Connect Bolster to other software that you already use, streamlining your workflows and simplifying your business processes.
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Get startedBolster’s all-in-one construction management software is built to save time, reduce manual work, and improve accuracy for residential construction businesses. A key part of this efficiency is Bolster’s powerful integrations with popular tools that contractors already rely on. In this article, we’ll explore Bolster’s QuickBooks integration, CompanyCam integration, Zapier integration, and the upcoming HOVER integration, highlighting how they deliver workflow automation for contractors and connect your apps for seamless integration in project management.
In the construction industry, disconnected systems lead to wasted time and costly errors. Manually re-entering data from one app to another (estimating software to accounting, photo storage to project reports, etc.) is inefficient and error-prone. By contrast, construction software with QuickBooks integration or other tool connections ensures data flows automatically between platforms, creating a single source of truth for your projects. This integration also enables more automation, allowing users to create essential workflows that enhance efficiency and user experience. For residential construction contractors, this means less time on admin and more time on building. Integrations in Bolster aim to simplify your business processes from accounting and job costing to photo documentation and team communication so you can focus on delivering quality work.
One of Bolster’s most impactful integrations is with Intuit QuickBooks, the gold standard for small business accounting. Many contractors use QuickBooks to manage their finances; Bolster’s QuickBooks integration connects your project management with your accounting seamlessly through your QuickBooks Online account. Bolster is construction software with QuickBooks integration built in, meaning your project financials sync automatically with your books.
By linking Bolster and QuickBooks, contractors get real-time syncing of job costs, create invoices, and payments between the field and the office. There’s no more duplicating entries in two systems. For example, when you mark an invoice as paid in Bolster or log an expense on a job, that information updates in QuickBooks as well (and vice versa). This unified approach to accounting and project management provides several benefits:
Accurate Job Costing & Budget Tracking: All expenses, purchase orders, and labor costs associated with a project in Bolster can flow into QuickBooks, giving you up-to-date job cost reports. You can monitor every dollar against the budget in real time, increasing the likelihood of staying on budget and understanding each job’s profitability.
Eliminate Double Data Entry: Integration saves time by reducing the need for double entry and minimizes human error by keeping data consistent across platforms. You enter information once and it appears everywhere it needs to, reducing manual tasks and typos. This improves accuracy and frees you from tedious administrative work.
Streamlined Invoicing and Payments: Bolster can generate invoices as work is completed (according to your payment schedule) and push them to QuickBooks automatically. Instead of manually creating invoices in QuickBooks, you simply invoice through Bolster’s workflow and let the integration do the rest. This ensures faster billing cycles and better cash flow management, contractors get paid faster when billings aren’t delayed. Similarly, client payments recorded via QuickBooks can sync back to Bolster, keeping your project financial status updated.
Single Source of Truth for Financials: Because project management and accounting software are talking to each other, your team (from project managers to accountants) can all refer to the same data. QuickBooks integration means all accounting information relevant to the project is accessible in one place, improving collaboration between the field and the office. It also enables more robust reporting combining Bolster’s project data with QuickBooks financial reports for comprehensive insight into project profitability.
Reduce Errors and Ensure Compliance: Automated data flow helps prevent mistakes that often occur with manual input. For instance, integration flags inconsistencies between Bolster and QuickBooks data so discrepancies can be fixed early. With accurate records, tasks like job costing, tax preparation, or compliance reporting become easier and more reliable.
In short, Bolster’s QuickBooks integration ties your construction management to trusted accounting software. The result is up-to-date books, accurate job costing, and time saved on accounting tasks, which is a huge win for busy contractors. As one construction tech blog noted, connecting QuickBooks with project management software reduces double data entry and saves time and effort, exactly what Bolster delivers.
Effective project management isn’t just about numbers; it’s also about visuals and field information. That’s where Bolster’s CompanyCam integration comes in. CompanyCam is a popular app for contractors to capture and organize job site photos. Bolster integrates directly with CompanyCam to streamline photo management and enhance team communication on projects.
Bolster’s integration with CompanyCam essentially marries your photo documentation with your project data. Once your Bolster and CompanyCam accounts are connected, the sync works both ways:
Automatic Project Creation: Anytime a new project is created in Bolster, a corresponding project is automatically created in CompanyCam (and vice versa). You don’t have to set up projects twice in two apps, one entry does it.
Real-Time Photo Sync: When your team takes job site photos or videos in CompanyCam, those images appear in the corresponding project in Bolster almost immediately. This means everyone from managers in the office to clients, can see up-to-date site photos through Bolster’s platform without having to ask the field crew to send images.
Two-Way Updates: The integration can also sync project updates bidirectionally. If a project’s details (like its name or status) are updated in one platform, it can update in the other. This keeps project info consistent.
Organized Job Documentation: All site photos get centrally stored under the right project. In Bolster’s Pipeline CRM, you’ll see the CompanyCam photos tied to each job, rather than hunting through text messages or cloud drives for the latest pictures. This organized approach means you maintain a comprehensive visual record of each project, which is invaluable for progress tracking, client updates, or dispute resolution.
Improved Team Communication: By getting photos where they need to be (field to office, instantly), the integration ensures everyone stays on the same page with real-time visuals. Field crews can annotate photos in CompanyCam, and those annotated images are viewable by the office staff in Bolster, facilitating clear communication about issues or work completed. It essentially creates a live feed of the project’s visual progress, boosting transparency with clients and within your team.
No More Manual Uploads: This sync saves you from the manual labor of downloading photos from one system and uploading them to another. The automated photo transfer not only saves time but also reduces the chance that important images get lost or forgotten. Every photo captured is automatically linked to its project, building a chronological timeline of work without any extra effort.
By integrating a photo management tool directly into project management, Bolster gives contractors better project oversight. You can remotely monitor job sites through photos, verify the quality and completion of work, and have a well-documented history of the project. In the end, this builds trust with clients and crews through transparency, as CompanyCam’s ethos suggests: keeping everyone on the same page with thorough photo documentation.
While QuickBooks and CompanyCam are direct integrations, Bolster also recognizes that each construction business uses a unique mix of apps. To accommodate endless possibilities, Bolster offers an integration to Zapier via API webhooks. The Zapier integration enables you to connect Bolster with thousands of other apps to achieve more automation and automate custom workflows without writing code.
Zapier is a popular automation tool that acts as a bridge between web applications. It currently supports over 7,000 apps, allowing you to turn separate tools into unified processes. With Zapier, Bolster can talk to anything from Google Sheets to Slack to your CRM, unlocking creative ways to streamline tasks. Here’s how contractors can leverage Bolster + Zapier:
Connect Bolster to 1000s of Apps: Out-of-the-box, Bolster has specific integrations, but with Zapier, you aren’t limited, you can integrate virtually any software your team uses. For instance, you could send Bolster data to Excel or Google Sheets for custom reporting, or connect Bolster with a task management tool like Trello or Asana. Zapier basically lets Bolster become part of a larger connected ecosystem of all your favorite apps.
Automate Repetitive Tasks: The real power is in automation. You can set up “Zaps” (automated workflows) that trigger when something happens in Bolster and cause actions in other apps (or vice versa). This eliminates many manual steps. For example, when a new lead or client is created in Bolster, a Zap could automatically add that contact to your email marketing list or CRM. Or when a project status changes to “Completed” in Bolster, a Zap could notify your team in Slack or generate a client satisfaction survey via email. Such automations ensure no one forgets to update other systems, it’s done instantly and consistently.
Custom Workflows for Contractors: Every construction company has its own processes. Zapier gives flexibility to tailor integrations to your needs. Need to integrate with a time-tracking app or an HR system for payroll? Or perhaps connect Bolster to a forms tool for lead capture on your website? With Zapier, you can. Contractors have used Zapier to do things like send automatic daily progress summaries, back up Bolster data to cloud drives, or create calendar events when scheduled tasks are added in Bolster. The possibilities span across team communication, scheduling, document management, and beyond, all automated to fit your workflow.
Reduce Manual Data Transfer: Zapier integration means fewer manual imports/exports between systems, which reduces errors and saves time. If Bolster doesn’t yet have a direct integration for a specific app you use, chances are you can bridge them with Zapier. This ensures you’re not stuck doing double work or copy-pasting info from one place to another. In essence, Zapier acts as a safety net so that Bolster can connect with any other software vital to your business.
Workflow automation for contractors is exactly what Zapier facilitates. By connecting Bolster to myriad other apps, you build an automated contractor tech stack where information flows freely. Contractors who embrace these automations often find they can handle more projects with the same team because so many back-office tasks run on autopilot. It’s about working smarter: let the integrations handle the busywork while you focus on high-value activities like client relationships and project execution.
The Bolster team is continually expanding its integration offerings, and one exciting addition on the horizon is the HOVER integration. HOVER is a cutting-edge app that uses smartphone photos to create detailed 3D models and measurements of buildings, highly useful for exterior projects like roofing, siding, or remodeling. With a HOVER integration, Bolster will further streamline the estimating and surveying process for contractors.
What HOVER Does: Contractors can snap a set of photos of a house or structure using the HOVER app, and HOVER will generate precise measurements (areas, lengths, pitches) and even a full 3D model. This technology provides detailed exterior measurements to quote any project and produces an accurate digital model from just photos. It essentially automates the process of measuring sites by hand.
How Bolster + HOVER Will Help: Once integrated, Bolster users could initiate a HOVER capture for a project and receive all those measurements directly into Bolster. For example, if you’re preparing a roof replacement estimate in Bolster, you can use HOVER to get the exact roof area, slope, and dimensions. That data would sync into your Bolster estimate template (for materials and labor calculations). This saves tremendous time and improves accuracy in your estimates. Rather than climbing a ladder with a tape measure or manually drawing up specs, you let HOVER’s AI do it in minutes and feed the results into your project in Bolster.
Faster Estimates, Better Accuracy: The integration will allow contractors to generate estimations faster because the tedious part, gathering measurements is handled. And because measurements are precise, your estimates become more accurate, which means fewer surprises later (and more trust with your clients). In short, contractors can go from site photos to an itemized quote much more quickly. HOVER’s outputs can also be shared with clients as a visual aid, enhancing professionalism in your proposals.
Stay tuned for the launch of Bolster's HOVER integration. It’s one more way Bolster is embracing automation: from automated costing in estimates to automated measuring with HOVER. By combining these tools, a contractor could potentially survey a site, generate a 3D model, create an estimate, and send a proposal, all in a digital workflow that’s highly automated and interconnected.
Effective construction project management is crucial for the success of any construction business. By integrating construction project management software with QuickBooks Online, businesses can streamline their accounting and project management processes. This integration enables real-time data synchronization, automates manual tasks, and provides a centralized platform for managing projects.
With construction project management software, businesses can create and manage projects, track progress, and collaborate with team members and subcontractors. The software also provides features such as job costing, job scheduling, and resource allocation, which help businesses to optimize their resources and improve project efficiency.
Moreover, construction project management software can be integrated with other tools and services, such as QuickBooks Payroll, to provide a comprehensive solution for managing construction businesses. This integration enables businesses to automate payroll processing, track labor costs, and manage employee data.
By leveraging the power of construction project management software and QuickBooks Online, businesses can enhance their project management capabilities, improve efficiency, and increase profitability.
Inventory management is a critical aspect of construction businesses, as it involves managing and tracking inventory levels, ordering supplies, and optimizing resource allocation. By integrating inventory management software with QuickBooks Online, businesses can streamline their inventory management processes and improve resource allocation.
Inventory management software provides features such as inventory tracking, automated ordering, and reporting, which help businesses to optimize their inventory levels and reduce waste. The software can also be integrated with other tools and services, such as QuickBooks Time, to provide a comprehensive solution for managing construction businesses.
Moreover, inventory management software can be integrated with construction project management software to provide a centralized platform for managing projects and inventory. This integration enables businesses to track inventory levels, allocate resources, and optimize project efficiency.
By leveraging the power of inventory management software and QuickBooks Online, businesses can improve their resource allocation, reduce waste, and increase profitability.
Bolster’s integrations ultimately serve a single purpose: workflow automation for contractors. By offering specialized features and syncing data and actions across your apps, Bolster helps eliminate the common bottlenecks in a contractor’s day-to-day work. Here are some of the key benefits this integrated, automated approach brings to construction businesses:
Time is money in construction, and integrations save plenty of it. Automation means you’re spending less time on data entry, file uploads, or transferring information between software. Tasks that used to take hours each week (like reconciling invoices or organizing job photos) are handled in the background. This gives you and your team hours back to allocate elsewhere. Moreover, by reducing manual tasks, you lower the mental load on your staff, they can focus on managing projects and serving customers, not pushing paperwork. Many Bolster users report that what “used to take hours now takes minutes” in their workflow after switching from disjointed tools to Bolster’s integrated platform.
When your systems talk to each other, there’s less room for human error. Integration-driven automation improves accuracy by ensuring the same data is used everywhere. For instance, if a project’s cost is updated in Bolster, you won’t forget to update it in QuickBooks, the integration already did it. This consistency means your reports, invoices, and schedules all align with reality. Fewer mistakes, like duplicate entries or missed updates, translate to more accurate bids, budgets, and payroll. In construction, avoiding errors also means avoiding costly rework or financial discrepancies. Overall, integrating your tools builds a more reliable operation.
Integrations significantly improve team communication and oversight by centralizing information. When field photos stream into Bolster (via CompanyCam), or schedule changes trigger notifications (via Zapier to Slack/email), everyone stays informed without extra effort. Your team isn’t siloed in their respective apps, they see the big picture through Bolster. This leads to better coordination between departments (sales, project management, accounting, and field crews) because the data each needs is available and up-to-date. Managers gain better project oversight since they can monitor financials, schedules, and site progress all in one system. Clients can even be looped in with accurate, timely updates. In short, integration ensures no one is left out of the loop, which cuts down on
Ultimately, automating workflows with Bolster’s integrations helps contractors get more done with the same resources. By streamlining routine processes, your team can handle a greater volume of work or dedicate energy to growth initiatives rather than admin. This boost in productivity can directly improve your bottom line, for example, if you save several hours a week through automation, that’s time you could spend pursuing another project or improving client service (leading to more revenue). Accurate financial syncing also means better financial management, helping protect profits (no missed billings or cost overruns slipping by). Over time, these efficiencies compound. Companies that leverage software integrations often find they can scale up operations without a linear increase in overhead. The business runs smoother, margins improve, and employees are happier focusing on meaningful work instead of drudgery.
To really understand how Bolster’s integrations translate into daily contractor workflows, especially through the use of construction accounting software, let’s look at a few concrete use cases. These examples show how syncing Bolster with QuickBooks, CompanyCam, Zapier, etc., can transform ordinary processes for a construction business:
Job costing is critical for contractors to ensure projects are profitable. With Bolster and QuickBooks connected, job costing becomes almost automatic. As you log expenses, labor hours, and purchases in Bolster (or QuickBooks), those entries sync, and you can easily produce up-to-date job cost reports. For instance, suppose your crew purchases materials and you record the cost in Bolster, that cost will appear under the correct job in QuickBooks, updating the overall project expense tally. You can then compare actual costs vs. the estimate at any point, spotting overages early. This integration-driven job costing means no more compiling data from multiple sources; everything is tracked in one integrated system for accuracy. Contractors can make informed decisions mid-project (like cutting unnecessary expenses or adjusting scope) thanks to timely cost data. Ultimately, you ensure each job is priced right and remains on budget, protecting your profit. (If you’ve ever lost money because you found out too late that a job went over budget, Bolster’s approach to live job costing will be a game-changer.)
In a typical scenario without integration, a project manager might mark a milestone complete in their project software, then separately create an invoice in QuickBooks for that milestone payment. With Bolster, you can generate an invoice directly from the project’s progress, and the QuickBooks integration will log that invoice in your accounting system instantly. For example, say you have a payment schedule for a remodeling job, 30% deposit, 30% after a certain phase, 40% at completion. As you update the project status in Bolster, the system can prompt or auto-create the invoice for the phase that’s done. That invoice, with all the correct line items and client info, appears in QuickBooks without manual input. Your bookkeeper can then see it and send it out or have Bolster send it. When the client pays (whether via an online payment integration or a check logged in QuickBooks), that payment info syncs back to Bolster, marking the invoice as paid. This closed-loop invoicing workflow means you get invoices out faster and never forget to invoice for completed work. It also keeps accounts receivable in sync, no more discrepancies between project records and accounting records. The result? Smoother cash flow and a lot less busywork for your admin staff.
Contractors often have to track employee or subcontractor hours on each project for payroll and job costing purposes. With Bolster’s integrations, time tracking can be more connected. While Bolster itself focuses on project management, you might integrate a time-tracking tool (like QuickBooks Time or others via Zapier) to ensure hours worked feed into your system. For example, your crew could clock in/out using a mobile app (or even a Zapier-integrated Google Form), and those hours could automatically update a timesheet in Bolster or QuickBooks. This means at the end of the pay period, you aren’t collecting paper timecards, it’s all been logged digitally day by day. Track time once, use it everywhere: the hours can link to your project labor costs in Bolster and simultaneously be ready for payroll in QuickBooks. If you use QuickBooks Payroll, having hours synced from a time tracking app ensures paychecks are accurate and processed quickly. Additionally, you can analyze productivity by seeing how many hours were spent on each task or phase in Bolster. This integration of time data eliminates a ton of manual entry (no one has to re-type hours from one system to another), reduces errors in payroll, and gives you better insight into labor allocation on jobs.
A recurring theme with all these integrations is the reduction of manual work. Let’s consider a broad use case: eliminating the redundant administrative tasks that plague contracting businesses. With Bolster’s integrated system, many daily “copy-paste” jobs go away. For instance, before using Bolster, a contractor might have had to manually export a list of new leads from their website and import it into their project tracker or CRM, now a Zap can auto-create a lead in Bolster as soon as an inquiry comes in. Or previously, someone might spend hours every week organizing project folders of photos and documents, now CompanyCam and Bolster handle that filing system in real time. Even catching errors becomes easier: if a number doesn’t match between Bolster and QuickBooks, the integration highlights it, whereas a person might not catch the mistake until much later. All these little automations add up to significant time saved and fewer mistakes. In practice, contractors see this when, for example, their weekly administrative workload drops because invoices, expenses, and updates are all synced without extra effort. Fewer errors and omissions occur because the software cross-checks the data. Essentially, Bolster’s integrations are like a diligent assistant working 24/7, taking care of the busywork and double-checking data accuracy. This frees you and your team to put your energy into executing projects and serving clients, which is where contractors truly make their money.
In today’s construction industry, integration is no longer a luxury, it’s a necessity. Contractors who connect their tools gain a competitive edge through efficiency and insight. Bolster recognizes this, which is why it offers integrations with vital apps like QuickBooks, CompanyCam, Zapier, and HOVER (among others). By uniting your estimating, project management, accounting, and field communication, Bolster creates a cohesive ecosystem for your business. The benefits are clear: save time, improve accuracy, enhance communication, and ultimately boost your bottom line through streamlined operations.
Bolster provides solutions to simplify your accounting, keep your teams and clients visually informed with CompanyCam, automate tasks via Zapier, and enhance your estimating process with tools like HOVER. These integrations work in concert to automate workflows for contractors and connect various apps into one harmonious platform. The end result is a more productive, more professional, and more profitable construction business.
Imagine running your residential construction company with less hassle: your books reconcile themselves, your job site photos appear in your reports instantly, your routine emails and notifications send automatically, and your measurements and costs populate with a few clicks. This isn’t a far-off dream, it’s exactly what Bolster delivers through its integration-powered approach. By embracing technology and linking the apps that run your business, you can focus on what you do best: building and delivering great results for your clients. In summary, Bolster’s seamless integrations help contractors automate workflows, improve productivity, and keep every aspect of their projects connected, a true game-changer for anyone looking to elevate their construction management process.
