Bolster Payments is a fully integrated feature designed to help contractors in the construction industry automate and streamline their payment processes.
Why Use Bolster Payments?
- Eliminate Delays in Getting Paid: Traditional construction payments often involve long clearing times, subcontractor disputes, and back-and-forth with customers. Bolster automates invoices and payment requests, reducing administrative hassles.
- Integrated with Project Management: Payments tie directly into each project’s tasks and milestones, so invoices are sent automatically when tasks are completed and approved.
- Customer-Friendly Payment Options: Your customers can pay with credit cards, debit cards, or secure bank transfers. After entering payment information once, subsequent payments are quick and easy.
- Itemized or Percentage-Based: Customers can choose to pay only for approved items in an estimate, so payment for the entire project is never delayed by one small disputed item. Or, opt to use a percentage-based approach for a more general breakdown.
How Payments Integrate with Your Project
Bolster seamlessly links payments to your existing project tasks:
- Task Completion: When a team member or subcontractor finishes a task, they mark it as completed.
- Approval: You (the contractor) review and approve the completed work.
- Payment Request: Once approved, Bolster automatically sends a payment request to your customer’s client portal.
- Online Payment: Your customer pays online, and Bolster updates the project’s payment status immediately.
Understanding Progress Stages
Every item or task in your project has distinct progress stages to keep everyone aligned:
- Scope Approved – Occurs when the initial estimate or quote is approved.
- Work Completed – Marked by the team member or subcontractor when a task is finished.
- Quality Assurance Approved – The contractor confirms the work is satisfactory.
- Paid – Automatically updated when the client pays the invoice online.
You can view these stages from multiple places within your Bolster dashboard:
- The Progress tab
- The Progress column in the Schedule
- The Progress column in the Estimate
Customers can also track these stages in their Client Portal, ensuring transparency for all parties involved.
Payment Request Flow
- Initial Approval: Once your customer approves your first estimate, Bolster automatically sets the scope to “Approved.”
- Work Completion: When a task is done, click the second icon in the progress bar (or use the Progress tab) to mark it as “Completed.”
- Contractor Approval: You’ll receive a prompt to approve that completed task for quality assurance. Click the third icon in the progress bar (or mark it approved in the Progress tab).
- Customer Payment: A payment request is sent to the customer’s Client Portal, where they can pay for that specific item (or items) using their preferred payment method. Once payment is made, Bolster updates the fourth progress stage to “Paid.”
By triggering payment requests automatically when tasks are completed, you receive payments earlier in the project lifecycle rather than waiting for the entire project to finish.
Client Portal View
Your client’s portal makes the payment and approval process simple:
- Receive Notifications: Clients are notified when a payment request is ready.
- Review and Approve: They can see each line item that has been completed and approved.
- Pay Online: Clients pay for individual items or tasks with their stored payment method.
- Track Progress: They can view project details and what’s been paid for at any time, ensuring transparency.
Using Percentage Payments
If you prefer to charge based on overall percentages instead of detailed line items, you can enable the Percentage Payment setting:
- Go to the Payments section from your main navigation.
- Select the Settings tab.
- Turn on Percentage Payment.
When percentage payments are enabled, grouped items appear as a percentage of the entire project instead of separate line items. This can be useful for larger jobs where you don’t want to break down each individual task cost.