BuildOS serves four distinct roles within a residential GC firm. Each persona uses the platform differently, accesses different modules, and has different definitions of success.
Tom runs the business. He's accountable for everything — revenue, schedule performance, client relationships, and compliance. He's in meetings most of the day and out on site visits in the afternoon. He needs to understand the health of his entire portfolio at a glance without wading through individual project details.
- Spends 4+ hours on the first Monday of every month reconciling budget spreadsheets
- Finds out about schedule slips when clients call — not from his team
- Material orders that were "someone else's job" get missed
- Sales pipeline tracked in a shared spreadsheet that no one keeps current
- Can't see which projects are on the critical path vs. which have schedule buffer
- 8-minute portfolio financial review — all 10 projects, live
- Feed card alerts him to budget overruns and schedule risks before they escalate
- Approves procurement decisions with one tap from his phone
- Weighted pipeline revenue forecast tells him what's likely to close next quarter
- Permit issued → project automatically initialized, nothing falls through the gap
Sarah is the operational nerve center of the business. She manages the CRM, tracks invoices, coordinates with vendors, monitors procurement deadlines, and keeps Tom and Mike from having to deal with administrative details. She's the power user of BuildOS — she lives in the platform all day.
- Tracks vendor invoices in a spreadsheet that's always two weeks behind
- Manually checks supplier lead times and emails PMs reminders to order
- Manages permits and estimates in separate folders — no single view
- Spends significant time chasing sub confirmations by phone
- No visibility into which feed items need her action vs. which have been handled
- Procurement agent surfaces material deadlines automatically — she just acts
- Sub liaison agent handles SMS confirmations; she reviews the results in Feed
- All estimates, permits, and pipeline data in one place per prospect
- Invoice approvals queued in Feed with full context — no hunting for POs
- Advancing a prospect to Permit Issued auto-creates the project — no double-entry
Mike manages two to four active construction sites simultaneously. He's on-site by 7 AM, juggling crew assignments, sub schedules, inspection deadlines, and daily surprises. He needs fast answers and zero administrative overhead. His primary interface is the daily morning briefing on his phone, delivered before he arrives at the first site.
- Spends 30–45 min each morning reviewing texts, emails, and spreadsheets to plan the day
- Has to manually chase subs to confirm tomorrow's schedule
- Doesn't know about weather-sensitive tasks until conditions change
- Task completions don't reach the office until end-of-week check-ins
- Can't see which tasks are on the critical path without opening a spreadsheet
- 4-minute morning briefing — AI-generated, delivered to his phone before 7 AM
- Sub confirmations tracked automatically; he sees status without calling anyone
- Weather alerts call out at-risk exterior tasks before the rain arrives
- Push notifications when Carlos marks a task complete — instant visibility
- Schedule updates after any delay — he sees the new dates, not the old ones
Carlos works on-site, executing the tasks Mike assigns. He may have limited connectivity during the day and isn't expected to use a desktop app. BuildOS reaches him through the mobile app — simple, fast, and designed to work even when there's no cell service. His interaction with BuildOS is minimal but critically important: accurate field data flows back to the schedule, the superintendent, and the finance team.
- Has to text Mike to confirm what tasks are assigned for the day
- Task completions aren't logged anywhere — there's no record
- Office doesn't know if he's on-site until Mike manually reports it
- Communication happens entirely through informal texts — no structure
- Task list pre-loaded on his phone every morning with today's assignments
- Marks tasks complete in <45 seconds with photo + progress slider
- GPS-tagged check-in replaces the morning phone call
- Works fully offline — syncs when connectivity returns, no data lost
- App available in English and Spanish
Role Comparison at a Glance
| Capability | Tom (Owner) | Sarah (Admin) | Mike (Superintendent) | Carlos (Field) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Create / modify projects | ✓ | ✓ | — | — |
| View financial dashboard | Full | Full | Summary only | — |
| Manage pipeline / CRM | ✓ | ✓ | — | — |
| Update task progress | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Via field app only |
| Recalculate schedule | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | — |
| Approve invoices / POs | ✓ | ✓ | — | — |
| Allocate equipment | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | — |
| View notification feed | All cards | All cards | Role-targeted cards | Push only |
| Field progress reporting | — | — | — | ✓ (mobile app) |
For the full permissions matrix, see Roles & Permissions.