Know what the job actually cost.
Every receipt, subcontractor invoice, crew hour and delivery lands on the right job — as it happens, not at year end. And when the work is signed off, the money moves.
Free during beta · No card required · Takes about two minutes
Main floor renovation
- $1,284.40
Rona — framing lumber
Receipt - $4,150.00
Delta Electric — rough-in
Sub invoice - $1,760.00
Own crew — 32.0 h
Labour - $2,310.75
Pacific Lumber — PO #7729
Delivery
Four sources, one ledger. PST counted as cost, GST held back as recoverable.
The honest version
Most builders find out what a job cost long after they could do anything about it.
Receipts live in a truck door. Subcontractor invoices sit in email. Crew hours are on a text message. The lumber delivery is on a paper docket somewhere. None of it is wrong — it’s just scattered, so the number that matters doesn’t exist until the bookkeeper builds it in March.
TradeStack puts all five sources of cost into one ledger against one job, the day they happen. The margin is a number you can look at on a Tuesday.
cost sources, one ledger
spreadsheets to reconcile
tax and holdback rules built in
Job costing
Five ways money leaves. One place it lands.
Photograph a receipt and it is read, coded to a trade and a cost type, and posted against the job. Approve a subcontractor invoice and it posts at full value, with the statutory holdback tracked separately as cash flow rather than cost. Crew hours become labour cost from the timesheets you already keep.
- Receipts, subcontractor invoices, own labour, deliveries and stock draw — all in one ledger
- PST is treated as a real cost and GST as recoverable, because in BC you are the consumer of what you install
- Holdback is cash flow, not cost — 10% by statute, or an explicit zero when you mean it
- Budget versus actual per line, live, on any job
A photo on site becomes a coded, verified line on the job — without anyone retyping it.
Porcelain tile running low
450 sq ft left · 150 sq ft/day
A draft order to Surrey Tile Supply is prepared and waiting. TradeStack never sends it — you do.
Payments
The money is already there before the work starts.
Homeowners fund milestones into escrow through Stripe Connect. Contractors can see the money is committed before they lift a hammer. When a milestone is submitted with photo evidence and signed off, the payout is released — no chasing, no thirty-day silence.
- Milestone funds held in escrow, released on approval
- Photo evidence attached to every submission, kept as an audit trail
- Deposits, milestone claims and direct invoices, all on Stripe rails
- Every message, change and approval is logged — disputes have receipts, not memory
Six photos attached · submitted 5 hours ago
Held in escrow
$4,200.00Materials & suppliers
Your trade price, your stock, your call on when to order.
Suppliers publish a catalogue; your account sees your own negotiated price, resolved most-specific-first and never stacked. Track stock across locations if you want to — and if you do, materials cost the job when they are consumed, not when they are delivered.
- Purchase orders that post cost on receipt, in proportion to what actually arrived
- Optional inventory with append-only movements and moving-average valuation
- Reorder rules that prepare a draft order and stop there — sending is always a human
- Cross-supplier comparison on one canonical product, not on whoever spelled it differently
2×4 SPF · utility grade
- $1.42/ft
Pacific Lumber Co.
Your price8% trade discount · 2 days
- $1.55/ft
Fraser Valley Cedar
Next day
- $1.68/ft
Heritage Wood Group
5 days
Twenty trades, in the order you build them
Who it is for
Three people, one job, one set of facts.
General contractors
Bid, run the schedule, watch the margin. Post scope from a voice note and a photo, price it from a real supplier catalogue, and see actual against budget while there is still time to act.
Homeowners
Post a project, receive bids from identity-verified BC contractors with public trust scores, and fund milestones into escrow. You approve the work against photos before any money moves.
Crew
Clock on, clock off, photograph the dump slip before it goes in the truck door. No amounts to enter, no categories to pick — the office does that part.
How it works
From first bid to final payout.
- 01
Scope it
A homeowner posts the job, or a contractor captures it on site with voice, photos and a sketch. It comes out as structured milestones.
- 02
Bid and award
Verified contractors bid line by line, priced against a real catalogue. Compare like for like, award, and the contract is signed digitally.
- 03
Build it
Crew clock on. Receipts, invoices and deliveries post to the job as they happen. Budget against actual, live.
- 04
Sign off and get paid
Submit the milestone with photo evidence. The homeowner approves and escrow releases the payout.
Questions
The things builders ask first.
What does it cost?
Nothing during the beta. There is no card required to sign up, and we will give plenty of notice before that changes.
Do I have to move my whole business onto it?
No. Plenty of people start with one job. Receipts and cost tracking work on their own without using the marketplace, and the marketplace works without inventory. Turn on the parts you want.
Is inventory tracking required?
It is off by default and most builders never need it. If you switch it on, deliveries fill stock and the job is charged when materials are consumed instead of when they arrive — so the same materials are never counted twice.
Why does BC matter so much here?
Because the tax and lien rules change the numbers. In BC a contractor is generally the consumer of what they install, so PST is a real cost while GST is recoverable — a tool that lumps them together overstates the job. The Builders Lien Act holdback is 10% and it is cash flow, not cost. Those rules are built in rather than bolted on.
Where does the money actually sit?
With Stripe. Milestone funds are held through Stripe Connect and released to the contractor's connected account on approval. TradeStack never holds your money.
Can my crew use it without seeing my margins?
Yes. Crew see the jobs they are on, their own hours, and the receipts they photographed themselves. They cannot see budgets, costs or anyone else's captures.
Free during beta
Start with one job. See what it really cost.
Open to contractors and homeowners across British Columbia. Two minutes to sign up, and nothing to migrate.
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