Guides for general contractors
Practical construction guides, written by a working GC
Plain-English explainers on the office side of running jobs — billing, paperwork, and the terms that trip people up. Useful whether or not you ever run FieldsDesk.
Why this page exists
FieldsDesk is construction project-management software built solo by a working general contractor — someone who still runs residential and light-commercial jobs and got tired of stitching together spreadsheets, PDFs, and the office side of the business. A lot of what goes into building software like this is knowledge that's useful on its own: how a pay application actually gets certified, how a schedule of values drives your monthly billing, what each line on a progress draw means, and how the everyday paperwork fits together.
So we're collecting that knowledge here as a growing set of guides. Everything is written builder-to-builder — plain language, real workflow, no sales pitch buried in the middle. Some guides are published now; others are still being written. When a guide is live, its card is a link. When it's still on the bench, it's marked and stays put — no dead ends.
Published guides
Ready to read today.
How to fill out an application for payment
A line-by-line walkthrough of the application and certificate for payment and its continuation sheet — what each block means, plus the retainage and change-order math that gets a draw certified the first time. Worked through two billing periods.
Read the guide → GuideThe schedule of values, explained
How the schedule of values underpins progress billing — scheduled value, work completed, materials stored, retainage, and balance to finish — and how the cover-sheet totals roll up from it line by line.
Read the guide →On the bench
Being written now. Check back — or start a trial, since most of these workflows are already built into the product.
Submittals vs. RFIs, explained
What each one is actually for, who holds the ball in court, and how to keep both logs moving so nothing stalls the schedule.
Coming soonA construction glossary
Plain definitions for the terms that trip people up — retainage, schedule of values, ball-in-court, conditional vs. unconditional lien waivers, and more.
Coming soonMarkup vs. margin
The two numbers people mix up most, why the difference quietly eats your profit, and how to price so the margin you wanted is the margin you keep.
Coming soonSwitching off Buildertrend
What to plan for when you move your vendors, contacts, cost codes, and jobs to another tool — and how to do it without losing a billing cycle. Buildertrend is a trademark of its owner; FieldsDesk is not affiliated with it.
Where these workflows live in the product
The guides above mirror how FieldsDesk actually works — they're not marketing mockups. If you'd rather see the real thing than read about it, the documentation walks through each workflow with screenshots from the live app:
- • Billing & pay applications — build your owner-facing pay app from the schedule of values, with an AI-assisted first draft.
- • Subcontractor pay apps — review and approve what your subs bill against their commitments.
- • Platform tour — a five-minute walk through projects, financials, and the owner and subcontractor portals.
- • Full documentation — every module, start to finish.
What we write about, and why
Most small and mid-size general contractors don't lose money in the field — they lose it in the office. A draw gets kicked back because the schedule of values doesn't tie out. A change order never makes it onto the billing, so a month of work goes uninvoiced. Retainage gets calculated off the wrong base. A submittal sits in someone's inbox while the schedule slips. None of that is hard; it's just easy to get wrong when you're also swinging a hammer and answering the phone.
These guides aim straight at those moments. Each one takes a single piece of the back office — progress billing, the schedule of values, submittals and RFIs, the difference between markup and margin — and explains it the way you'd want it explained on a job site: with real numbers, the order things actually happen in, and the specific mistakes that cost you. No abstractions, no filler, no jargon for its own sake.
The order they get written follows what builders ask about most. If there's something you keep tripping over and don't see covered, email support@fieldsdesk.com — that's how the list above grows. And if you'd rather have the software handle the math behind all of it, you can try FieldsDesk free and see your own jobs in it on day one.
Common questions
Who writes these guides?
A working general contractor who built FieldsDesk — someone running residential and light-commercial jobs, not a marketing team. The guides reflect how the work is actually billed and tracked in the field, not a textbook version of it.
Do I have to use FieldsDesk to follow them?
No. The guides cover industry-standard concepts — scheduled value, work completed, materials stored, retainage, balance to finish — so you can apply them in whatever you run today. FieldsDesk just automates the math and the paperwork if you'd rather not do it by hand.
When do the “coming soon” guides ship?
They're written and published as time allows — this is a one-builder shop, so the order follows what GCs ask for most. The marked cards above turn into links as each one lands.
How much does FieldsDesk cost?
Flat Cloud pricing starts at $149/month — no per-user fees. You can also self-host on Docker. The first 25 founding members lock 50% off for three years. Switching from another tool? See the Buildertrend alternative comparison, or read the billing docs.
Built by a GC, for GCs
Bookmark this page — it keeps filling up. When you're ready to stop fighting spreadsheets, spin up a free FieldsDesk account or lock in the founding-member rate.