Every GC is a
different shape.
Sub-trade sequencing, change orders, progress draws and holdback, sub compliance documents, and closeout, in one system shaped around how your projects actually run. Fixed price, and the code is yours when it ships.
- 2.5 yr
- Break-even, worked example
- 100%
- Source and IP yours
- 15 min
- Your migration effort
- $0
- Monthly licence fees
Renting was the cheap option. It stopped being one.
Subscription software made sense when a custom build cost ten times what it costs now. That flipped. In 2026 a generic platform that fits nobody is both worse than a custom one and, over the life of your business, more expensive. Per-project and per-seat pricing makes it worse, because the bill grows exactly when you do.
Worked example
- $12,000 a year in subscriptions is $120,000 over ten years, or about $151,000 once you allow for the 5% annual increases everyone gets.
- A $30,000 build is a one-time $30,000 over the same ten years.
- Break-even lands in year 2.5. By year ten you are $90,000 to $121,000 ahead, and the asset is on your books instead of someone else's.
Those are round numbers. Put your own subscription spend in and see where your company lands: the SaaS cost calculator.
You bend your workflow to fit the software.
Buildertrend was built for production builders. CoConstruct was built for residential remodelers. Procore was built for very large commercial contractors. Most BC general contractors run a mix: custom homes, additions, multi-unit, and the occasional commercial fit-out, all at once and all at different stages.
On top of that sits work none of those products treat as central. Builders lien holdback per sub. Certificates of insurance and WorkSafeBC clearance letters that expire without warning. Prime contractor duties on site. Municipal permits and inspections under the BC Building Code. On new residential, the warranty handover that has to be assembled at the end.
So the platform runs the schedule and the spreadsheet runs the money. You pay full price for partial coverage, then pay again in staff time closing the gap, and the bill goes up with every project and every seat.
What you are probably running today.
01
Buildertrend
Built for production builders running repeatable models. Awkward for custom, multi-unit, and mixed residential and commercial work.
02
CoConstruct
Aimed at residential remodelers. Light once commercial sub-trade flow, holdbacks, and progress draws enter the picture.
03
Procore
Configured for the median large commercial GC. Powerful, expensive, and priced on a scale most BC contractors are not operating at.
Six things a general contractor actually needs in one place.
01
Sequencing sub-trades, project by project
One board per project showing who is on site, who is next, and what is blocking them. Sequencing lives in the system rather than in a superintendent's head and a group chat.
02
Change orders that reach the budget
Capture the change, price it, get the client signature, and push it into the project budget in one move. The final number stops being a reconciliation exercise.
03
Sub compliance, watched not chased
Certificates of insurance, WorkSafeBC clearance letters, licences, and safety documentation per sub, with alerts before anything expires. The lapsed-coverage conversation stops happening on the worst possible morning.
04
Progress billing and holdback
Draws, approvals, and the statutory builders lien holdback tracked per project and per sub. What is billed, what is paid, and what is still held, on one screen.
05
Daily reports and photo logs
Foremen capture progress, weather, crew counts, and photos from site. The record assembles itself, so the as-built and the dispute file are already written.
06
Punch list and closeout
Items logged where they exist, routed to the right trade, closed with photo proof and a timestamp. Warranty terms and manuals handed over as a package instead of a banker's box.
The closest things we have shipped.
We have not yet shipped a system for a general contractor. We have shipped a full operations platform for a BC electrical contractor, and several enterprise systems that solve the pieces a GC cares about most: a document repository with version history and expiry alerts, a compliance and audit system with an evidence trail, and an internal ticketing system with real service-level tracking.
Those are the same mechanics as sub compliance, holdback records, and closeout documentation. Saying so is more useful than implying a construction track record that does not exist yet.
See every system currently in production, with what each one replaced.
You own the excavator. You own the shop. The software that decides what gets billed and what gets held back is the one asset you agreed to rent forever.
What happens after the invoice.
Ownership
Source code, repositories, database, and hosting accounts go into your name on final payment. No licence, no renewal, nothing that switches off.
Support
No flat monthly retainer. Take the code and owe nothing, or keep an hourly relationship triaged by severity. Critical means now and costs more. Cosmetic gets the next available week.
Paying for it
Financing roughly matches what you already send to software vendors each month, spread over two years. At the end of it you stop paying and keep the system.
Switching over
Nobody on your team should spend more than about fifteen minutes on the changeover. A new login and a password. Moving the data across is our job, not yours.
The worked example above uses a $30,000 build because that is a realistic figure for a system that runs an entire company. A single workflow, a punch list tool or a compliance vault on its own, costs a fraction of it. Every quote is fixed before work starts, so the number you agree to is the number you pay. Tiers are laid out on the pricing page.
You prequalify your subs. Prequalify us the same way.
- Commercial general liability
- $5,000,000
- Professional liability (E&O)
- $2,000,000
- Cyber liability
- $2,000,000
- WorkSafeBC account
- 201966367
Bound and in force.
Bound and in force.
Bound and in force.
Active. Clearance letter on request.
Certificates of insurance and a WorkSafeBC clearance letter are issued on request, usually the same day. Bluestone is also a pre-qualified supplier on two British Columbia public-sector lists, which is the same document check run by a procurement office. The references are published here.
What contractors ask first.
Can it track builders lien holdbacks properly?
Yes, and it should. The statutory holdback under the Builders Lien Act is 10% of the value of the work, tracked per project and per sub-trade, with release timed off completion. Generic products treat it as a note on an invoice. A build shaped around BC practice treats it as a balance you can see at any moment.
Will it chase WorkSafeBC clearance letters and insurance certificates?
That is one of the highest-value pieces on this list. Every sub has documents with an expiry date, and the risk of a lapse lands on you as prime contractor. The system holds the documents, watches the dates, and warns you ahead of time instead of after the incident.
How does this compare to Procore?
Procore is a serious product built for very large commercial contractors, and it is priced accordingly. If you use most of it, keep it. Most BC general contractors use a fraction, pay for all of it, and still keep a spreadsheet on the side. That is the situation a custom build fixes.
We run several projects at once. Does that complicate the build?
No, it is the normal case and the system is built for it from the start. Sequencing, billing, holdback, and compliance all roll up across active projects so the office sees the portfolio and each PM sees their own work.
Who owns the software when it is finished?
You do. Source code, repositories, database, and hosting accounts transfer into your name on final payment. Nothing switches off if the relationship ends, and any competent developer can take the code over.
What does support cost after handover?
There is no flat monthly retainer. Either you take the code and owe nothing further, or you keep an hourly relationship priced by the complexity of your system. Work is triaged by severity: critical means immediately and costs more, cosmetic goes in the next available week.
Free teardown for general contractors.
Bring one live project: the schedule, the change orders, the draw, the sub documents. You get a written breakdown of what we would build, which subscriptions it replaces, and what it would cost. If the answer is that you should keep what you have, we will say so.
Rather write it out? Send a message.