Commercial contractor software is the system a contractor uses to win, run and bill work for business clients: property managers, facilities teams, strata and condo boards, retailers and offices. The right commercial contractor software depends on what kind of commercial work you do. Large commercial construction needs a project management suite. Commercial service and small-project work needs fast work orders, time and materials, change orders and clean invoicing, which is what Contruva does.
This page is candid about that line. If you bid tendered projects with RFIs, submittals and progress billing, we’ll tell you what to look at instead.
What is commercial contractor software?
The phrase covers two very different jobs. Searching for it brings up construction platforms built for general contractors running multi-month builds, and service platforms built for mechanical, electrical and maintenance contractors who send techs to buildings every day. Both are “commercial”. They solve different problems.
| Commercial construction software | Commercial service contractor software | |
|---|---|---|
| Typical work | New builds, tenant fit-outs, large renovations | Repairs, maintenance contracts, small projects, turnovers |
| Job length | Months | Hours to a few weeks |
| Paperwork that matters | Bids, RFIs, submittals, drawings, progress billing, holdbacks | Work orders, T&M sheets, change orders, photos, monthly invoices |
| Who it serves | GCs, owners, architects, subs on one project | Your crew and your client’s property or facility manager |
| Examples | Procore and similar construction suites | Service and field apps, including Contruva |
Where Contruva fits for commercial work
Contruva fits contractors whose commercial work looks like a steady stream of jobs, not one big project. That includes:
- Facility maintenance contractors on monthly or quarterly service contracts for HVAC, plumbing, electrical, cleaning, landscaping or snow.
- Property manager clients who send work orders for units, common areas and turnovers across several buildings.
- Strata and condo boards that need quotes with options, approval before work starts and photos after.
- Small commercial projects such as a store refresh, an office repaint or a washroom refit, quoted fixed-price or billed T&M.
- Mixed residential and commercial shops that want one app for both sides of the business.
For these jobs, Contruva covers the whole loop: the request comes in through the inbox or the AI receptionist, you quote it, schedule the crew on the calendar, the crew records time, materials and photos in the crew app, and you invoice and get paid.
What commercial construction software has that Contruva doesn’t
Honesty saves you a bad trial. Contruva does not include these, and if your work depends on them, you need a construction management suite:
| Need | In Contruva? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Bid and tender management | No | Quotes, yes. Managing invitations to tender and bid leveling, no. |
| RFIs, submittals and drawing management | No | Photos and daily logs on the job, but not a document control system. |
| AIA-style progress billing and retainage tracking | No | Deposits and regular invoices, but not schedule-of-values pay applications or holdback ledgers. |
| Gantt charts and critical path schedules | No | A drag-and-drop calendar for crews, not a project schedule. |
| Subcontractor portals and prequalification | No | Your own crew accounts only. |
| Certified payroll and payroll | No | Time entries are recorded on every job, but payroll runs in another system. |
| Multi-location or branch management | No | Contruva runs one business, not separate branches. |
| Change orders, T&M, job costing | Yes | Online change order approval, time and materials on every job, job costing. |
Provincial prompt payment and holdback rules apply to many construction contracts. If you’re tracking holdbacks, use a system built for it and talk to your accountant. Contruva isn’t accounting software.
When Procore or a construction suite is the better choice
If you’re a general contractor or a large trade sub on commercial builds, a construction management platform is the right tool. Procore’s pricing page (checked November 2026) says it charges an upfront annual fee per product based on your annual construction volume, includes unlimited users, and doesn’t publish prices. That model suits companies running large project volumes with many outside parties on each job.
There are also commercial service platforms aimed at larger mechanical, electrical and fire protection contractors. BuildOps, for example, says on its pricing page (checked November 2026) that pricing is quoted per contractor based on field and office headcount, and that its project plans add submittals, RFIs and change orders. ServiceTitan’s pricing page (checked November 2026) describes per-technician pricing without published prices. See our ServiceTitan alternatives and ServiceTitan pricing pages for more.
The simple test: if your clients send you drawings and specs and expect pay applications, use a construction suite. If they send you a work order and expect an invoice with photos, Contruva is the faster, cheaper fit. Some contractors run both: a suite for the big project, and Contruva for the service side that keeps the trucks busy between projects.
How to run work for property managers and strata boards
Property managers care about three things: did you show up, did you stay within what they approved, and is the invoice easy to match. Build your process around those.
Every email, call or text becomes a job on the client’s contact record, with the unit and building in the notes.
For anything outside the contract, send a quote with options. The board or manager signs online.
Clock-in, checklist, before and after photos and materials used, all from the crew app.
Found rot behind the drywall? Send the change order from site and wait for approval before you open it up.
One batch of invoices per client, with the job photos on file if they ask. Card payments through Stripe and reminders if it sits.
Our guide on how to handle a change order covers the wording and timing in detail.
Time and materials vs fixed price on commercial jobs
A lot of commercial service work is billed T&M because nobody knows what’s behind the ceiling tile until you look. T&M only works if your time and materials records are tight. In Contruva, crews clock in against the job, log materials and expenses with receipt scanning, and record mileage, so the invoice is built from what actually happened. Job costing then shows whether that contract is making money at your current rates.
For small fixed-price projects, quote it properly. Load your labour with burden (our labour burden calculator helps) and price to a margin, not a markup. Our article on how to price a contractor job walks through it.
What facility maintenance contractor software should do
If most of your commercial revenue is recurring maintenance, judge software on how little you have to touch it each month.
- Recurring jobs that land on the calendar without re-entering them.
- Recurring or batch invoices that go out on the same day each month.
- Checklists so every visit covers the same points, whoever goes.
- Crew permissions set per module, so members see and edit only what you allow.
- A record of every visit with photos you can send when the client asks.
- Accounting sync with QuickBooks or Xero so your bookkeeper isn’t re-typing.
Contruva does each of those in one plan at $249.99 CAD a month, with no per-seat fees, which matters when you have an office coordinator and a dozen techs. See pricing, or compare with our pages for larger teams and field service management.
How to choose commercial contractor software
Write down your last 20 commercial jobs. Count how many were under two weeks long and billed from a work order or quote. If most were, you need commercial service contractor software, and Contruva is worth a 7-day trial with real work orders. If most were long projects with drawings, pay applications and outside subs, book demos with construction suites instead. Picking the right category first saves months of forcing the wrong tool to fit.