Construction and trades
IT support for contractors, builders and trade businesses.
Estimates, plans and job records — usually spread between an office, a truck and a phone.
- Contractual and insurance requirements
- Usually starts on Foundation
- Backup included
Construction and trade businesses have an unusual IT shape: a small office, a lot of people who are never in it, and critical documents that move between a desktop, a laptop in a truck and a phone on site. The estimating file that wins the next job might exist in one place, on one machine, with no copy anywhere else.
The financial exposure is concentrated in exactly that material. Estimates, plans, change orders, photos and job records are what you get paid on. Lose the documentation for a disputed change order and you are arguing from memory. This sector is also heavily targeted by invoice and payment fraud, because large payments to new suppliers are routine.
What goes wrong
The failures that actually cost construction & trades businesses money
Not a generic threat list — these are the patterns we see repeatedly in this sector.
Documents living on one machine
Estimating files, drawings and job records often sit on a single office PC or a laptop that travels. One failure or theft and the record of the work is gone.
Payment and invoice fraud
Large payments to suppliers and subcontractors make you a target for changed-bank-detail fraud, which arrives as a convincing email rather than a technical attack.
Field devices outside the office
Laptops, tablets and phones on job sites get lost, stolen and damaged, and they are usually the least protected devices in the business.
Seasonal and project-based headcount
Staff and subcontractors come and go with projects, and accounts that are never removed become quiet, permanent back doors.
What we do about it
Each risk above, met with something specific
Mapped deliberately — every item here answers one of the failures on the previous list.
Get the critical documents off single machines
Estimates, plans and job records into a properly backed-up location that syncs to field devices, so the work is not hostage to one hard drive.
Email protection aimed at payment fraud
Filtering plus practical training on the specific pattern that hits this sector — a supplier's bank details changing by email, usually with urgency attached.
Device protection for field kit
Encryption and managed antivirus on laptops and tablets so a device lost on a site is a hardware loss rather than a data breach.
Joiners and leavers handled properly
Access granted when someone starts and actually removed when they finish, so project churn does not leave a trail of live accounts.
Contractual and insurance requirements
What you are expected to be able to evidence
Larger clients and general contractors increasingly ask about data handling and cyber cover before awarding work, and insurers ask the same questions at renewal. Documented backup and security controls turn those questions into a straightforward answer.
How we document complianceWhere we would start you
Foundation$32/user/mo
Most trade businesses start with Foundation to get monitoring, patching and included backup in place, then move to Protected once payment fraud risk or client security requirements make managed security worthwhile.
Systems we support
What construction & trades businesses are usually running
We support the environment these run on, and work directly with your software vendor on application-specific problems.
- Estimating and takeoff software
- QuickBooks and job costing
- Project management and scheduling tools
- Plan and drawing storage
- Field photo and documentation apps
Most relevant services
What construction & trades clients use most
Ordered by how often this sector actually needs them.
Straight answers
Construction & trades IT questions
Next step
Find out what is actually exposed — free, and no obligation
A 30-minute assessment of your backup, security and support gaps, with a written summary you keep whether or not you hire us.