Who it's for: an investor running their own renovation or build, and a contractor with a small crew — both on the Solo plan.
What you'll do: choose which side of the contract you're on, invite the other side, keep a task list room by room and, as the investor, set an investment budget and keep an eye on the reserve.
Before you start
- The Solo plan is one project and one paid account — the owner's. The other side and helpers join as working accounts at no extra cost (3 per project).
- Solo includes the site journal, the task list, issues, the contract with a budget, and documents. Conversations, investor purchases and work time are in every plan.
- Instead of a schedule with dates and dependencies, Solo has a Task list: what needs doing in which room, with tick-offs and an optional due date.
- The project can be run by the contractor or by the investor. You choose this when creating the project and can't change it later.
Steps
1. Choose your side
When creating the project, answer Which side of the contract are you on?
- I’m the contractor — you do the works for an investor. You get the contract and an execution budget with the planned result, and you invite the investor with the investor role. See Guide for the client.
- I’m the investor — it's your renovation or build. You keep the site journal and purchases, and invite contractors as working accounts.
The steps below cover a project run by the investor.
2. Enter the contract and the investment budget
In the amounts step, answer Do you already have a contract with the contractor?
- If you do, enter the contract value and the VAT rate. If not, choose Not yet — you can add the contract later.
- In How much do you want to spend in total? enter the gross amount for the whole investment: the contract, amendments and purchases. The field is optional.
- Right below it you'll see the reserve above the contract — what is left for purchases, amendments and additional works.
Example: the contract with the contractor is 39,000 and you set aside 50,000 for the whole job. The reserve is 11,000 and shrinks with every purchase and amendment.
3. Invite the contractor
Go to Project settings → Team → Invite to project and invite the contractor with the contractor role. See Invite people to a project.
On a working account, the contractor:
- keeps My journal: what they did, photos and work time. You can attach an entry to your site journal,
- gets issues to fix and records material needs,
- reports purchases made for you: an invoice issued to you to pay, or a purchase they want refunded. You settle them.
4. Keep an eye on the investment budget
The Budget module in your project is called Investment budget and shows three numbers:
- investment budget — the amount you set aside for the whole job,
- investment cost — the contract with amendments plus gross expenses: paid, to pay and to refund,
- reserve — what is still left. When the cost exceeds the budget, you'll see Over budget with the amount instead.
Below them are a budget usage bar and the cost breakdown. An amendment awaiting a decision is shown separately — with the reserve that will remain once it's accepted.
Change the budget with Change budget, or Set budget if there isn't one yet. The same card is on the project dashboard as Investment cost.
5. Record purchases
Record your purchases in the Purchases module: what you bought, the amount, the shop, the date and a photo of the receipt. Every purchase lowers the reserve straight away. See Guide for the client.
Advances and instalments for the contractor go separately, into Purchases → Payments — on a schedule with reminders or as you go. The contractor confirms each payment, and a confirmed one can be downloaded as a PDF receipt. Payments don't lower the reserve a second time — they are part of the contract. You can also report a payment from your phone in mobile mode; the schedule is set up in full mode.
6. Keep the task list
The Task list module works the same in a project run by the investor and by the contractor.
- Click Add a room and enter a name, e.g. “Bathroom” or “Hallway”. Tasks that don't belong to a place go to the General group.
- In a room, type a task in the Add a task… field and press Enter. The cursor stays in the field, so you can add the next one straight away.
- Click a task to fix its name or set By when. On the morning of the due date we remind the person who added it.
- Tick off what's done. The task moves to the bottom of the room, into the collapsed Done section.
Rooms are shared with issues. When a room has open issues, you'll see their number next to its name, linking to the issues. Issues themselves don't go on the task list.
On the project dashboard, the To do card shows how many tasks are open, how many are done, what is overdue and what is due in the next 7 days.
Tasks are added and ticked off by the project owner and by the contractor on a working account: the contractor in an investor's project, the helper in a contractor's project. A working account edits and deletes only the tasks it added. An investor invited to a contractor's project sees the list, but raises remarks as issues.
What happens next
- The contractor doesn't see the investment budget or the reserve. Only the investor side sees them: you and the investors you add to the project.
- An investor-run project has no profit and no execution budget. The contract keeps its value, VAT and amendments, without a target margin.
- Every amendment changes the investment cost, so you see straight away what is left in reserve.
- After moving to the Start plan, the task list becomes a schedule: rooms become work scopes and tasks become items. Nothing gets retyped — you add dates, dependencies and costs.
Troubleshooting
- I don't see the question about my side of the contract. Choosing a side is only available on the Solo plan.
- The reserve doesn't show. The investment budget isn't set. Click Set budget in the Investment budget module.
- I can't set a task's start date. On Solo a task only has a By when date. Start dates, durations and dependencies are in the schedule from the Start plan.
- I can't delete a room. Only an empty room can be deleted — no tasks and no issues. The General group can't be deleted.
- The investment cost doesn't include VAT on the contract. The contract is entered net without a VAT rate. Add the rate on the contract card.