Articles
- How to Build a Job Tracking App for a Small Contracting Business (2026)
A practical guide to tracking jobs, crews, hours and invoices in one app, built around how your company already works, without hiring a developer.
- How to Write a Construction Estimate That Wins Jobs (and Still Makes Money)
A step-by-step method for pricing residential and small commercial jobs: quantities, burdened labor, subs, overhead, profit and the written estimate the customer actually reads.
- Job Costing for Small Contractors: A Practical Guide with Worked Numbers
How to set up cost codes, track labor, materials and subs against each job’s budget, read the results mid-job, and use them to price the next one.
- Progress Billing and Retainage Explained for Small Contractors (2026)
How schedules of values, pay applications and retainage work, with a worked pay app, current state rules from California and Texas, and how to keep retainage from choking your cash flow.
- Change Orders: How Small Contractors Document and Charge for Extra Work
When a change order is needed, what it must say, how to price it with overhead and profit, and how to get it signed before the work starts so you actually get paid.
- Construction Project Management Basics for Small Contractors
The handful of habits that keep small jobs on time and on budget: a clear handoff from sale to production, a realistic schedule, early ordering, a weekly money check, simple customer updates and a real closeout.
- Managing Subcontractors: Insurance Certificates, Lien Waivers and Paperwork That Protects You
What to collect from every sub before they start, how to read a certificate of insurance, how conditional and unconditional lien waivers work, and the tax and payment rules small GCs need to know in 2026.
- Contractor Invoicing: Payment Terms, Deposits and Getting Paid Faster
How to set payment terms and deposits that are legal and fair, what every contractor invoice should include, what card and bank payments really cost, and a follow-up routine that shortens the wait.
- Best Construction Management Software for Small Contractors (2026)
Seven options for small general contractors, remodelers and trades, with who each suits, what it does well, what to watch and current prices from each vendor’s own pricing page.
- Best Invoicing Apps for Contractors (2026)
Seven invoicing options for small contractors compared on deposits, milestone billing, payment fees and price, using each vendor’s own pricing and help pages.
- Floot vs Jobber for Contractors (2026): Build Your Own App or Use Field Service Software?
A fair comparison of Jobber’s ready-made field service software and Floot’s build-your-own app approach for small contractors: features, pricing, setup, and when each is the better choice.