrier.

Adjuster name and phone. Over two years you build a map of which adjusters get it. That map is real money.

Deductible. Homeowner's out-of-pocket. Drives the entire close.

Date of loss. Ties lead back to storm event. Lets you map conversion by storm.

RCV, ACV, and depreciation. Three separate numeric fields. If reps aren't tracking these you can't forecast revenue, calculate margin, or spot a light scope.

Status. Single disciplined picklist. One lead sits in one stage at a time.

Rep owner. One person. Accountability lives here.

Next-action date. Most underrated field. Every open lead has a "what next, and when." Dashboard screams at any rep with open leads and no next action.

12 fields. Twelve. If populated cleanly on every lead, more usable data than 80% of roofers in your market.

Roofing-Specific Fields Worth Structuring

Generic CRMs don't give you these. Reason a roofing-specific tool earns its keep.

Hail size. Numeric inches or standardized picklist (0.75", 1.0", 1.25", 1.5", 1.75", 2.0"+). Sub-1" is a fight. 1.5"+ is a layup.

Wind speed. Peak gust in mph. 60mph in a neighborhood is different than 95.

Roof age. 22-year roof faces depreciation. 4-year is a different battle.

Pitch. Picklist: walkable (4/12-6/12), steep (7/12-9/12), very steep (10/12+). Drives labor cost and crew needs.

Squares. Sizes the job and the supplement fight.

Tear-off layers. 1, 2, or 3. Drives disposal cost and code.

Six structured fields turn the CRM from Rolodex into something that reports per-job profitability. If still in spreadsheets, that's why you need to migrate.

Vanity Fields , Cut Them

Custom tags nobody filters on. If a field isn't driving at least one recurring report or automation, delete it.

NPS on a lead. NPS is post-sale. Asking mid-pipeline while fighting the adjuster is insane.

CSAT on a lead. Measures the rep's charm, not a business outcome.

Lead source free-text. 40 variations of "door knock" in your database. Force picklist: Door knock, Referral, Website, Paid, Repeat, Partner.

"Notes about the homeowner" as required. Optional. Forced notes = "nice lady" garbage.

Multiple contact methods as separate required fields. Phone + mobile + home + work + email + alternate. Pick two (mobile + email), rest optional.

Birthday, anniversary, pet name. Only if you run structured birthday-card automation. Otherwise noise.

The Rule of Thumb

If you can't query it to coach a rep or forecast revenue, don't require it.

Carrier passes (coaching: which carriers we lose on). Hail size passes (forecasting: higher hail = higher close). Pet name fails both. Every field must survive that question.

Second-order benefit: disciplined fields = reps actually fill them in. Data quality is inversely proportional to field count. Cut fields in half, double fill rate, dashboards mean something.

Closing

Roofing CRMs fail two ways: too generic (miss hail, pitch, squares) or overloaded with optional junk (reps pencil-whip). Fix: 12 must-haves + 6 roofing-specific, kill everything else unless an active report depends on it. If you can't tell which 18 fields your CRM captures cleanly, that's the answer on whether to keep shopping. RoofKnockers makes these fields first-class. Spin up an account and try it against your next storm lead. Forty-three fields isn't diligence. It's indecision dressed up as data strategy.