Getting started with BuilderDash

BuilderDash keeps two things separate: your personal account (your login) and your workspace (your business, and everything in it - customers, enquiries, jobs, quotes and invoices). You'll set both up in a couple of minutes, and if you ever work across more than one business, you can switch between workspaces without signing out.

Create your account and workspace

1. Go to the sign-up page. Open my.builderdash.app/register.
2. Enter your details. Enter your first name, last name, work email and a password of at least 8 characters, then confirm the password. We'll send you a welcome email and sign you in automatically.
3. Choose to create or join a workspace. Choose "Create a new workspace" to set up your own business, which makes you the owner. Choose "Join an existing workspace" if a colleague has invited you - open the invite link from your email (or enter the invite code), set a password, and you're added straight to their workspace.
4. Add your business details. Enter your workspace name (for example, "Carrick & Co Construction"), your business type and team size, plus optional details like your address, website, support email, support phone and country. These appear on your quotes, invoices and other documents, and you can change them later in Settings.
5. Save to start your free trial. Saving creates your workspace, makes you the owner and starts your 14-day free trial - no card needed. You're then taken to your getting-started checklist.

Your getting-started checklist

The checklist shows your setup progress as a percentage, across five steps. You can complete them in any order, or skip them and come back later.

1. Add your workspace details
2. Add your first customer
3. Log your first enquiry - see Enquiries
4. Create your first job
5. Invite your team

Once you complete a step, it stays ticked off permanently, even if you later edit or delete that record.

Sign in to BuilderDash

On the sign-in page, enter your work email and password. If you've signed in before on that device, your email is remembered for you, and you can tick "Keep me signed in" so you're not prompted every time.

Forgotten your password? Use "Forgot password?" on the sign-in page and enter your email. We'll send you a secure reset link that's valid for 60 minutes and works once - open it, choose a new password, and you're straight back in. For your security, we always show the same "check your email" message, whether or not that address has an account.

Switch workspaces

If you belong to more than one business, open the workspace switcher at the top of the screen. It lists every workspace you're a member of - pick one and BuilderDash switches to it, showing that business's information. You'll only ever see workspaces you actually belong to. There's also an "Add workspace" option there if you need to set up another business.

Your last-used workspace is remembered between visits, so you land back where you left off.

User roles and permissions

• Owner - full access, including billing and settings. You become the owner of any workspace you create.
• Office Admin - full access to the app, except billing.
• Field User - a lighter role for site staff: their own tasks, time tracking, site photos and viewing jobs.
• Client Portal - an external login for your customers, so they can see and download the documents you've chosen to share with them, such as certificates and the files in a job's Shared with client folder. Clients accept or decline quotes from the link in your quote email, which doesn't need a login.
• Supplier - an external login for your suppliers, so they can respond to requests for quotes.

Owners and Office Admins are the "office" roles that can see and change admin-level settings, such as job numbering.

Find your way around the dashboard

After signing in you land on the dashboard for the workspace you're in. It's split into four areas:

• Needs your attention - enquiries to follow up, quotes awaiting a response, overdue invoices and timesheets to approve. Click any card to open the full list.
• Business health - active jobs, your quote pipeline value, outstanding invoices and hours worked this week.
• Today across the team - the tasks that need attention and who's on site right now.
• Recent activity - the latest updates to your enquiries.

Money is shown in pounds sterling. See The dashboard for what each card and panel counts.

Set up your workspace settings

Open Settings from the main menu to set the defaults that carry through to every new job, quote and time entry. The full guide is in Workspace settings.

1. Job prefix. In References & numbering, type your prefix into the Job prefix box (for example SCC, so new jobs read SCC-124) and click Save prefix. Existing job numbers don't change.
2. Quote start number. Set where your next quote number begins (shown as QT- followed by the number). New numbers always carry on from the highest one already used, even if you set a lower start, so you'll never get a duplicate.
3. Quote validity (days). Set how long new quotes stay valid - 30 days unless you change it. You can still change the expiry date on any individual quote.
4. Default quote footer / terms. Write the VAT, validity and payment wording that starts every new quote. You can edit it on any individual quote.
5. Team labour rates. In Team & labour rates, type each person's hourly rate into the £ / h box - it saves when you click out of the box. A person's rate is captured on each time entry when they check out, so changing it later doesn't alter time already recorded.

Settings are organised into tabs, including one for your enquiry sources, plus separate tabs for quotes, invoices, purchase orders, your team, roles, templates, integrations and billing. Only an owner or office user can change these settings; other team members can see them.

Good to know

• One login can belong to several workspaces, each with its own role, and switching between them is instant.
• After creating an account you're taken to set up a workspace; after creating a workspace you land on your getting-started checklist; after signing in you go straight to your dashboard.
• Changing your job prefix, quote start number, validity window or default terms never rewrites existing records - only new ones pick up the change.