Estimating
6 guides
Client Notifications & Activity TrackingThe Client Notifications & Activity Tracking feature provides clear, real-time visibility into how clients interact with your estimates, proposals, and invoices.
→Custom Labor Rates & Time TrackingBolster gives you full control over labor pricing and production time at three levels: Company-wide custom labor rates, item-level Labour Options in an estimate, and project-wide labor review in the Budget tab
Video · 0:55→Material Tab Overview and ProcessUse the Materials view in Budget to review every material in your estimate, create vendor orders, and export your materials list.
Video · 2:18→Production Tab For ItemsThe Production Tab lets you manage production details for individual items and access an estimate's project management tools like scheduling, tasks, budget, and payments.
Video · 0:35→How to Split Labor and Material ItemsSplit an item with both labor and material costs into two lines so you can send each part to a different vendor or subcontractor.
Video · 2:37→How to Add Production Notes and SKU to Line ItemsLearn how to add a SKU number and internal production notes to any line item in Bolster, then save the changes to your catalog.
Video · 0:50→Items, Assemblies & Catalog
1 guide
Proposals & Client Experience
4 guides
Approving a job and project termsClients review work, approve items, and pay online through their secure Client Portal—where they can track the project progress.
→Displaying the Project Schedule in the Customer PortalLearn how to show or hide the project schedule in your customer's portal from the schedule settings.
Video · 0:40→Keeping up to date with the Project & Payment ProgressLearn how to track project and payment progress from your dashboard. This guide shows clients how to review payments, access invoices, download receipts, and stay informed.
→How your clients receive payment requestsThis article shows you how it looks when your clients receive payment requests from Bolster.
→Project Management
18 guides
Introduction to the new Budget TabThe new Budget Tab gives teams a clearer, faster, and more flexible way to manage project budgets. By aligning estimating, expenses, and purchase order data in one place, it ensures your financial insights stay accurate, connected, and up to date.
Video · 13:17→How to Use the Budget TabThe Budget tab is a hub for a booked or in-progress job, showing estimating, costing, bids, payments and profit for each item in one place.
Video→How do I track budget vs actual costs in Bolster?Use the Budget page on a booked job to add actual costs and see how each item compares to its budget.
Video · 2:21→How do I add and categorize project expenses in Bolster?Track a job's bills and expenses by uploading a receipt or entering it manually, then link each line to a job item and add the receipt number, expense account and tax.
Video→How to Track Bills & Expenses for a Booked ProjectOnce a project is booked and in progress, it's important to properly track all bills, expenses, and receipts to maintain accurate job costing and financial reporting.
Video · 0:56→How to Use the Change Orders TabLearn how to find and use the Change Orders tab in an estimate to review quote versions, statuses, and detailed change summaries.
Video · 0:59→Manually Approving a Change Order Without Sending to the ClientRecord a change on a booked job and approve the change order without sending it, or attach a contract the client already signed.
Video · 3:50→How to View and Revert Change Order VersionsUse Change orders under Production in a project to see every version of your quote, review intermediate saves, and check out or revert to an earlier version.
Video→How to Access Explicit and Full Activities in Change OrdersUse the Change orders page to see every version of a quote, its status, and what changed in each one.
Video · 0:59→How Change Orders Affect Payment TermsWhen a change order is approved, Bolster does not create new payment term records or modify segment percentages. Instead, payment terms are dynamic — they always calculate their amounts based on the current quote total.
Video · 2:16→Introduction to SchedulingLearn how to generate a schedule from an estimate, manage it on the Gantt chart, assign subcontractors or vendors, and notify everyone assigned.
Video · 12:13→Using Tasks for Project ManagementLearn how to view and create tasks directly within a Bolster estimate.
Video · 0:30→How to Add a Task Item to an EstimateLearn how to add a task item to your estimate in Bolster to track action items like permits or material orders and assign them to contractors or vendors.
Video · 0:37→Using Bolster Messages and ChannelsUse the Messages page and the in-estimate Messages sidebar to follow job activity and chat with your team or your customer.
Video · 2:34→Creating, editing and searching channelsUse channels to keep conversations organized by project, topic, or audience.
→Sending attachments to channelsUse attachments to share documents, photos, and project files in Messages.
→Bolster Drive – File ManagementBolster Drive is the central file repository in Bolster. Files you upload once can be used by your whole team at different stages of an estimate.
Video→How to Add Project Documents to a ProjectLearn how to add project documents like site photos, floor plans, and presentation files to a project, and control whether they're visible to the customer or shared internally.
Video · 0:48→Vendors & Purchasing
12 guides
Vendor Management overview: from bid request to paidSend bid requests, award the best bid, track the order and pay the bill, all from the job.
→Add vendors and request their documentsAdd your subs and suppliers, then keep their insurance and licence documents up to date.
→Managing Subcontractors and Vendors in BolsterGo to Jobs > Subs and vendors for an overview of your subs and suppliers, then double-click one to open their profile.
Video→Send a bid request (RFQ) to your vendorsFrom your estimate, go to Production > Bid requests, pick the items, add the vendors who should bid, set a deadline and send. You can then track the status and send reminders.
Video→Award a bid and create a purchase orderCompare the bids that come back, award the work and send the purchase order.
→Track your vendor ordersEvery purchase order and work order in one list, filtered the way you need.
→Review and pay a vendor billCheck the vendor's invoice against the purchase order, accept it and pay it from Bolster Wallet.
→How vendor costs show up in your job budgetSee where every vendor dollar stands, from budgeted to committed, billed and paid.
→How to Create an Itemized Purchase Order (PO) for a ProjectOpen a project's Vendor orders page, pick a vendor, check the line items you need, and save or send the order.
Video · 0:59→How to Create and Send a Lump-Sum Purchase Order (PO)Create a vendor order with a single lump-sum price and send it to your vendor.
Video · 0:46→How to Create Purchase Orders or Work Orders from the Vendor Orders TabThis article explains how to create purchase orders (POs) or work orders (WOs) from the Vendor Orders tab in Production, as well as from the Budget tab using itemized budget items with estimate pricing and manual cost overrides.
Video · 0:53→How to Add Vendor Terms and Conditions to OrdersAdd your default vendor and subcontractor terms and conditions once in Estimating settings, and they are attached to all of your vendor orders.
Video→Payments & Invoicing
6 guides
How projects, subcontractors and progress billing works togetherThis article covers everything from setting up modules and assigning vendors to tracking project progress and enabling clients to approve and pay for items.
Video · 20:14→Percentage Based Payments (segmented)Learn how Percentage Based Payments work in Bolster, from setting payment terms to sending progress-based payment requests and tracking approvals through the Client Portal.
→Phase Based PaymentsBolster gives you several ways to manage how you get paid during a project. These options make sure you’re not waiting until the very end of a job to receive money, while also giving your clients clarity and flexibility.
→Stage Based PaymentsLearn how Stage Based Payments in Bolster work, from setting up payment terms to sending milestone-based payment requests and tracking client approvals throughout a project.
→Rolling Basis PaymentsBolster gives you several ways to manage how you get paid during a project. These options make sure you’re not waiting until the very end of a job to receive money, while also giving your clients clarity and flexibility.
→Creating and Sending Traditional InvoicesCreate an invoice from an approved estimate for a dollar amount, a percentage of the project, or specific items.
Video · 2:15→Integrations
1 guide
