What's new in Rotor Rate

1. v1.13LatestSeptember 10, 2026

   Estimating and field logistics: branded client estimates that turn into invoices, multi-site projects with route and day planning, and FAA waiver tracking.

   • Estimates now go out on your letterhead — company name, logo, and contact details, a written scope, itemized pricing, dates, and your own terms for payment, weather, revisions, and usage rights. Set the wording once in Settings and preview a sample estimate before you ever send one.
   • Estimate numbers advance on their own, repeat clients can be pulled back in with their saved details, and the estimate you sent pre-fills the invoice at the end of the mission — same line items, same total, same terms. You can send or resend that invoice straight from the Invoices panel.
   • New multi-site projects: one client, one estimate, as many locations as the job needs. Add each site with its own hours, acres, and notes, then let the app put them in the shortest driving order, spread them across days, and fill in arrival times from your first stop (with an optional lunch break). Weather and airspace are checked per site, per day.
   • Optional efficiency credit on multi-site work shows the client a real discount that comes from the driving you saved, not from cutting your rate.
   • Waivers and authorizations: upload your FAA waiver PDFs in Settings, and Rotor Rate reads the details, flags them on airspace checks for the sites they cover, and reminds you 30 days before one expires. You can also show them on an estimate as proof you can legally fly the job.
   • Card-processing fees are now covered in the fair rate, so a job priced at your fair number no longer comes up short after fees.
   • The free trial is now 60 days, and reopening a saved project lands you back on the same calculator view you built it in.
2. v1.12July 13, 2026

   Free calculator gets a Refine & plan panel — rush and cert multipliers, an income-goal planner, and a share button.

   • New Refine & plan panel under the free calculator: layer a rush-job (<48 hr) surcharge and certification multipliers (Night waiver, BVLOS, Over people, Thermographer, HAZMAT) on top of your calculated rate.
   • Reverse income planner: enter a target annual income and see how many jobs it takes and how many weeks part-time or full-time.
   • Share button on the free calculator — send the link to another pilot in one tap.
3. v1.11July 12, 2026

   Payout tracking, cleaner dashboards, and the Pass Log for every subscriber: know exactly what's owed, when it's coming, and where each offer stacked up against a fair rate.

   • New payout tracking on the Business dashboard — set your payment terms per network (n+15, n+30, custom), and every completed mission shows an expected pay date, a status pill (awaiting, overdue, paid), and a one-tap Mark paid action. Awaiting network payouts and outstanding invoices are now one unified line item you can expand for detail.
   • Optional calendar reminders — when a mission is marked Completed, your downloaded .ics gets a follow-up event on the expected pay date so your calendar reminds you to check for the deposit. Mark it paid or move the mission out of Completed and the reminder cancels automatically.
   • Pass Log is now included with every subscription — track offers you turned down, categorize them, and see the delta from a fair rate color-coded (red for way under, amber for thin margin, green for right at fair). Refly missions are excluded from payout math since there's no additional payout, but refly mileage is still logged as its own expense tied to the original paid mission.
   • Site-wide zero-clutter pass — dashboards, calculators, and income-by-client no longer show $0 placeholders where nothing is actually owed or spent. Cleaner at a glance, easier to spot what actually needs attention.
4. v1.10July 3, 2026

   Save your own equipment presets: build reusable gear bundles once and add them to any job in a single tap.

   • New Equipment presets editor in Settings lets you save your own gear rows — label, mode (flat / per-hour / percent), amount, and default quantity — that show up in the calculator's equipment picker on every job.
   • The mileage entry fields now show a colored Round-trip / One-way pill next to the label and always display the equivalent distance underneath, so what number to type is impossible to misread.
   • Built-in curated presets still ship with the app; tap any of them from the editor to copy it into your list so you can adjust the amount or default quantity without touching shared defaults.
5. v1.9July 3, 2026

   Charge for the gear you bring and the deliverables you produce: two new add-on sections on every job automatically fold into your fair price.

   • New Equipment add-ons picker inside Other details lets you line-item non-drone gear — GNSS rovers, total stations, ground vehicles, GCPs, traffic control, tethered power, and more — as a flat fee, hourly fee, or percent of your on-site labor. Presets are ready to go, custom rows take seconds.
   • New Processing & deliverables picker lets you attach each output the client expects — orthomosaic, 3D model, topo, volumetrics, thermal report, edited video, and more — with the hours it takes to process. Time flows through your post-processing rate so longer processing scopes automatically raise the fair bid.
   • Both add-on sections appear on the flat-rate evaluator too, so when someone offers you a lump sum you can see exactly what you're bringing to the job before you accept.
6. v1.8July 3, 2026

   Mileage the way you enter it: pick one-way or round-trip and the calculator does the math. Charges also now read "ROTOR RATE" on your customers' bank statements.

   • New segmented toggle above the drive time and miles fields lets you enter either one-way or round-trip distance — whichever matches how you think about the drive. Your choice is remembered for next time.
   • When round-trip is selected, the app halves the number internally so fuel cost, travel pay, and IRS mileage all stay accurate; a small hint under the miles field shows the one-way equivalent so nothing feels hidden.
   • Subscription charges now show up as "ROTOR RATE" on your customers' credit-card statements instead of the parent company name, so it's obvious what the charge is for.
7. v1.7July 3, 2026

   No more surprise charges: your 60-day free trial never asks for a card, and nothing is billed automatically when it ends.

   • The 60-day free trial no longer collects credit card info up front — you're only ever charged after you actively choose to subscribe.
   • Two friendly reminder emails go out during your trial: one two days before it ends, and one when it ends, so nothing sneaks up on you.
   • A new refund policy is published on the Legal page and linked from Pricing — subscription fees are non-refundable, but you can cancel anytime and keep access through the end of your billing period.
   • Existing subscribers are unaffected — this only changes the flow for new sign-ups.
8. v1.6June 22, 2026

   One-click estimate acceptance: send clients a shareable link, they confirm in seconds, and the mission flips to awarded automatically.

   • Generate a shareable 'Accept this estimate' link from any saved job — paste it into your quote email and the client can confirm with one click at rotorrate.com/e/<token>.
   • When a client accepts, the job auto-flips to 'awarded' and confirmation emails go out to both sides — no manual status updates.
   • Quote Wizard (/quote) now mints an accept link in the same step for paid users — the wizard inputs are persisted as a pending job behind the scenes.
   • Free calculator hero now teases the 'Run Your Drone Business' startup playbook for pilots ready to take the next step.
9. v1.5June 19, 2026

   Workspace becomes the records desk: Completed missions, mileage, and per-mission expenses are now in one place, with deep-links from the Business dashboard.

   • Mission Dashboard (/missions) is now forward-looking only — Pipeline, Upcoming, and Recurring. The Completed and All tabs were removed.
   • Workspace (/workspace) is the new home for Completed missions, the mileage log, the quarterly tax widget, and downloads. A fourth tab in the app nav makes it a first-class surface.
   • Add an expense directly from a completed-mission row in Workspace — no more bouncing to the Business dashboard to attach a receipt.
   • Business dashboard expense rows now include a 'View' deep-link that jumps straight to the matching completed mission in Workspace and rings the row.
   • Recurring series management stays on /missions; Workspace shows a one-line summary that links back.
   • Helper copy on /missions, /workspace, and /business updated to reflect each surface's role.

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