Questions contractors ask us

Synhelm is one place to run a contracting or field-service shop: your crew clock in from their phones, every job keeps its own time, tasks, safety sheets, photos, files, notes, and chat, and estimates turn into jobs and invoices without retyping.

It's built for small shops — owners who still go to site — and grows to bigger crews with Synhelm Pro and Synhelm Enterprise.

No. Synhelm has no AI features and no bloat: only the tools a contractor uses every day, built to be simple on site and reliable. Your hours, photos and paper are what you and your crew entered, nothing guessed or rewritten.

Each business has one crew link and a QR code (Settings → Employee portal). Crew open it on their phone, tap their name, and enter their PIN. No app store, no email accounts.

The first time a phone opens the crew link, it asks the office for approval and shows a 4-letter code. Tap Approve in the bell or on Home → Needs you, or in Settings → Employee portal (the phone opens by itself). Until then the page shows only your logo, so a guessed or shared link never shows your crew's names. A phone signed in to your office is approved automatically, and you can turn this off in Employee portal.

A PIN only signs in the person it belongs to. After too many wrong PINs the portal pauses for about 15 minutes.

Once signed in, a phone stays signed in — closing the browser or locking the phone doesn't sign them out. Changing someone's PIN or archiving them signs out their phones; a punch they tapped before that, still waiting on the phone, still counts. If you rename the crew link, phones already signed in move to the new one.

No QR handy? Crew can open synhelm.ca/crew and type the business name. After that, that address and "Add to Home Screen" open straight to your crew app. The office signs in at synhelm.ca/app.

No. Your crew open your shop's crew link (or scan its QR code), tap their name and type their PIN. There is no app store download and no crew email or password.

They can save it to their Home Screen right from the sign-in page (the page shows how). It becomes its own app, "Employee App", with a white logo on indigo, so it never mixes up with the Synhelm office app, and it keeps them signed in on their own phone.

Any recent iPhone or Android phone, tablet, Windows PC or Mac with a web browser. Synhelm installs from the browser (Download now on the website) so it opens in its own window with an icon.

There is no App Store or Google Play listing today; the browser install works the same way on every device.

Most shops are running in an afternoon: add your logo, your crew (each gets a PIN), and your first job. A setup checklist on Home walks you through it and ticks each step off as you do it. Hide it any time; bring it back from Home or Settings → Home & menu.

Already have a client or crew list? Bring it in from a spreadsheet in Settings → Data. On an empty shop you can also load a sample business to look around first.

Yes. Synhelm Free is free to use, with no time limit and no credit card, for up to 5 crew. It runs the whole shop: time clock, jobs, tasks, schedule, safety sheets, photos, files, chat, estimates clients approve online, invoices, payments and expenses.

Synhelm Pro ($79.99 CAD a month, up to 25 crew) gets you paid and keeps the books: invoice reminders, progress billing, job costing, and files for your bookkeeper and payroll. Synhelm Enterprise ($279.99 CAD a month, up to 100 crew) adds control for a team with an office: crew-lead approvals, closed pay periods, locations and activity history. One price per shop, not per person, and a year costs ten months.

Yes. Import your clients and crew from a spreadsheet (a CSV export from most apps works). Photos and old paper stay where they are; new jobs start in Synhelm.

Synhelm replaces the separate apps most small shops juggle for the time clock, job photos, and estimates and invoices, so the job, the hours, the pictures and the paper are finally in one place.

No. Synhelm handles estimates, invoices, payments received and what's owed. Your books stay with your accounting software.

On Synhelm Pro, Finances → Export for your bookkeeper makes one ZIP for any period, by month: invoices with their PDFs, payments, expenses with receipts, subcontractor payments and timesheets, plus files QuickBooks Online and Xero can import, so your bookkeeper doesn't retype anything.

Clients open your estimates and invoices from the email on any phone, as clean pages with a Download PDF button. On every plan they can approve an estimate online with a signature, and you get a notice.

Paying invoices by card is opening soon. Today you record payments as they come in (cash, cheque, e-transfer or card at your terminal) and the balance updates.

No. If you turn it on (Synhelm Pro), the phone stamps a location only at clock-in, clock-out and on photos, and only when the crew member allows it. Nothing tracks them between punches.

Crew never see each other's locations; only the office does.

Yes. Invite office admins (3 on Synhelm Pro, 25 on Synhelm Enterprise) and choose exactly which areas each one opens, such as Finances but not Team. It is enforced on the server, not just hidden.

Crew never get an office login; they only ever see their own day.

Synhelm gives you accurate hours: Timesheets shows them by week, by pay period or by date range on every plan. On Synhelm Pro, Export gives your payroll software every punch, or hours by person with payroll IDs, split into regular and overtime by your province's or state's rules (or a daily limit you set). Synhelm Enterprise adds crew-lead approvals and closing each pay period so its hours can't change.

It does not pay people or file payroll taxes.

Contractors and field-service shops with a crew: general contractors and renovators, electricians, plumbers, HVAC, roofers, landscaping and snow removal, painters, flooring, concrete, restoration, cleaning, handyman and solar.

If your people go to a job site and you send estimates and invoices, it fits. Turn off the tools you don't use (Blueprints for a lawn care company, for example) and they leave your menu.

Yes. Pick your country and it sets your time zone and currency: US or Canadian dollars, euros, pounds or Australian dollars. You set your own tax name and rate, and the rate can change on any document.

Office and crew screens work in English or French (each crew member picks their own), and estimates and invoices can print in French.

Plans are billed in your own currency.

Every guide is in Help & support inside the app, with a direct line to our team. Synhelm Enterprise requests go to the front of the line.

Synhelm is built by a contractor who still works on site, so when something gets in the way of a crew, we hear about it.

On crew home: Clock in → pick the job → answer the safety sheet → done. Switch job moves them to another job in one step; breaks pause the clock.

The time lives on Synhelm's server, not on the phone. If the phone locks, the app closes, or the battery dies, they're still on the clock. When they come back, crew home shows the job they're on.

Tapping twice never makes two shifts.

If a punch can't reach the office, it's saved on the phone with the time they tapped and sent by itself when the signal comes back. Crew home shows "punch is saved on this phone" until it's sent.

Every punch is saved on the phone the moment it's tapped, so closing the app or tapping Sign out right after can't lose it. If the server is having trouble, the phone keeps trying by itself. If it still can't save a punch after an hour, Remove it shows next to Send now, and the office gets a note with the punch's time.

Photos taken without signal wait on the phone the same way and send when the signal is back. If a send fails three times with signal, it waits for Try again or Remove, so nothing is lost silently.

Any screen already opened on the phone opens again with no signal: crew home, the job's scope, tasks, photos, files, and chat as last seen.

The one rule: each phone has to open the crew app once with signal. After that, the crew link, the QR code, /crew, and the Home Screen icon all open it with no signal, and crew home shows "Ready for no signal on this phone". A phone that has never opened it can't — there's nothing on it yet.

On iPhone, the Home Screen icon keeps its own copy, separate from Safari: open the icon once with signal too.

The office side (Home, Finances, Settings) needs a connection. With none, it shows that you're offline and still signed in.

Blueprints: open the job's drawings and tap Save for offline, and every current sheet opens with no signal. Sheets opened once are kept too. Synhelm keeps at most about 60 MB of drawings per phone and drops the oldest first.

Until a saved punch sends, the office still sees the shift as it was.

With location stamps on (Synhelm Pro, Settings → Employee portal), Synhelm records where the phone was at the moment of clock-in, clock-out, a job switch, or a photo — only if the phone allows location.

Synhelm does not track anyone in between. Crew don't see coordinates; the office sees a map link on the entry.

Crew write a short summary of their day from crew home. On the project, Daily activity groups it by day with hours and photos. Add the weather and site notes (visitors, deliveries, inspections, delays) for any day, then Daily report PDF makes one page with who was on site and for how long, what they did, safety sheets, finished tasks, your notes, and photos.

Photos are shrunk on the phone before they upload and filed by job and type. Documents split into job files (drawings, blueprints) and people's files (certificates with expiry dates).

Documents opens on People's files: everyone down the side and each certificate folder across the top, green when good, amber when it runs out soon and red when it has expired. Tap a box to open the file, or + to add one.

All folders shows every folder: tap one to see its files, or use New folder. Rename or delete a folder from its card — deleting never deletes files; you pick the folder they move to.

Add a link keeps a web address in a folder, like online training or a safety site, for everyone, one person, or a project's crew. It opens in a new tab, and crew see it under Files.

Both the Gallery and Documents have a date filter next to the other filters: pick a from and a to day (either can be blank) to see only what was added in that span.

Crew only see files on the jobs they're assigned to.

Blueprints in the left bar lists your jobs; pick one to see its drawings. On a project, the same drawings sit in its Blueprints section.

Upload drawing takes a PDF set or a picture. Each page becomes a sheet you can zoom (pinch, scroll, or the + and − buttons) and flip through. Sheet numbers like A-201 are read from the title block when the PDF has text; rename any sheet with its pencil.

New revision uploads the updated set. It becomes current, older revisions stay readable, and Compare lays the older one over the new one in red so changes stand out.

Mark up draws on a copy of the sheet — the sheet itself never changes. Pen, highlighter, arrow, line, box, circle, revision cloud, text, check, cross, question mark, and numbered pins, in five colours, with undo. Save it with a name and note, then send it: post it in the job chat, email it from the business, or save the picture.

Everyone on a job can read its drawings from crew home (Files) when crew files are on. To let someone mark up too, open them under Team → Employees and turn on Blueprint markups.

Don't use drawings? Settings → Home & menu → turn Blueprints off. It leaves the menu, projects, and crew home; anything already uploaded is kept for when you turn it back on.

Safety → Sheets: build your own from ticks, yes/no, text, dates, pick-one, signatures, and photos. Required sheets are answered at every clock-in and job change (or once per job per day, if you choose).

Every signed copy is under Safety → Signed.

Finances → Estimates → New opens at Bill to: pick the client, or type a new name and choose Add it as a new client. Then type what you're charging for, its quantity and price, or tap Labour, Materials or Equipment to add a line. Add another item adds a new line whenever you like, and you can fill them in any order. Lines you leave empty aren't saved. Save and send saves it and opens the email in one step; Save draft keeps it for later.

Have a list already? Paste it into an item's name: each row becomes its own item. Rows copied from a spreadsheet fill in quantity, unit and price too (description, quantity, unit, price).

Each item is one box that grows as you write. Press Enter after its name to write underneath: Enter starts a bullet, and Enter on an empty bullet goes back to normal text for a paragraph. Enter never jumps to another box or adds an item. A pasted list keeps its bullets.

In the list, the arrow next to each estimate or invoice has everything else: send, view as your customer, download, print, duplicate and open, mark sent or paid, void, and delete.

At the top: Send emails it, PDF saves the PDF, and Print prints that same PDF — exactly what the client receives. Each item's ⋯ menu has tax for that item, duplicate and Save to price book. When the client says yes, the Won the work? bar turns it into a job, an invoice, or both (Create invoice works on any estimate that isn't declined and has no invoice yet) — no line is typed twice.

Clients can approve an estimate online with their name and signature, on every plan.

On Pro, attach photos, PDFs or drawing sheets under the estimate (Attach files). They go out with the email as separate files and the client can download them from the estimate page.

Synhelm sends the email for you with your logo and business name, and a link to the PDF. When the client replies, it goes to your business address — the reply address in Settings → Email, or the address you type in From.

The client's link opens the estimate or invoice on any phone or computer: your logo, the total or amount due, the dates, every line and total in plain text, then the full pages and Download PDF. Estimates have Approve or Decline; invoices have a Pay button when you take cards, or your payment instructions (Settings → Estimates & invoices) when you don't.

Clients see a small "Powered by" line at the bottom.

Settings → Estimates & invoices → Take quote requests online. You get a page with your logo where people describe the job and leave an email or phone. Each request lands in Appraisals (marked "from your quote page"), and you get a notice and an email. Copy the link or the website button onto your site, social pages, or email signature.

Change orders are part of Synhelm Pro. On a project, Change orders → New: say what's changing, the amount (or tick credit), and any extra working days. Send to sign emails the client a page where they sign or decline; you get a notice either way. Signed on paper? Use Mark approved.

An approved change order joins the contract for progress billing, or use Bill on its own to put it on its own invoice (then it leaves the contract so it's never billed twice).

Settings → Accessibility (office) or Phone settings at the bottom of crew home. They're saved on that device, so each person can set up their own phone or computer.

• Text size: Standard, Large, or Larger — words, buttons, and spacing all grow.
• Reduce motion: turns off sliding and fading. If your device already asks for less motion, it's off automatically.
• Stronger contrast: darker secondary text and borders, underlined links, and a thicker keyboard outline.
• Vibration: a short buzz when you clock in or out, save a photo, or finish a task. iPhones and most computers don't let websites vibrate; the message on screen is always there too.

Every request is checked on Synhelm's server: who is signed in, which business they belong to, and what they're allowed to open. A business can never see another business's clients, jobs, crew, photos, files, or paper, and hiding a button is never the only protection.

Office admins only reach the areas the owner turned on for them. Crew only see their own hours and the jobs they're on.

Synhelm staff can't see your password and can't sign in as you. When Synhelm support opens a business to help, it's view-only unless they turn on a time-limited edit mode with a reason, and every step is logged.

Owners sign in with email and password, and new accounts confirm their email first. Forgot your password? Use the link on the sign-in page; a reset signs out every other device.

Synhelm will never ask for your password by email or phone.

Your records are yours. Download every record as spreadsheets (Settings → Data, hours included), a client as a ZIP, and paper as PDF any time — on every plan. Synhelm Pro adds ready-made files for payroll software and your bookkeeper.

Deleted something by mistake? Right after deleting a client, a project or a punch, tap Undo on the message that pops up. Clients, projects, appraisals, estimates, invoices, hours, photos and files stay in Settings → Data → Recycle bin for 30 days. Restore puts them back with their photos, files and links; after 30 days they're gone for good.

Settings → Data & export → Close this business and delete its data: everything for the business is removed after 30 days. You can cancel until then.

Synhelm Free is free to use for good: the whole shop, including estimates clients approve online, payments and expenses. Up to 5 crew and 1 GB.

Synhelm Pro gets you paid and keeps the books: invoice reminders and repeating invoices, change orders and progress billing, job costing and reports, files for your bookkeeper, and timesheet and payroll export with overtime by your local rules. Also your brand, phone notifications, and 3 office admins. Up to 25 crew and 25 GB.

Synhelm Enterprise gives a team with an office control: crew-lead approvals, closing each pay period, locations, activity history, safety reports, 25 office admins and priority support. Up to 100 crew and 100 GB.

One price per shop, not per person, in US or Canadian dollars, euros, pounds, or Australian dollars. The full comparison is in Settings → Plan & billing and on the pricing page.

Got a discount code? Settings → Plan & billing → Have a code?. It shows how much it takes off and until when, and checkout charges the lower price for that long.

Emails to your clients (estimates, invoices, reminders, receipts, client updates, change orders, drawings, review requests and office invites) are counted per business: 20 a day (10 an hour) on Synhelm Free, 100 a day (30 an hour) on Synhelm Pro, 300 a day (75 an hour) on Synhelm Enterprise. A business's first 7 days allow 15 a day. Sign-in and password emails never count.

The day starts over at midnight in your business's time zone. Settings → Plan & billing shows how many went out today.

Reached it? Nothing is lost: the send box says so and gives you Download PDF, so you can send the estimate or invoice from your own email, then Mark sent. Automatic reminders and repeating invoices wait and go out once the allowance starts over. An email that couldn't be delivered doesn't use any of it.

Settings → Plan & billing → Cancel subscription (or Change plan → Move to Synhelm Free). Your plan stays on until the end of the period you paid for, and Keep turns it back on until then.

If you cancel or move down, you go to Synhelm Free. Nothing is deleted: jobs, hours, photos, paper, and history stay, and you can export them. Everyone already on the crew keeps working; you just can't add more than the plan allows.