Who this is for
We work with general contractors, remodelers, design-build firms and specialty contractors, on jobs from a kitchen remodel to a multi-million-dollar build. Estimators, project managers and an admin run the office, and superintendents run the field. This system is for the office; the field gets a phone form and a photo column, not a daily-log product.
If you run 200 jobs a year under $20,000 each, our trades and home services page fits better. If you run a single $40 million project with a hundred subcontractors, Procore runs the field and monday.com runs the office around it.
The problem, as builders describe it
The estimate lives in Excel. The schedule is a Gantt chart that was right the week it was drawn. RFIs sit in email, and the change order agreed on site one Tuesday never got billed. The plumber's insurance certificate expired in March, and the draw gets reconciled by hand the night before it's due. The project manager knows where every job stands, and is on a jobsite when the owner calls to ask.
None of that is a people problem. The information sits in six places, and only the project manager's memory joins them. The system we build puts it all in one place.
What gets built
The projects board
Each job is a row moving through Lead, Estimating, Bid submitted, Awarded, Preconstruction, In progress, Punch, Closeout and Warranty. Columns hold the PM and superintendent, contract value, approved change orders, billed to date, start and substantial-completion dates and what it's waiting on. In their own views, the owner sees backlog and billing, project managers see their open items and the admin sees what's unbilled.
Bids and estimates
A bid board tracks each bid's due date, plan set link, invited subcontractors, amount and result. The estimate stays in your estimating tool or spreadsheet; the board tracks that it exists, who owns it and when it's due. Mark a bid Awarded and it becomes a numbered job on the projects board, contract value included, with nothing retyped.
Subcontractors and vendors
Subcontractors are contacts, not users, so a framer who checks in twice a year never needs a paid seat. Each is sorted by trade and linked to their jobs. The insurance certificate, the W-9 and the signed subcontract sit on the row as files, beside the certificate's expiry date. An automation flags a certificate 30 days before it expires and puts a task on the admin.
RFIs, submittals and change orders
One log holds every item, a row each, with the job, the type and who it's out with: architect, engineer, owner, inspector or subcontractor. Columns track the dates out and due, the person responsible and a status that runs from Open to Closed. An item still open after seven days becomes a task for that person, not a notification, because busy project managers delete notifications.
Change orders carry Proposed, Approved and Billed, and approved ones add to the job's contract value, so a change order agreed on site gets billed. The architecture CA log page shows this log from the other side of the table.
Draws, billing and retainage
Draws live on a private board the field never sees, one row per pay application. Each schedule-of-values line is a subitem, a row nested under the pay application, with scheduled value, previous, this period and retainage. Totals roll up to the job. Invoices and payments stay in QuickBooks. A small app, priced into the fixed quote we send after the free review, keeps billed-to-date and paid status current.
Field updates, schedule and the dashboard
Superintendents fill in a mobile form from the truck: crews on site, work done, photos and delays. It posts to the job, and the office reads it that afternoon. A timeline of milestones grouped by job answers "what is finishing this month" without pretending to be a critical-path schedule. One dashboard shows backlog by stage, contract value awarded this month, change orders approved but unbilled, overdue RFIs and expiring certificates.
Where the build comes from
Our builds behind this page come from two directions. For architecture studios running construction administration on live California jobs, we built the RFI and submittal log, plan-check clearances and a consultant waiting-on column. For installers whose jobs are sold, ordered, scheduled and punch-listed, we built the crew calendar and a rule that holds installs until material arrives. A general contractor's system joins the two: the log and waiting-on column, the jobs board and field photos, plus a private draws board.
The free review and a fixed quote come first. Then you approve a written map that names every board you get, before anything is built.
How an engagement runs
The work runs in five steps. We record the free 30-minute review. Then we read what you run on today, every spreadsheet, Gantt and email folder, and write up what to keep. You approve a written map of boards, stages and who sees what: the one sign-off we ask for.
We build the structure in your account, in your vocabulary, and you test it with real jobs before anything is automated. Then come the automations and the migration of your open jobs. We check the migration both ways: every old record has a new row, and every new row has an old record.
A script then checks every board, column, label and row count in your account. The handover is a recorded demo and short videos per task. You run real work through the system and tell us what's off. We adjust until it fits, usually within the two weeks the full build takes.
Pricing
Every price is on the pricing page. Build prices are starting prices. After the free 30-minute review, we send a fixed quote before anything is built.
Foundation starts at $3,000 and takes one week: the projects board with stages, a lead form, three automations, one dashboard and a recorded training. Full System starts at $7,000 and takes two weeks. It adds the bid board, the private draws board, the field form, permissions and dashboards. It also adds one log for RFIs, submittals and change orders with its seven-day follow-up, plus subcontractor contacts with their certificate expiry dates.
Full System also moves your open jobs from a spreadsheet, Buildertrend or another tool. Custom work that runs in your account, such as the QuickBooks link, is priced into the fixed quote. The care plan covers changes, new automations and a quarterly review, at $600 a month for 4 hours or $1,100 for 8. monday.com Pro seats are extra, at $19 per seat per month billed annually, as shown on monday.com/pricing on October 7, 2026. Budget a seat for each person in the office and one per superintendent.
If your company already runs its jobs on monday.com, Asana, Smartsheet, Airtable or ClickUp and the setup has grown messy, Overhaul fixes it, from $5,000. We audit the account, rebuild the job boards and automations nobody trusts and clear out the duplicates. The price includes permissions, dashboards and a recorded training, and your data stays where it is. Most overhauls take one week, and a large account takes two.
monday.com versus Procore, Buildertrend and JobTread
Procore is the construction management platform for large projects, sold on a quote. It covers drawings and document control, submittals, RFIs, daily logs, safety and a bidding network. Buildertrend and JobTread serve residential builders and remodelers with estimating, selections, client portals and scheduling in one product. Both sell monthly subscriptions on their pricing pages. If you already use one for estimating, selections or document control, keep it; monday.com runs the office around it and connects to it.
monday.com is the better choice when the office wants one system for sales, jobs, subcontractors, the log and billing, in your own stages. It also suits a field that needs a form and a photo rather than a product to learn. And it suits an office paying for a construction tool it never opens because that tool was built for the field. Many contractors keep the field product and put the office on monday.com.
| Need | Procore, Buildertrend, JobTread | monday.com, built as above |
|---|---|---|
| Estimating and takeoffs | Built in (Buildertrend, JobTread) | Your estimating tool makes the estimate; the bid board tracks it |
| Drawing and document control | Built in (Procore) | Links to Dropbox, Drive or Autodesk Construction Cloud |
| RFIs, submittals, change orders | Built in | One log with a seven-day follow-up, in your stages |
| Subcontractor insurance and documents | Built in (Procore) | Contacts with expiry automations |
| Draws and schedule of values | Built in | Private board; pay-app PDF is custom work |
| Stages that match how you sell | Vendor's stages | Yours |
| Cost | Quote or subscription (see each vendor's pricing page) | $19 per seat per month on Pro, plus the build |
What stays in other tools for builders
Limits, as of October 12, 2026
A complex sequence stays in your scheduling tool, which calculates the critical path; monday.com tracks the dependencies between tasks. Estimating and takeoffs stay in your estimating tool. The draws board holds the numbers, and turning them into an AIA-style pay application is custom work. Keep the current drawing set in your document control tool.
QuickBooks Online has no native monday.com connector, so billed-to-date comes through a small app.
Key takeaways
- One projects board from lead to warranty, and won bids become numbered jobs.
- Subcontractors are contacts with certificate expiry dates, not users with seats.
- One log for RFIs, submittals and change orders: anything open seven days becomes a task, and approved change orders add to the contract.
- Draws and retainage on a private board, with QuickBooks keeping the ledger.
- Procore for document control at scale, Buildertrend or JobTread for estimating and selections, monday.com for one office system in your own stages.
Limitations of this page
The general contractor's system on this page combines our architecture and installer builds. No contractor has bought this combined system yet. Like every client, the first one gets a fixed quote and a written map of every board before any build. The only client we name on this site is an architecture studio, not a contractor.
monday.com's features are as its support site described them on October 7, 2026. We describe Procore, Buildertrend and JobTread from their own home pages, without quoting prices. We sell monday.com builds, so weigh the comparison with that in mind. Before you decide, read our page on when you do not need a consultant.