Frequently asked questions
Fifteen real questions contractors ask before they buy V104. Honest answers.
Those tools are massive. They do project management, client portals, lead funnels, scheduling, time tracking, and more. They cost $200–$400 a month and take weeks to set up.
V104 is the opposite. We do four things deeply: fast estimating, a working pipeline, live job margin, and QuickBooks sync. We are not trying to run your whole business. We are trying to replace the spreadsheet you estimate from and the sticky notes on your truck dashboard. Smaller scope, sharper focus, lower price.
Partially. The estimate builder, voice input, and photo capture all work offline. Your data caches locally and syncs the moment you’re back on signal. The pipeline view, QuickBooks sync, and PDF send require an internet connection.
We built it that way because most contractors are in basements, attics, or jobsites where signal is spotty. The last thing you need is the app freezing because Verizon dropped you. Build the estimate now, send it when you’re back at the truck.
Yes. V104 runs as a responsive web app and as a TestFlight/Play Store build. Voice and photo capture are designed for phone first. The pipeline and Job Cockpit views are usable on phone but they’re obviously easier to read on a tablet or laptop.
A native iOS and Android app is on the roadmap. The current builds work, but the native app will be faster and more polished. If you primarily work from your phone, we’d nudge you toward an iPad or a tablet for the pipeline review.
Yes. Every estimate, lead, and job is stored on encrypted cloud servers with daily automated backups. We can restore your data to any point in the last 30 days if something goes sideways. You can also export your full data set to CSV or JSON at any time from Settings → Export data.
Important: the QuickBooks-synced parts of your data also live in QuickBooks, which has its own backup. So you have two copies by default once QBO is connected.
Open any estimate, tap the menu, then Preview PDF. The preview shows exactly what the client will see. Tap Download to save it to your device, or Send to email it directly to the client from inside V104. Sent estimates also save a PDF to that estimate’s history so you can re-download anytime.
The PDF includes your logo, license number, contact info, line items, contingency, total, and standard terms. You can customize the terms language under Settings → Document templates.
Today, V104 is single-user. One login per company. Your crew can’t log in separately yet.
What you can do right now: send a read-only PDF of any job from Job Cockpit to a foreman, or print the line-item list as a daily plan. Multi-user is the most-requested feature on our roadmap and we’re building it next. When it lands, you’ll get role-based logins for foreman, office, and admin without restarting your data.
This is the workflow we’ve built deepest. V104 imports HUD consultant SOR scope, organizes line items by section, supports both 10% and 15% contingency reserves, maps every line to a specific draw, and generates HUD-friendly PDF specs. When you’re running the job, Job Cockpit tracks draw status, triggers re-inspection requests, and reconciles unspent contingency at completion.
Walk through the full 203K interactive tutorial to see the whole flow.
You tap the mic and describe scope the way you’d explain it to your foreman. V104 transcribes your speech and converts it into structured line items — with quantities, units, and starter prices pulled from your last similar job.
It’s not magic. You still review every line. But it gets you 80% of the way there in 30 seconds, instead of typing for 15 minutes. We use Anthropic’s Claude under the hood. Your audio is never used to train models, and your data never leaves your account.
Yes. Fourteen days, full features, no credit card required up front. You only get billed if you keep using it past day 14.
Pricing after the trial: $39 per month or $390 per year (saves you about two months). One contractor, unlimited estimates, unlimited jobs, QuickBooks sync included. We don’t do feature tiers — you get the whole app or nothing.
Honest answer: very accurate on common fixtures and surface types (tubs, vanities, toilets, tile, drywall). Less accurate on unusual scope or partial shots. We benchmark against our own real Detroit-area projects and the model gets fixture counts right about 90% of the time.
You always review the detected items before they go into the estimate. Photo capture is a head-start, not a replacement for your eye on the room. Bad lighting, weird angles, and cluttered rooms hurt accuracy — just like they hurt a human estimator’s eye.
Not yet. We don’t talk to Lowe’s Pro, Home Depot Pro, ABC Supply, or other supplier portals directly. You enter material prices manually or pull them from your saved Job Assemblies.
Supplier sync is on our roadmap behind multi-user and the native iOS/Android app. We won’t fake it — if we say we sync with Home Depot, that means it actually works, not that it works on the demo and breaks in production. We’re not there yet.
The Books tab shows a sync log with green checks and red flags. If a sync fails, the failed item gets a one-tap retry. The two most common failures are "Customer not found in QBO" (toggle on auto-create customers) and "Token expired" (re-authorize via Books → Reconnect).
If something stays broken, email us — we built the integration ourselves and we know its corners. See the full QuickBooks tutorial for the recovery flows.
You can, with caveats. V104 is built for residential and light-commercial work — remodels, renovations, additions, roofs, baths, kitchens, decks. The estimating, pipeline, and job tracking all work for commercial.
Where we’re weaker for commercial: AIA progress billing, lien waiver workflows, and certified payroll. If you’re running prevailing-wage work or AIA G702/G703 projects, you’ll outgrow us. For owner-direct light commercial under $500K, V104 handles it cleanly.
Open Pipeline, tap the menu, then Import leads. Drop a CSV with at minimum: client name, address, project type, and stage. V104 maps the columns and previews everything before importing.
If you’re moving from a spreadsheet, this typically takes about 5 minutes. If you’re moving from another CRM, export your leads as CSV and use the same import flow. Email us if you need help with column mapping — we’ll do it for you.
Four business hours, Monday through Friday, 8am to 6pm Eastern. Phone at (248) 717-1417 goes straight to a real person at Arise Above Construction. Email support@ariseaboveapps.com reaches the same team.
If you call after hours, leave a message — we usually respond first thing the next morning. We don’t outsource support. The person who answers your call is the same person who builds the app and runs jobs in the field.