What Cedar is
Cedar is the software a trade contractor runs on. Drywall, painting, roofing, remodeling and the trades beside them use it to keep the customers, the projects, the estimates, the invoices, the crew's time and the books in one place, so the office and the crew look at the same copy of every record.
Everything in Cedar hangs off a project. A project is the work you do for one customer. You estimate it, the customer approves the estimate, and the approved estimate becomes an invoice. Expenses, time, photos, daily logs, messages and change orders are all attached to that project, so the project page answers the question you ask most often: what did this make?
Who uses it
- Owners and admins run the business. They see everything, including the books, the settings and the refunds.
- Office staff write quotes and invoices, take payments, manage projects and customers, and send texts and email.
- Crew see only the projects they are on. They clock in, write daily logs, take photos and see their own day. They never see money or the customer list.
- Viewers can read the office's screens and reports, and they can change nothing.
The path through the work
- Customers and leads. Every person you deal with, with their contacts and their history.
- Projects. Each one moves through the pipeline from lead to closed.
- Estimates. Quotes you write, or drafts the AI builds from your plans and photos. The customer approves them online.
- Budgets and change orders. The accepted estimate becomes the budget, and every change is signed before it is billed.
- Invoices and payments. Bill the work, by progress draw or by invoice, and collect it.
- Expenses, subs and books. What you spend, what your subs bill, and the reports and QuickBooks files your accountant needs.