BuildLedger Pro — User Guide

Getting Started

BuildLedger Pro is a construction expense management app. It helps you track every rupee spent on your building project — from cement bags to contractor wages — in one organised place. Here's how to get in.

Logging In

The screen you land on first is phone sign-in — there's no separate "sign up" step for it. Enter your number, tap Send Code, then type the SMS code you receive and tap Verify & Sign In. If that phone number has never signed in before, BuildLedger creates your account automatically the moment the code is verified — otherwise it just logs you into your existing one. Prefer not to use your phone? Google, Facebook, and Email are all available as alternatives further down the same screen.

Google & Facebook

Tap Continue with Google or Continue with Facebook below the phone field to sign in with one tap using the account already on your device. Just like phone sign-in, if it's your first time using that Google or Facebook account with BuildLedger, your account is created automatically — no separate registration form.

Signing in with Email

Tap Continue with Email for the familiar email-and-password flow. Enter your email address and password, tick Remember Me if you want the app to fill them in automatically next time, and tap Sign In. If you've forgotten your password, tap Forgot password? and you'll receive a reset link by email. Don't have an account yet? Tap Create one at the bottom of this screen — see below.

Creating an Account

This step is only needed if you're signing in with email and don't have an account yet — phone, Google, and Facebook sign-in create your account for you the first time you use them, with nothing extra to fill in. From the email sign-in screen, tap Create one. You'll need to provide your full name, a unique email address, your phone number, a password, and confirm it once more. Once registered you'll be taken through workspace setup.

Biometric Lock (Fingerprint / Face ID)

For extra security, BuildLedger can lock itself whenever you leave the app. When you come back, it asks you to authenticate with your fingerprint or face before showing any data. You can turn this on or off anytime from Settings → Security.

• Tap Unlock on the lock screen to authenticate.
• If authentication fails (e.g. wet fingers), tap again to retry.
• Tap Turn off biometric lock to disable it completely — you'll just need to remember your app is accessible without a lock.

Workspaces

A Workspace is like your company's account — it holds all your projects, suppliers, contractors, and settings. When you log in for the first time, you'll be placed inside your workspace automatically. If your account has access to more than one workspace (e.g. your own company and a client's organisation), a Choose Workspace screen appears where you tap the one you want to enter.

You can rename your workspace in Settings → Workspace settings. See the Settings section for details.

Account Types

When you create an account, BuildLedger asks I am joining as. Your choice decides which screens you get.

Builders can also choose an optional I am a label (contractor, builder, property owner or developer). It only changes the wording you see; it never changes what you can do.

A property owner who only wants to follow a build can be invited by the builder with view-only access instead. See Inviting a Property Owner.

Dashboard

The Dashboard is the first screen you see after logging in. It gives you a bird's-eye view of your entire workspace — all projects combined — so you can instantly see your overall financial position without opening any individual project.

Summary Cards

Recent Projects

Shows your 5 most recent projects with their status. Tap any card to jump straight into that project. Pull down anywhere on the Dashboard to refresh all figures.

Pending Payments

This is one of the most useful Dashboard features. It shows up to 6 items from across all your projects that have outstanding money owed — these can be material purchases, labour work entries, or manual expenses. Tap any item to open a payment form, pre-filled with the exact amount still pending. After you record a payment, the card disappears from the list automatically.

Pay all. When something is pending, a Pay all link appears beside the heading. It lists every pending expense, each with its own wallet and date, and records all the payments in one go. The amount is always the full remaining balance of each item. Material purchases are shown greyed out with "pay via supplier": pay those from the supplier instead.

Quick Actions and Moving Around

• Top bar: the bell shows how many reminders are due and opens them (see Reminders); the gear opens Settings.
• Quick Actions under your greeting: Tools (the calculators), Account (your account settings), Plan (your plan and usage), and Root for platform administrators.
• My reminders card: your next two reminders, with Done on each.
• View-only access card: shown if you were invited with view-only rights, such as a property owner. You can look at everything but not change it.
• Bottom bar: Home, Projects, Vendors (your suppliers, and Nearby vendors), Reports and Wallets. A tab only appears if it is switched on for your account and your role allows it.

Ask AI Assistant

Ask AI is a chat built into every project. Type — or speak — what you want done in plain language, and BuildLedger turns it into a ready-to-review form: a payment, a work entry, a new supplier. It never saves anything on its own — you always see the filled-in form first and submit it yourself.

What Ask AI Can Do

How It Works

1. Type or say what you want — "pay Al-Hamid 30,000 for cement", "Ahmed worked 3 days this week on the roof", "how much does Rafiq owe me".
2. BuildLedger works out which of the above this is, and — if it needs to match a name to an existing supplier or contractor — resolves it for you, even with slightly different spelling.
3. The matching form appears inline in the chat, pre-filled. Every field is still editable before anything is saved.
4. Review and submit. The confirmation appears in the same conversation, and if you asked for two things at once ("log the work and also pay for it from cash"), the second one opens right after.

Follow-ups Without Repeating Yourself

Ask AI remembers what you just discussed in the same conversation. After asking "how much does Rafiq owe", replying with just "pay 5000" is understood as a payment to Rafiq — you don't need to say his name again.

Voice Input

Tap the microphone instead of typing. With AI configured, your recording is transcribed and resolved into the same kind of pre-filled form as typed text, in one step. If your plan doesn't include AI, the mic still works — it just dictates into the text box using your phone's own speech recognition, and you send it manually like any typed message.

AI Usage & Limits

Every AI message, invoice scan, and voice recording counts against your plan's monthly AI allowance. See exactly where it's going under Settings → Plan → Usage:

Tools — Material Calculators

Ten calculators for everyday job-site estimates, from brick counts to a full staircase. Open Tools from the Quick Actions on the Dashboard: the calculators are shown as a grid of coloured tiles, each with a short hint of what it works out. You don't need a project to use them, which is handy for a quick estimate before you've created one. When you're happy with a result you can save it, print it, or turn it into a material purchase in one tap.

The Ten Calculators

Using a Calculator

• Feet and inches in one box. Every length or height field accepts feet-inches directly: type 12'6", 10'9" or a plain decimal like 12.5, whichever is easier. A bare number means feet. Sizes of bricks, tiles and bars are in inches or millimetres, as the field label says.
• Several entries in one calculation. Concrete (pours), Steel (slabs and beams), and the room-based calculators (rooms) work on a list. Fill in one entry, then tap the small + Add beside the section title for the next. Earlier entries fold up into a compact card showing just the size, two to a row, so the screen stays short. Tap Edit on a card to open it again, or the bin to remove it. Only one entry can be open at a time: while you're editing one, the other cards and the add button are greyed out until you close it.
• Name your entries. Every entry has an optional name, for example "Master bedroom" or "Roof beams", so you can recognise it later in results and in the printout.
• Totals add up as you go. The results card at the bottom always shows the combined quantities of every entry.
• Save before you leave. A calculation lives on the server once you Save it. Work you haven't saved is not kept on the phone after you leave the screen.

Room-Based Calculators: Bricks, Cover Area, Plaster and Tiles

These four all work from rooms. Add each room with its length and width, and a floor-plan sketch above the list draws the rooms as you build them. They share one room layout, so you enter the rooms once: when you finish one, the Calculate with these same rooms button opens another room-based calculator with the same rooms already in it.

The four walls of a room

Each room shows a small cross with its Top, Bottom, Left and Right walls. Tap a wall to open a sheet for that one wall:

• Thickness (Bricks: single or double wythe; Cover Area and Plaster have their own settings).
• Shares a wall with: pick the exact wall of another room that this wall is shared with. The shared wall is counted once, never twice and never zero times, and the sketch draws the two rooms touching.
• This wall doesn't exist: switch it on to leave a side out, for a single standalone wall or an L-shaped or U-shaped layout where a side isn't an actual wall.
• Doors & windows (Bricks and Plaster): add each opening with its width and height. It is deducted from that wall, and the sketch marks it on the right wall.

What is special about each

• Bricks & masonry: brick length, width and height and the mortar joint start at a common Pakistani first-class brick (9 × 4.5 × 3 in); Reset to Pakistani standard puts them back. Mortar is worked out from the volume of the wall less the volume of the bricks, then split into cement and sand by the mortar mix ratio you set.
• Cover area: the area a roof or lintel covers. Leave Include wall thickness? off for plain length × width. Switch it on to add each room's walls to its outer face, with a thickness for every wall. Rooms can be grouped into floors, and a wall shared with a neighbouring room is added once.
• Plaster: choose for each wall whether only the inside or both sides are plastered, or leave a wall out (a tiled or glass wall, for example). Switch on Plaster the ceiling to include it. Set the wall coat and ceiling coat thickness, and the cement : sand mix. You get cement bags and sand.

Tiles

Add each room, then give it a tile size (length and width in inches). Optionally add tiles per box (to get a box count) and a price per metre (to get a cost).

• Whole tiles and cut tiles. The calculator counts the whole tiles that fit and then every cut tile along the edges, as whole tiles you must buy. A cut piece that is half a tile or less can be paired with another from the same room.
• Reusing leftovers. Rooms laid with the same tile share their leftover cut pieces: if Room 1 leaves a usable piece, a later room can use it instead of buying another tile. A room card tells you when it used a piece left over from another room, or when pieces are still unused.
• Layout diagram. Each room is drawn as a grid of tiles, with the tiles that are cut and the ones that can be reused shown in different colours.
• Tile details for each room. A room's tile size, price and tiles per box are its own. Same as copies another room's tile in one tap. A new room starts with the previous room's tile. Switch on Different tiles when two rooms with the same size are a different batch, pattern or colour, so they never share leftovers. A coloured dot and a line such as "Shares tiles with Room 1" show which rooms are pooled.
• Results per room. A table lists each room's pieces, metres and price, with a total row, the total area and the total running metres.

Steel (Rebar)

One calculation can hold slabs and beams together, and it gives a single combined bar count and weight.

• Slabs (floor mesh): length, width, bar diameter (mm) and spacing (in). Choose Single mesh or Top + bottom mesh, and switch on Two-way slab for mesh in both directions.
• Beams and columns: beam length, how many identical beams there are, cross-section width and depth, concrete cover, the main bars (diameter and count) and the stirrups (diameter and spacing). Six identical roof beams are one entry with a count of six.
• Bar length and waste. Set the standard bar length you buy (in feet) and the waste. Bars of the same diameter from every slab and beam are added into one buying line.
• Diagrams. A row of cards at the top shows the mesh or the cross-section of every slab and beam.

Stairs

Concrete stairs, from straight flights to L- and U-shaped stairs with landings. Enter the floor-to-floor height and the stair width, build the stair from flights and landings in any order, and the calculator gives the riser height, tread, concrete (cement, sand and crush), a steel estimate, the finish area of the steps, and a drawing.

• Choose steps. You set the number of steps in every flight and the depth of every landing. Each landing has a turn: straight on, quarter turn left or right, or half turn left or right (U). The calculator tells you the exact riser it works out to.
• Fit to space. Switch to this when you know how much room you have. Enter the available length of each straight leg and the calculator works out the steps in every flight and the depth of every landing inside that space. It tells you what it fitted, what it changed (for example the tread was reduced, or the number of steps changed to keep the stair comfortable), the space left over, or that there isn't enough space and about how much more is needed.
• Comfort warnings. A riser over 7.5 in is steep and tiring, a tread under 10 in is too narrow for a foot, and twice the riser plus the tread should be 24 to 25 in. These are warnings, never a block.
• Landings. A turning landing is never shallower than the stair width, so it is raised to the width. Landing steps count as risers.
• The drawing. A side view (steps and the slab under them, with rise, riser and tread marked) and a plan view (every step, the landings as L-1, L-2, and an arrow for the way up). Lengths are shown in feet and inches. The drawing is included in the printed PDF.

Saving, Printing and Costing a Calculation

Under the results of every calculator:

• Save calculation. Pick a project in the picker above the buttons, or leave it blank. Then give the calculation a name and optional notes. The save box always says Saving to the project's name or Unassigned, so you can see where it will go, and the app opens the saved calculation straight away.
• Where saved calculations live. On a project, open Calculations from the project screen. Saved without a project, they appear under My Calculations: a banner at the top of the Tools screen lists all of them, and the bookmark icon at the top of each calculator lists only that calculator's.
• Reopen, edit, delete. A saved calculation opens as a page of its own. Edit loads its numbers back into the calculator and saving again updates the same record. Deleting asks you to confirm.
• Export PDF. From a saved calculation. The printout carries the numbers, notes, the floor-plan sketch, the steel diagrams and the stairs drawing. The room-based calculators also have a print icon at the top of the screen to print before you save. The PDF is built on our server and opens in your phone's print and share sheet.
• Sub-calculations. Open a saved calculation and tap Add calculation to save another calculator's result inside it, for example Bricks with Steel and Plaster for one house. The page shows Combined totals that add the same materials together. Sub-calculations don't appear separately in the lists, and deleting a calculation warns you first that its sub-calculations go with it.
• Add to material purchase. Pick a project and the calculated quantities carry straight into a material purchase, with no re-typing. This turns the estimate into an actual tracked cost in one tap.

Projects

A Project is the heart of BuildLedger. Think of it as a folder for one construction job — a house, apartment block, plaza, or renovation. Every expense, payment, labour record, material purchase, and file is stored inside the project it belongs to. You can run multiple projects at the same time and switch between them freely.

Creating a New Project

Tap the + button (bottom-right corner of the Projects screen). Only workspace owners with an active plan can create projects. Fill in the details below:

Project Status Options

Update the status as your project progresses. The status badge is shown on every project card so you can see at a glance which jobs are active.

Project Detail — Tabs

Tap a project to open it. Inside you'll see tabs along the top. Which tabs are visible depends on your plan and your access permissions for this project.

Project Actions (⋮ Menu)

Tap the ⋮ (three-dot) menu in the top-right corner of a project to access these actions:

• Edit Project — update the project name, dates, status, contractor details, or backup settings.
• Apply Default Stages — automatically creates a standard set of construction stages (Foundation, Brickwork, etc.) so you don't have to create them manually. This action can only be done once per project.
• Manage Users — add or remove team members and assign their role for this project. Only visible if you have users.manage permission.
• Backups — view backup history and manage Google Drive snapshots (plan-dependent).
• Set as Default / Remove Default — the ⭐ default project opens automatically every time you launch the app.
• Protect from Deletion — locks the project so it cannot be deleted accidentally. Only the workspace owner can toggle this.
• Delete Project — permanently deletes the project and all its data. Only available when the project is not protected. Owner only.

Project Toolbar Icons

These icons appear in the top bar of the project detail screen:

Wallets and Reports are no longer in the toolbar: they are cards next to Checklist, Notes and Reminders on the Summary tab (see The Button Strip). Tag Report stays here.

Stages & Works

Breaking a project into Stages helps you track costs phase by phase. For example: Foundation → Brickwork → Plastering → Roof → Finishing. Inside each stage you can create Works — the individual tasks that make up that stage. Linking expenses and labour to a specific stage or work gives you a precise picture of where your money is going.

Creating / Editing a Stage

Stage Detail Screen

Tap a stage to open it. You'll see:

• Summary cards — Works count, Total, Total Paid, Expenses Total, Labour Total, Labour Paid, Materials Total, Materials Paid.
• Works list — sorted by order number. Pinned works appear at the top. Each card shows estimated quantity, completed quantity, and the unit (e.g. sqft).
• Tags & Files — editable inline without opening the edit form.

Pin a Stage: Tap the pin icon to keep important stages at the top of the list. Your plan controls how many stages can be pinned per project.

Add Work (FAB button): You can add a new work item even after the stage is marked completed — doing so automatically re-opens the stage.

Adding costs from a stage. The stage screen has the same Labour, Expense and Purchase buttons as a work. Used from a stage they record a cost on the stage itself, so you don't have to pick a work first. You can still choose a work, or switch the cost to project level, on the form.

Creating / Editing a Work

A Work is a specific task within a stage — e.g. "Dig foundation trenches", "Pour concrete slab", "Install steel rebar". Expenses, labour, and materials can be linked to a work for granular cost tracking.

Work Detail Screen

Tap a work to see everything linked to it:

• Summary grid — Total cost, Paid, Pending, and number of labour contracts.
• Labour Contracts — all contracts scoped to this work, with paid/pending totals.
• Other Expenses — manual expenses linked to this work.
• Material Purchases — all purchases linked to this work.

Add Payment button: When there is any outstanding amount, a blue "Add Payment" button appears. Tap it to see a list of everything owing — labour, expenses, or purchases — and go directly to the payment form for whichever item you want to pay.

Pin a Work: Pin up to 3 works per stage to keep the most important ones at the top.

Checklists, Notes & Reminders

Three tools for keeping a job under control that sit on every project, stage and work: a Checklist to tick off what must be checked, Notes to write things down, and Reminders to be told when something needs doing. They are found in one place, the strip of buttons at the top of the screen.

The Button Strip

Open a project (on its Summary tab), a stage or a work. In the header card you'll see a row of buttons:

• Checklist shows how many points are ticked (12/15) with a thin progress bar under it, green when everything is done.
• Notes shows how many notes there are.
• Reminders shows how many are waiting, with a red dot when one is due.
• Each button opens a sheet that slides up from the bottom. Swipe it down, or tap the ×, to come back to the screen you were on.
• On a project's Summary tab, Wallets, Reports and Calculations sit in the same grid, as cards of the same size. They open the project's wallets, its reports and its saved calculator results (see Tools).

On project cards and on the stage and work lists, small marks tell you what is there without opening anything: ☑ 12/15 for the checklist (green when complete, red while a required point is still open), 📝 3 for notes and ⏰ Tomorrow, 2:00 PM for the next reminder (red once it is late). A project card also shows a thin progress bar for its whole checklist, counting the project's own points plus those of every stage and work under it.

Checklists

A checklist is a list of points to tick off: "Shuttering level checked", "Bars tied at 6 inch spacing", "Concrete cube samples taken". Tap Checklist to open the sheet, titled for the record (for example "Checklists · Slab").

Putting a checklist on a record

Tap Attach at the top of the sheet. You have three ways to start:

• Use a template. A picker lists Your templates first and then the Starter templates that come with BuildLedger. Each shows its name, how many points it has and how many are required, and its first three points. You can search. Tap one and a copy is attached to the record and opens at once.
• Blank checklist. Give it a name, and if you like paste or type its points, one per line.
• Paste a list. From the menu of a checklist, paste any list (from WhatsApp or a document). Bullets and numbers at the start of each line are removed, and the app shows Add N points before it adds them.

A template is copied when you attach it. Changing or deleting the template later never changes a checklist already on a record, so a site check always shows what was asked at the time. A record can hold up to 10 checklists, and a checklist up to 100 points.

Ticking and editing points

• Tick a point with its big checkbox. It changes at once, and the app shows who ticked it and when ("Ali · Today, 4:10 PM"). If the phone has no signal, or the server says no, the tick is put back and a message tells you. Ticking needs a connection: checklists don't queue ticks to send later.
• Add points in the field at the end of the list. Press Enter and the point is added and the cursor stays ready for the next one. The Photo required chip under the field marks a new point as needing a photo.
• Tap a point to edit it: its title, a one-line remark ("6 inch spacing, Ali confirmed"), whether it is required, and whether a photo is required as proof.
• Reorder by holding a point's handle and dragging. Delete by swiping a point away: Point deleted · Undo shows for five seconds before it really goes.
• Hide ticked in the header keeps a long checklist short; the phone remembers your choice.
• A red * marks a required point that is still open, and the header says how many required points are open. When the last point is ticked a Checklist complete banner appears.
• The menu of a checklist also lets you Rename it, Save as template, Paste a list or Delete it.

Photos as proof

Every point has a camera button, with a number once it has photos. It opens that point's photos, kept with the rest of your files, where you can take a photo, pick one from the gallery or attach a file. Right after you tick a point the app offers Add photo for a few seconds. If the point is marked photo required and has none, ticking it opens the camera or gallery straight away; if you cancel, the point shows a red Photo needed and the header counts "N photos still needed". This only warns: you can still tick and finish.

Completing a project with open points

If you mark a project Completed while required points are still open anywhere under it, the app asks: "3 required checks are still open. Complete anyway?" You can Complete anyway, cancel, or Review checklist. It warns, it never blocks. Completed records can still be ticked, so a late fix can be recorded.

Checklist Templates

A template is a named list of points you reuse, kept for the whole workspace. Open Settings → Checklists.

• Your templates and Starter templates are listed, with a search box. Starters are ready-made lists, such as pre-pour or plastering checks. You can read them but not change them; the owner can Duplicate one to make an editable copy.
• Only the workspace owner can create, change, duplicate or delete templates. Everyone else can read them and use them. A member sees "Only the workspace owner can create or change templates."
• New template. Give it a name and a description, choose where it is offered (Project, Stage, Work; none chosen means everywhere), then add points. Add them one by one, Paste a list, drag to reorder, tap the star to make a point required and the camera to ask for a photo. One Save stores the whole list, and the app asks before you leave with unsaved changes. A template can have up to 50 points.
• Save as template (from a checklist's menu) turns a good checklist you already have into a template. This is offered to the owner.
• Attach to stages… puts one template on several stages of a project at once, for example the same pre-pour check on all five slab stages. Pick the project, tick the stages (or Select all), then Attach. The same can be done from a project's Stages tab with Select stages → Attach checklist. A summary says which stages worked ("Attached to 4 of 5 stages") and why any didn't, and Try the failed again repeats only those.

Notes

Notes are plain text remarks kept with a record: "Mason asked for 20 extra bags", "Client approved the tile colour". Tap Notes to open the sheet.

• The writing box is at the bottom of the sheet. Type and tap Send. When a record has no notes yet the box is ready to type in straight away. A note can be up to 5,000 characters.
• Your pinned notes come first, then the newest. Each note has a menu to pin, edit or delete it. Pins are yours alone.
• Deleting shows Note deleted · Undo for five seconds.
• Anyone who can see the record can read its notes. Adding needs permission to manage that record. You can edit your own notes, and a manager can edit any; the author or the workspace owner can delete.
• Notes can still be added to a completed project, stage or work.
• If you lose signal while saving, the app says "No connection. Your text is kept." and the text stays in the box. Notes are not sent later by themselves; save again when you're back online.

My Notes: a private notebook

Settings → My notes is a notebook for notes that aren't about any project. Only you can see them, not even the workspace owner.

Reminders

A reminder tells you, with a push notification, when something needs doing. Tap Reminders on a record to see the pending reminders for it, Due ones first in red, then Upcoming. Everyone who can see the record sees them, so a colleague knows "Sara will check the slab on Thursday".

Making a reminder

Tap Remind me. In the sheet:

1. Pick a type if you like: Follow up, Site visit, Inspect the work, Order material, Check delivery, Pay supplier, Pay contractor, Collect payment, Chase a quote, Get approval, Review progress, Renew a permit, Call back, Check balances. A type fills in the title (on a record it adds the record's name, like "Order material — Plastering") and a sensible time.
2. Write or change the title (up to 200 characters) and add optional details.
3. Choose when: In 1 hour, Later today 5 PM, Tomorrow 9 AM, In 3 days, Next Monday, In a week, or pick any date and time. After 5 PM, "Later today" becomes tomorrow at 9 AM. A time already in the past fires straight away.
4. Tap save. A manager can choose Remind: Me or a colleague who can see the project (the button then reads "Remind me or a colleague").

When it's due

At the time you chose, a push notification arrives with the reminder's title, and where it is ("Due 2:00 PM · Villa 12 / Plastering"). Tap it and the app opens the project, stage or work with the Reminders sheet. A reminder that was missed because your phone was off or the server was down is still sent when it can be, not skipped.

The Reminders screen and Home

• The bell on the Dashboard shows how many are due and opens the Reminders screen, which has the tabs Due, Upcoming and Done, and a New reminder button for reminders that aren't about any record.
• The Dashboard has a My reminders card with the next two reminders and a red "N due" badge, so you can tick one off from Home.
• Each reminder has Done, Snooze (15 minutes, 1 hour, tomorrow 9 AM, next Monday 9 AM, or a time you pick) and a menu with Edit, Reopen and Delete. Tapping the record it is on opens that record.

Expenses

Expenses are manual cost entries — things like site overhead, transport, hired equipment, or any cost that doesn't come through the Materials or Labour modules. Every expense has a payment status that is calculated automatically as you record payments against it.

Expense Form Fields

Tap + inside a project's Expenses tab to add a new expense.

Payment Status

You never manually set the payment status — it is always calculated from payments you record:

Recording a Payment

Open any expense and tap Add Payment. You can record partial payments — the status updates automatically after each one.

Labour

The Labour module handles all worker and contractor payments. It works in layers: Contracts → Rates → Work Entries → Payments. You create a contract for a worker or team, set their rate, log the work they do each day, and then record payments against what's owed.

Labour Contracts

A Labour Contract is an agreement with one contractor or worker team for a specific scope of work on your project.

Rate Types Explained

Choose the rate type that matches how you've agreed to pay this contractor:

Labour Contract Detail — Tabs

Tap a contract to open it. You'll see four tabs (hidden for Free contracts):

• Overview — contract summary, financial cards (Work Amount, Paid, Pending), tags, and file attachments.
• Rates — the rate history for this contract. Rates have effective dates so you can handle wage increases over time.
• Work Entries — a log of work done each day. Not shown for Fixed Contract rate type (just enter the payment directly).
• Payments — all payments made against this contract.

Labour Rates (Rate History)

Rates can change over time — for example when wages increase after a few months. Each rate has an "Effective From" date, so old work entries keep the rate that was active when they were recorded.

Work Entries — Logging Daily Work

A work entry records what was actually done on a specific day. The form changes based on the contract's rate type:

Daily Wage contracts

Per Sqft / Per Unit contracts

You can enter work in two ways — switch between them with the toggle at the top of the form:

• Quantity mode — enter how many sqft / units were completed. Cost = Quantity × Rate.
• Amount mode — enter the agreed payment amount directly. The app shows the estimated quantity below (Amount ÷ Rate).

Fixed Contract entries

For Fixed Contracts, the form pre-fills the total contract amount. Work entries here track progress (how much of the fixed amount has been allocated) rather than calculating a new cost.

Recording a Labour Payment

On the Payments tab of a contract, tap Add Payment. The amount is pre-filled with the full pending balance — edit it if you're making a partial payment.

Contractors Directory

The Contractors section (accessible from the main menu) is a workspace-wide list of all your workers and contractors. Unlike labour contracts (which are per-project), this gives you a single view of each person across every project they've worked on.

Tap a contractor to see their full history — every labour contract they hold, across all your projects. You can print or share a PDF contractor report from here.

Materials

The Materials module handles everything related to building materials — from creating a catalogue of what you use, to getting quotes from suppliers, to recording actual purchases. The flow is: Materials Master → Demands & Quotes → Purchases.

Materials Master — Your Material Catalogue

Before you can purchase or quote a material, it must exist in the Materials Master — a shared catalogue for your entire workspace. Think of it as your standard list of all materials you use on any project.

Demands & Supplier Quotes — Comparing Prices

Before buying, say what you need with a Demand, then collect a Supplier quote from each supplier and compare them. In a project, open the Materials tab and its Demands list.

Demand fields

Short of typing, you can scan a written list or an invoice (camera, gallery or PDF) and the items are filled in for you to check. Ask AI can also create a demand from a message such as "sand 300 cft, cement 25 bags".

Supplier quote fields

Once a supplier responds, open the demand and tap Supplier quote. The demand's items are pre-loaded — you just enter the prices:

The app shows a running Subtotal, Discount, Transport, Other and Total as you type, and you can compare the quotes side by side to choose the best deal. A supplier may quote something you didn't ask for: tap Add item for an extra row. You can also scan the supplier's quote: items that match the demand fill in their price, and anything else is added as a new row.

Choosing a winner

Open the quote you want and tap Accept. BuildLedger creates a material purchase from it and marks the other supplier quotes as rejected. A demand can also be cancelled (its open quotes are closed too) or deleted from its menu.

Material Purchases — Recording What You Bought

When you actually buy materials, record them here. Each purchase works like an invoice — you can list multiple materials in one purchase. A linked expense is automatically created for every purchase, so your project financial summary always stays up to date.

Purchase Header (applies to the whole purchase)

Purchase Line Items (one row per material)

Add as many materials as are on the invoice. Each row is one item:

Purchase Footer (adjustments)

Suppliers

The Suppliers section is your address book for material vendors and shops. For each supplier you can track how much you've bought, how much you've paid, and exactly what you still owe them — all broken down by project.

Supplier Directory

Create a supplier record for every shop or vendor you buy from. Once created, you can link them to material purchases, expenses, and payments.

Supplier Material Rates

You can store the price each supplier charges for specific materials. When you select a supplier while recording a purchase, BuildLedger automatically fills in the unit price from their rate — saving you time and preventing data entry errors.

Rates have effective dates, so price changes over time are all kept as history. When auto-filling, the app uses the rate that was active on the purchase date.

Supplier Payments

Record payments you make to a supplier. You can optionally allocate each payment to specific unpaid purchase invoices — this keeps your ledger accurate and shows exactly which bills have been cleared.

Supplier Ledger

The Supplier Ledger shows a complete transaction history with a specific supplier for a specific project — every purchase, every payment, and a running balance of what you still owe. Open it from the supplier's detail screen by tapping Ledger.

From the supplier's detail screen you can also navigate to: Purchases (all material purchases from this supplier), Expenses (all expenses linked to this supplier), and Material Rates.

Vendors & Nearby

In a Builder workspace, the Vendors tab has three segments: Suppliers and Contractors (your own records, exactly as described above) and Nearby, which lists suppliers and service providers who registered on BuildLedger and went live. The Nearby segment appears only while BuildLedger has the directory switched on.

Finding a Vendor

1. Open Vendors → Nearby.
2. Tap Use my location and allow the permission, or type a city and search. Location is optional.
3. Narrow the list with All / Suppliers / Service providers, the category chips, or the search box (name, city or material).
4. Vendors are sorted nearest first and show their distance in km. The default distance is 25 km. If nothing is in range, widen it to 50 km, 100 km or any distance.
5. Tap a vendor to open their profile.

The Vendor Profile

A profile shows the business name, description, categories, address, the materials or services they offer with rates, and buttons to Call, open WhatsApp or Enquire. A Verified by BuildLedger mark means BuildLedger approved the listing.

Sending an Enquiry

Tap Enquire, enter your name or business, your phone number and a message (what you need and how much), then send. The vendor sees only those three things, and gets a notification so they can call you back. No project data is shared. To prevent spam, you can send one vendor up to 3 enquiries a day.

Adding a Vendor to Your List

Tap Add to my vendors on a profile. A supplier is added to your Suppliers and a service provider to your Contractors, so you can use them in purchases, labour contracts and payments like any other record.

• Their name, phone and address are read from their BuildLedger profile, so they stay up to date, and the record shows an On BuildLedger badge. You can add your own nickname.
• Your opening balance, notes, ledger and payments stay private to your workspace. The vendor is not told you added them.
• If you already saved a vendor with the same phone number, BuildLedger offers to Link it instead of creating a duplicate. Their BuildLedger details then replace the name, phone and address you typed; your balance and history stay.
• Vendors already in your list no longer appear in Nearby. When you pick a supplier or contractor on a purchase or contract, use From Nearby to add one without leaving the form.

Reporting a Vendor

Open the menu on a vendor profile, tap Report this vendor, pick a reason (spam, wrong details, fake or misleading, abusive, or something else) and add details if you like. BuildLedger reviews every report. The vendor is not told who reported them.

Supplier & Service Provider Accounts

A Supplier or Service provider account has its own small app: Home, Materials (suppliers) or Services (service providers), Enquiries, Profile and Account. Projects, expenses, wallets and labour are not part of these accounts.

Business Profile

Open Profile and fill in your business name, description, phone, WhatsApp number, address, city, country and the categories you offer. You can also set a service radius and save your location with Use my current location (optional; it lets builders nearby find you by distance, and you can remove it any time). Preview shows how builders will see you.

Going Live

You are invisible to builders until you switch on Go live. To go live you need a business name, a business phone, a city, at least one category and a verified phone number (Verify phone). The profile shows what is still missing.

Only your first listing needs approval. After that, edits to your profile go live straight away, and you can switch Go live off at any time.

Catalogue

Under Materials or Services, add each item you offer with a name, a rate and unit (leave the rate empty for price on request), optional details, and an Available switch. Builders see the catalogue on your profile once you are live. BuildLedger sets a limit on how many items one vendor can list; if you reach it, remove an item to add another.

Enquiries

Enquiries from builders arrive in Enquiries, with a badge for new ones and a push notification. Each shows the builder's name, phone and message. Tap Call to ring them back and Mark handled when done; handled enquiries can be reopened. You receive enquiries only. Replies happen by phone or WhatsApp.

Wallets

Wallets represent the money accounts you use to pay bills — a cash envelope on site, your HBL bank account, a JazzCash mobile account, or a contractor advance account. Every payment you record can be tied to a wallet so you always know exactly which account the money came from and what your current balance is.

Wallet Scope — Project, Global, or Private

Every wallet has a scope, set when you create it:

• Project — the original behaviour, tied to one or more specific projects. Only shows up as a payment option on the project(s) it's linked to.
• Global — workspace-wide. Available as a payment option on every project, without linking it anywhere.
• Private — workspace-wide, but visible only to you. Useful for a personal cash account you don't want the rest of the team to see or use.

A project's payment-method picker always shows that project's own wallets, plus every global wallet, plus your own private ones — so a shared or personal wallet is available everywhere it should be with no extra setup per project.

Open the Wallets tab at the bottom of the app to see all three at once — Global, Private, and a consolidated Project tab covering every project-scoped wallet you can reach, without opening each project individually.

Creating a Wallet

Transferring Between Wallets

Move money from one wallet to another — e.g. moving cash from the site box into a bank account. Transfers are allowed between any two wallets in your workspace, regardless of scope or which project they're linked to.

In a wallet's list of transactions, a transfer shows as Transfer. Tap it to open a preview with From wallet (on the credit side) or To wallet (on the debit side). Tap the other wallet's name there to open that wallet with this transfer pinned at the top and highlighted.

Adding or Removing Money (Wallet Transactions)

To deposit money into a wallet (e.g. you put ₨ 1,00,000 site cash in the envelope) or remove it (e.g. you withdrew cash), use the + (Add Transaction) button on the wallet's detail screen.

Wallet Detail Screen

Tap a wallet to see its full transaction history. Each row shows:

• A green ↑ for money coming in, or a red ↓ for money going out
• The label and date
• What entity the payment was linked to (e.g. a labour contract or supplier payment) — tap to navigate directly to that record
• The running balance after each transaction

Tap any manual transaction (one you added yourself, not one generated by a payment) to view or edit its details.

Reports

BuildLedger gives you two types of reports: Project Reports with detailed financial charts, and a Tag Report for cross-project analysis using labels you've applied to records.

Project Reports — 5-Tab Analytics

Access from the Reports icon on any project's toolbar, or from the Reports section in the main menu. Select a project to open its full analytics dashboard.

PDF Export

Every section of a project can be exported as a PDF. Use the Print 🖨 icon to open it on your device, or Share 📤 to send via WhatsApp, email, or any other app. You can configure how many pages print per sheet (1, 2, or 4) in Settings.

PDF reports are available for: Projects, Stages, Works, Expenses, Labour Contracts, Suppliers, Wallets, Contractors, and Tag Reports.

Tag Report — Cross-Project Search

The Tag Report lets you search across all your projects (or within one project) by the tags you've applied to records. This is powerful for situations like: "show me everything tagged 'disputed'" or "find all costs tagged 'Phase-1'".

1. Tap the 🏷 Tag icon on the Dashboard toolbar, or on any project's toolbar.
2. Type a tag name in the search box — matching tags appear as buttons below.
3. Tap one or more tags to select them. The report appears immediately.
4. The report shows: an overall financial summary (Total, Paid, Pending, Material, Labour, Works quantities), plus sections for Expenses, Materials, Labour, and Works that carry those tags.
5. Tap any item in the report to navigate directly to that record.

When 2 or more tags are selected, a per-tag breakdown row also appears at the top so you can compare each tag's totals side by side. The Print/Share PDF button appears once at least one tag is selected.

File Attachments

Attach photos, scanned invoices, drawings, and PDFs to keep all your project documents in one place alongside the financial data they relate to. Files are stored in the cloud and accessible from any device.

Where you can attach files

• Project level — visible on the project Summary tab and the Files tab. Good for site photos, contract documents, drawings.
• Stages and Works — attach progress photos or drawings to specific stages/works.
• Expenses — attach receipts or proof of payment.
• Material Purchases — attach the supplier invoice or delivery note.
• Labour Contracts — attach the signed contract document or progress photos.

Supported File Types

• Images — JPG, PNG. Open in a full-screen zoomable viewer inside the app.
• PDFs — open in an inline PDF viewer with page navigation.
• Other files (video, audio, Word, Excel, ZIP, etc.) — show a preview-unavailable message with an "Open Externally" button to open in a compatible app on your device.

File deletion requires the files.manage permission and is permanent — there is no recycle bin.

Tags

Tags are labels you apply to any record — stages, works, expenses, labour contracts, material purchases — to make them easy to find and group later. Think of them like sticky-note labels on a paper file.

Examples of useful tags: urgent, verified, disputed, Phase-1, client-approved, pending-approval.

Adding Tags

Tags can be added when creating or editing any record. On a record's detail screen, you can also edit tags inline without entering the edit form — just tap the tags area, type a new tag and press Enter, or tap the × on an existing tag to remove it. This works even on completed (locked) records.

Using Tags to Filter

• Each list screen (Expenses, Labour, Materials) lets you filter by tag to quickly find all records with a specific label.
• Use the Tag Report (the 🏷 icon on the Dashboard or project toolbar) for a full financial breakdown by tag — see the Reports section for details.

Access Control

BuildLedger supports multiple users on the same project. The owner can invite team members and control exactly what each person is allowed to see and do. This is useful for giving site supervisors access to log expenses without letting them see financial totals, or giving a client read-only visibility.

Adding a Team Member

1. Open the project → go to the Access tab (lock icon).
2. Tap Add Member and enter their email address (they must have a BuildLedger account).
3. Select the permissions you want them to have (see the grid below).
4. Tap Save. They will see the project in their workspace.

Permissions Grid

Each permission can be switched on or off individually per user. The Owner always has all permissions and cannot be restricted.

Changing or Removing a Member

Tap a team member's name in the Access tab to edit their permissions or remove them from the project. Removing a member does not delete any records they created — all their expenses, entries, and payments remain intact.

Inviting a Property Owner

Give the owner of a building a read-only window into the build without sharing a password or letting them change anything. They see costs, progress and reports, and nothing can be edited.

1. Open the project's Access tab (or the workspace access screen to cover every project, including ones you create later) and tap Invite owner.
2. Choose Email or Phone and enter the owner's details. A name is needed if they have no account yet.
3. Tap Send invite. By email they get a link to set a password; by phone they sign in with a code sent to that number (include the country code for a number with no account).

The owner sees a View-only access banner and only the screens they are allowed to view.

Backup & Restore

BuildLedger can automatically back up your entire workspace to your Google Drive. Your data includes all projects, expenses, labour records, materials, suppliers, wallets, files, and settings. If you switch phones, reinstall the app, or your phone is lost or stolen, you can restore everything in seconds.

Setting Up Automatic Backup

1. Go to Settings → Backup & Restore.
2. Tap Connect Google Drive and sign in with your Google account. BuildLedger only requests permission to access its own backup folder — not your entire Drive.
3. Choose a backup frequency: Daily, Weekly, or Monthly.
4. Toggle Auto-Backup to On. A backup will run automatically in the background at your chosen interval.

Restoring from a Backup

1. On a new device (or after reinstalling), open BuildLedger and log in to your account.
2. When creating a new workspace (or from Settings → Backup & Restore), tap Restore from Google Drive.
3. Sign in to the same Google account you used for backup.
4. BuildLedger lists your available backups with timestamps. Select the most recent one.
5. Tap Restore. All your data will be downloaded and imported — this may take a minute depending on the size of your workspace.

Settings

Open Settings with the gear icon at the top right of the Dashboard. All preferences are saved automatically.

Workspace Settings

Open Settings → Workspace settings. From here you can:

• Workspace name — tap to rename the workspace. The name is shown in the workspace list and on PDF headers.
• Manage users — add team members to this workspace (see Access Control).
• Manage roles — define sets of permissions for members.
• Branding and Backup — see the sections below and Backup & Restore.

If your account belongs to more than one workspace, the Choose Workspace screen appears when you sign in. To use a different workspace, sign out and sign in again.

Branding

Personalise your PDF reports with your company identity:

Account Settings: Language, PDF & Notifications

Open Settings → Account settings, or Account in the Dashboard's Quick Actions. The first row is your Profile (name, email and phone). Below it:

• Language — select your preferred app language from the dropdown. Changes take effect immediately without a restart.
• PDF Print Layout — choose how many pages print on a single sheet when exporting PDFs: 1 (full page, best readability), 2 (two pages side by side), or 4 (four mini pages per sheet, most paper-efficient).
• Notifications — switch Push notifications and Email notifications on or off.
• Security — the Biometric lock, described next.

Security — Biometric Lock

Enable the Biometric Lock toggle to require fingerprint or Face ID whenever BuildLedger is opened or brought back from the background. The app re-locks after 30 seconds in background. This protects sensitive financial data if your phone is left unlocked.

Account Security

From Profile, you can change your password and update the email address or phone number on file — each guarded by a verification step (a code sent to your email or phone, or your current password) before the change takes effect. All three can also be started right from Ask AI — just say "change my password" or "update my email".

Two-step verification

Add a second check to your sign-in. Open Profile → Two-step verification and set up one or more methods: an authenticator app (scan the QR code, then enter the 6-digit code), a text message to your phone, or a code sent to your email. A WhatsApp code is also offered when it is switched on for your account. Once a method is on, signing in by password, Google, Facebook or phone also asks for a code, and you can switch to another method on that screen.

Setting up a method gives you a set of recovery codes. Each works once if you lose your other methods, and they are shown only at that moment, so save them somewhere safe. You can generate new ones from the same screen.

AI Features

Ask AI, AI invoice scanning, and voice input all run on BuildLedger's own AI credits, included with plans that support AI — there's nothing to configure, no provider to choose, and no API key to enter. If your plan includes AI, the Ask AI button and the 📷 Scan Invoice button on the Material Purchase form are simply there and ready to use.

Plan & Subscriptions

Open Plan in the Dashboard's Quick Actions, or Settings → Plan & Subscriptions. The screen shows your current plan and how much of each limit you have used:

• Projects, Team users and Storage.
• Monthly counters that start again each month: PDF exports, AI tokens (with how many went on invoice scans and on voice), Invoice scans and Voice transcriptions.
• Other limits: stages per project, works per stage, members per project and files per project.

BuildLedger offers a free plan and paid plans with higher limits and more features. Paid plans are bought through Google Play with Subscribe, and only plans above your current one are offered as an upgrade.

Support, Bug Reports & Guide

A small round support button floats over every screen. Drag it wherever you like; the app remembers the place. Tap it for four choices:

• Report a bug and Suggest a feature — fill in a Subject and a Description and tap Submit. The app records which screen you were on and attaches a screenshot of it, which you can replace or leave.
• View my requests — your reports with their status. Open one to read the team's replies, write back, see the version a fix is in, and Close ticket once it is solved.
• Guide / Help — opens this user guide inside the app.

Settings → Support opens the same list of requests, and About Us shows the app version.

Logout

Tap Logout at the bottom of Settings to sign out of your account. Your data is always safely stored in the cloud — log back in on any device to access it.

Offline Mode

BuildLedger works without an internet connection. You can log expenses, add work entries, record payments, and navigate all your project data even in areas with no signal — a common situation on remote construction sites.

What works offline

• Viewing all projects, stages, expenses, labour, materials, suppliers, and wallets
• Creating and editing expenses, work entries, labour payments, and material purchases
• Adding tags and updating record status
• Viewing previously loaded reports and financial summaries

What requires internet

• Uploading file attachments (photos/PDFs are queued and uploaded when you reconnect)
• Notes, reminders, and ticking checklist points — these are saved straight to the server
• Saving, editing and exporting calculator results
• Inviting new team members or changing access permissions
• Backup and restore to Google Drive
• AI invoice scanning and Ask AI
• Syncing changes made on another device

How sync works

When your connection is restored, BuildLedger automatically syncs all pending changes in the background. You'll see a subtle sync indicator while this is happening. If a conflict is detected (the same record was changed on two devices while offline), BuildLedger keeps the most recent change and flags it for your review.

Quick Reference

Required vs Optional at a Glance

Status Meanings

Cost Types

Cost types categorise your expenses for reporting. Available types: Material, Labour, Equipment, Professional Fees, Utilities, Permits, Site Overhead, Transportation, Other.

Labour Rate Types Explained