# Your own business app, built around how you work. From $150 a month.

**Blue Crane Works builds custom business applications for contractors and trades in Hamilton, Ontario, for $0 down and from $150 a month.** Each company gets its own app, with its own name and logo, for quoting, job plans, crew hours, subcontractors and a customer portal, with an AI assistant built in that can plan a whole job and price it. It takes the place of tools like Jobber, Housecall Pro and CompanyCam. Paired with a website that Google, ChatGPT and Copilot can read, the two run as one system for $250 a month.

Verified 10 October 2026 against the live JDT Construction app and its build log

## The grind

- One app for quotes, another for photos, a group chat for the crew and a spreadsheet for hours

- Per-user pricing that punishes you for hiring

- Software built for the average company, so you bend your process to fit it

- Customers phoning to ask how their job is going

- A website that has nothing to do with any of it

## What does a custom application actually look like?

This is the app we built for JDT Construction, a general contractor, live since
October 2026. The screens below come from its demo and test accounts, so every name and address in
them is made up. The owner runs the business from his phone: he describes a job to the assistant
in plain words and it lays out the stages, days and tasks; he prices it and sends the quote on his
own letterhead; his crew clock in against the job; his customer follows the work from their own
page.

- ![The JDT Construction app](https://bluecraneworks.ca/images/work/jdt/jdt-chat-plan.webp)**The assistant plans the job**Stages, days and tasks from one sentence. Nothing changes until the owner taps.

- ![A job page in the JDT Construction app: a basement finish in Hamilton, its dates, and five stages from framing to finish.](https://bluecraneworks.ca/images/work/jdt/jdt-job.webp)**Every job, in stages**Address, dates, stages and tasks, photos and files, all on the job.

- ![A quote as the customer sees it, on JDT Construction letterhead: scope of work and a stage by stage price.](https://bluecraneworks.ca/images/work/jdt/jdt-customer-quote.webp)**Quotes on your letterhead**Quote, proposal and signed agreement, kept on the job.

- ![The crew time clock in the JDT Construction app: clock in against a job, hours today, this week and this pay period.](https://bluecraneworks.ca/images/work/jdt/jdt-crew-clock.webp)**Crew hours by job**Clock in and out, fix missed time with the history kept, export payroll.

## What we build

**Running today: an assistant that runs the app**Describe a job and it builds the plan; ask it to price the work and it does, from your own rates and local shelf prices; ask it to invite a crew member or change a stage and it shows exactly what it will do before you tap. Live in the JDT app.

**Running today: quotes through to signature**Quote, proposal and signed agreement on your own letterhead, with your terms, your payment schedule and the signed copy filed on the job. Live in the JDT app.

**Running today: customer, crew and sub portals**Customers sign in by an emailed link and see only their own project: the stages, the photos you share, a place to ask a question or send a file. Crew see their jobs and their hours. Subcontractor companies get their own door to send sealed prices on the work you tick for their trade. Live in the JDT app.

**Running today: jobs, files, hours and prices**Job plans in stages and tasks, a job folder for drawings, permits and contracts with a switch on every file for who can see it, a crew time clock with payroll export, crew chat, and a price book read from local store shelf prices. Live in the JDT app.

**We build it in: messages and calendars**Text message reminders, booking and calendars, email from your own domain. Scoped in writing for your company, then added to the same monthly bill.

**We build it in: money and the rest**Card payments and invoices, QuickBooks, job costing against the quote, parts and price tracking, and the website's quote form feeding straight into the app. Scoped in writing; we only call something live once it is live for a client.

## What it costs

Billed monthly on a twelve-month term, then month to month. No build invoice and no deposit: the build is done first and paid for through the plan. One price for the company, not per user. Bigger systems are scoped and quoted in writing first, and still billed monthly. If you leave inside the term, the remaining months are payable, which is only fair when the build was done up front.

Custom Application

from $150 */ month CAD*

Twelve-month term, then month to month.

Your company's own app.

- Built around your process, $0 up front

- Your name, logo and letterhead

- Quotes, job plans, crew hours and files

- Customer and subcontractor portals

- The built-in assistant

- No per-user fees

Website + Custom Application

$250 */ month CAD*

Twelve-month term, then month to month.

One system, one bill.

- A managed website Google, ChatGPT and Copilot can read

- Your custom application behind it

- Quarterly SEO, GEO and AI visibility update

- Hosting, domain, edits and updates handled

- Priority support, Monday to Saturday

- The person who built it answers

Bigger builds

Quoted *in writing*

Still monthly. Never an upfront invoice.

When the scope is larger.

- Text messages, booking and calendars

- Card payments and invoicing

- QuickBooks and other integrations

- Job costing and reporting

- More companies or brands

- Anything else, scoped first

Want to see it before you talk to anyone? Read the JDT Construction screens above, or [book a 30-minute call](https://bluecraneworks.ca/solutions.html#contact) and we will walk you through the live app.

## Why a custom application instead of Jobber, Housecall Pro or CompanyCam?

Those are good products, built for a very large number of companies at once.
That is the trade-off. A custom application is built for one.

| Question | Off-the-shelf field service app | Blue Crane custom application |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Whose process? | The product's. You fit your work to its screens. | Yours. The screens follow how your company already quotes, plans and runs a job. |
| Whose name is on it? | The vendor's app, with your logo in places. | Your app: your name, logo and letterhead on every screen, quote and email body. |
| How is it priced? | Usually per plan and per user, so the bill grows as you hire. | One monthly price for the company, from $150. No per-user fees for your crew, subs or customers. |
| Photos, chat, hours? | Often a second or third subscription. | In the same app, on the same job. |
| The website? | A separate company and a separate bill. | Optional, and built to work with the app: $250 a month for both. |
| Who do you call? | A support line. | The person who built it. |

When is off-the-shelf the better pick? When you work alone, the standard flow suits
you, and you would rather sign up today than have an app built around you. For that,
our own [Blue Crane app](https://bluecraneworks.ca/blue-crane-app.html) starts at $24.99 a month.

## One system: the website and the application together

Most customers come in through one door and end up using both. A
[managed website](https://bluecraneworks.ca/solutions/websites.html) brings the enquiry in, built so Google,
ChatGPT and Copilot can read it and quote its facts. The application runs everything after: the
quote, the plan, the crew, the subs, the customer's own page. For $250 a month we build and run
both, as one system, on one bill. Nobody can promise that an assistant will name your business;
what we promise is the work, and that every condition the engines publish for being read is met.

## Where does my data live?

Your application runs on Microsoft Azure, on infrastructure we operate. Its
records sit in Microsoft's cloud in the United States (the
[East US 2 region](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/reliability/regions-list)), and they are governed by Canadian privacy law,
[PIPEDA](https://www.priv.gc.ca/en/privacy-topics/privacy-laws-in-canada/the-personal-information-protection-and-electronic-documents-act-pipeda/). The full picture, service by service, is on
[our data page](https://bluecraneworks.ca/your-data.html).

## What it replaces

- Jobber or Housecall Pro for quotes and scheduling

- CompanyCam for job photos

- A group chat for the crew and a spreadsheet for hours

- Customers phoning to ask how the job is going

## Who it is for

Contractors and trades with a crew, subcontractors and customers who want to know how their job is going: general contractors, renovators, deck, fence and landscaping companies, mechanical and electrical shops. On site across Hamilton, Stoney Creek, Ancaster, Dundas, Waterdown, Burlington, Grimsby and Brantford, and remotely anywhere in Ontario.

## What week one looks like

1. A call with you, then a morning with the people who do the work, mapping how a job actually moves from the first call to the last invoice.

2. You get a written scope: the screens, who sees what, what it replaces, and the monthly price. Nothing is owed up front.

3. We build on the parts already proven in a live contractor's app, then shape them to your process, so you see working screens early and often.

4. Your crew, your subs and your customers get their own doors, and you keep calling the person who built it.

---

Source: https://bluecraneworks.ca/solutions/custom-applications