How do you run the office side of a general contracting business? Keep one dependable record for each job's commitments, changes, billing, subcontractors, and next decisions. Review those records on a regular cadence with the people who can act on them. The system can start in spreadsheets and accounting software; it needs to make the handoffs visible before it needs to be elaborate.

This is an operations playbook for general contractors running multi-phase work. It is not a claim that every GC needs the same software, draw schedule, or legal documents. Use your contracts, accountant, insurance adviser, and local requirements to set the rules for your projects.

1. Keep a short cash and billing forecast by job

A profitable job can still have a week when payments to crews and suppliers come before a client draw. For each active project, record the next billable milestone, what evidence makes it billable, the planned invoice date, the contractual due date, and the expected payment date. Separately list committed payroll, subcontractor, material, and overhead payments. An expected receipt is a forecast, not cash in the bank.

At the company level, the basic weekly check is opening cash + receipts actually expected that week − payments due that week = projected closing cash. Review the assumptions with whoever handles billing and accounting. If a receipt slips, change the forecast and decide what action the contract permits; do not silently treat it as collected.

Intuit's current Projects documentation explains how QuickBooks Online Plus and Advanced can assign income and costs to jobs. That may already answer some profitability questions. The separate forecast still needs your actual payment timing and commitments. For a billing handoff test, see our construction invoicing and QuickBooks checklist.

2. Tie every change to a decision and a number

A change register should show the original request, scope, price, time effect, approval status, who approved it, and the job budget and invoice it changed. The useful weekly question is: Which requested or performed changes are not yet resolved in the contract and billing records? Fix the approval path before asking software to automate it.

The AIA explains the role of change orders in the contract process it describes. The exact documents and signatures for your project depend on its agreement and jurisdiction. Our GC change-order checklist gives a practical scope, price, time, and approval handoff to test.

3. Make subcontractor commitments and documents findable

For each sub, keep the accepted scope and amount, purchase order or agreement, schedule commitment, change history, payment status, and the documents your company must review. Name a person who checks each document. Uploading a certificate or setting an expiration reminder is not the same as confirming that coverage applies to the work.

Tax information is a separate check from insurance and licensing. The IRS explains Form W-9 and its purpose in information reporting. Ask your accountant when to collect it; use your insurer and relevant licensing authority for coverage and license questions. The software test is whether a PM can see the current review status and source document before a sub starts or requests payment, not whether a green badge appears.

4. Run a lookahead that connects field and office

A useful lookahead lists the next activities, prerequisite decisions, responsible trade, materials, inspections, and client commitments. When an inspection or selection slips, record which downstream tasks and billing milestones are affected. Tell the people who need to replan, then confirm they received the update.

Make the field update small enough to complete on a phone: what happened, what blocked the next step, a photo or document if relevant, and who owns the follow-up. The office should be able to trace that note to the schedule or job record without retyping it into several places. If a vendor claims its AI can draft a client update, ask it to show the source records, who reviews the draft, and where the final message is stored.

5. Hold one review of exceptions, not a tour of dashboards

At a weekly operations review, bring the PM, office lead, and whoever controls billing. Start with exceptions that need a decision:

  • Approved work that has not reached the budget or next invoice.
  • Invoices past their agreed due date and the owner of the follow-up.
  • Sub commitments, required documents, or approvals that are missing.
  • Schedule changes that affect another trade, material delivery, client promise, or draw.

For each item, assign an owner and a next action. Review whether last week's actions were completed. Counting open exceptions is more useful than a polished dashboard whose underlying job records are out of date.

When should a GC replace the spreadsheet stack?

There is no universal revenue threshold or guaranteed software payback date. Keep spreadsheets when your team can trace the records above, people use them consistently, and the handoffs fit the job. Compare construction software when the same change, invoice, or field update must be reconstructed across messages, files, and accounting entries—or when access and approval need more control.

Use one fictional but realistic job for every demo: create a scope change, get an approval, update the budget and draw, request a sub document, send an invoice, and show the client view and history. Ask which quoted plan includes each step, how data reaches your accounting system, how errors are handled, and what you can export. Our AI contractor software guide compares seven platforms by workflow and includes a fit finder for residential GCs, commercial GCs, and service teams.

Where Opsite fits

Opsite is built around multi-phase GC jobs, draws, change orders, subcontractor coordination, invoicing, and client communication. Its current plans place Lino, the in-product AI assistant, on Professional and AI agents on Enterprise. It is not a standalone AI takeoff tool or a service-dispatch-first system. Opsite publishes this guide and sells software, so test its claims in the actual plan you would buy alongside alternatives.

Have one handoff that keeps breaking? Request a contractor workflow review and tell us the job type and process you want to test. Ask to see the source record, approval, and resulting job history—not just a feature screen.