A Montana Contractor Asked for Help. We Built Him an App

If you run a small construction operation in Montana — a GC with a couple of crews, a remodeler doing kitchens and additions, a builder working a few spec homes at a time — you know that keeping jobs organized isn’t the problem. You’ve been doing that for years. The problem is that as soon as you’ve got more than one job going at once, things start slipping. A daily log doesn’t get filled out. A change order lives in a text message. You’re finding out about a problem on Job 2 because the client on Job 2 called you, not your crew.

That’s not a you problem. That’s a systems problem.

One day I had a contractor client say to me: “I’m about to have four jobs running and it’s going to horrible, I need a project manager, do you want a job?”

My answer surprised him: “How about I just build you a system?”

And that’s where Rafter came from.

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Built for the Smaller End of the Business. On Purpose.

Most construction software isn’t built for a five-person operation. It’s built for commercial GCs running $10M+ in annual volume, with a project manager in the office and a dedicated admin keeping the software updated. Platforms like Procore and Buildertrend are genuinely impressive — but they’re priced at $500 to $1,000+ per month and require weeks to learn and implement.

For a small contractor running tight margins with a lean crew, that’s not a tool. That’s overhead.

Rafter was designed specifically for the other end of the market:

• General contractors juggling two to five jobs with small crews.
• Builders working residential projects who need field visibility without enterprise complexity.
• Remodelers managing client-heavy jobs where change orders and communication are constant.
• Specialty trade contractors who need accountability tools without paying for features they’ll never touch.

If you’re a one-person office running a team of two to ten in the field, Rafter was built with you in mind.

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The Problems Rafter Was Built to Solve

These aren’t hypothetical pain points. These are the actual things small contractors tell us:

“I don’t know what’s happening on my jobs unless I’m there.”
When you’ve got a crew working without you on-site, you’re relying on a phone call or a text to know what happened that day. Sometimes you get it. Sometimes you find out at the end of the week — or from the client — that something went sideways.

“Change orders are always a battle.”
You do the extra work. The client thought it was included. You’re trying to prove an agreement with a three-week-old text message. This is one of the most common ways small contractors lose money on jobs that should have been profitable.

“I can’t keep track of everything across multiple jobs.”
Two jobs is manageable. Three or four starts to blur. Something always slips — a schedule update that didn’t get communicated, an issue that didn’t get flagged until it was expensive, a client who feels like they’re in the dark.

“My guys don’t fill out paperwork.”
Because nobody has time for paperwork. If the daily log process takes more than two minutes on a phone, it doesn’t happen. And then you have no record of what was done, when, or by whom.

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So What Is Rafter?

Rafter is the daily accountability layer for small construction crews — fast to use in the field, keeps owners informed without anyone chasing anyone down.

It’s not an estimating tool. It’s not a billing platform. It’s not trying to replace QuickBooks. Rafter is focused on one thing: making sure your field operations run clean every single day, and that you always know what’s happening on your jobs without having to make a call to find out.

Here’s what’s inside:

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What Rafter Does

Daily Logs — Fast, Mobile, Actually Gets Done

Your crew fills out daily logs from their phones. Voice-to-text notes make it fast — your foreman can narrate what happened in 30 seconds without typing a word. The mobile-first interface was designed for a job site, not an office. Built-in daily reminders keep the habit consistent. You get a dated, documented record of what happened on every job, every day. When a client asks what was done last Tuesday, you know exactly.

Timesheets and Clock-In / Clock-Out

Know who’s on site, on which job, and when — automatically. Time entries are tied to specific projects so your labor data actually means something. Rafter also includes an owner timesheet approval step, which gives you a lightweight verification layer before hours are finalized — a real advantage for small contractors who need a simple payroll check without a full HR system. QuickBooks sync is available for account owners, so approved hours can flow directly into your accounting workflow.

Issue Tracking with SMS Alerts

When something goes wrong on a job — a material problem, an unexpected discovery behind a wall, a sub who didn’t show — your crew flags it in Rafter, sets a priority, assigns it to the right person, and the system fires off an SMS alert. Issues are tracked from creation to resolution. Nothing disappears into a text thread. Notifications keep the right people in the loop as status changes.

Change Orders with Digital Client Approval

Create a change order, send it to your client for digital approval, and track its status in real time. Your client gets their own portal login to review and sign off on changes. You get a documented, time-stamped approval on every scope change.

The “I thought that was included” conversation is a lot shorter when you have proof.

Client Portal

Each client gets a login to view their project and approve change orders directly through Rafter. It’s a clean, professional experience that keeps clients engaged without requiring them to call you — and it gives you a documented record of every interaction and approval.

Schedule Management

Project timelines with task dependencies that your whole team can see from their phones. When the schedule shifts — and it will — everyone gets the update. No more subs showing up to a job that isn’t ready for them.

Multi-Role Access

Rafter supports Owner, Project Manager, Employee, Subcontractor, and Client roles, each with the right level of access. Your guys see their tasks. Your subs see what’s relevant. Your clients see their project. You see everything.

Friday Summary

Every Friday, Rafter sends account owners an email summary of the week — what got done across all active jobs, what issues are open, what change orders are pending. You get a clear weekly picture of your whole operation without having to chase it down yourself.

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What Rafter Does Not Do

Worth being upfront about this: Rafter is a field operations tool. It does not handle estimating, invoicing, payroll processing or material purchasing.

If you need an all-in-one business management system, Rafter isn’t that. What it does — daily accountability, issue tracking, change orders, client communication, crew scheduling — it does really well, at a price built for small operations. No bloated feature list you’ll never use. No enterprise price tag. No week-long onboarding process.

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Why This Fits Montana Contractors Specifically

Montana’s construction market has some realities that make field accountability tools especially valuable for small operators.

Your jobs are spread out. You might have a crew remodeling a bathroom in Columbia Falls and another one building a garage addition in Lakeside. Driving to every site every day isn’t realistic. You need your field to report to you automatically — not the other way around.

Your clients are your neighbors. A poorly handled change order or a communication breakdown in a small town doesn’t just cost you a job — it costs you referrals. Having a clean, professional process for every scope change protects your business and your reputation.

The season is short. Montana’s building season moves fast. Losing a week because a job got disorganized hits harder here than in most places. Tight daily accountability keeps jobs on track even when the calendar is working against you.

Your crew is small and lean. When you’re running three guys on a job, every person needs to be in the right place, doing the right task. You can’t afford the inefficiency of the accountability gap.

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Getting Started Is Simple

Rafter offers a 30-day free trial — no credit card required. It runs as a Progressive Web App — meaning your crew installs it directly on their phone without going through an app store. On an iPhone, open Rafter in Safari and tap “Add to Home Screen.” On Android, Chrome will prompt you to install it automatically. It works like a native app from that point forward.

Setup takes a day, not a week. There’s no professional services call, no demo required, no onboarding maze. Create an account, invite your team with the right roles, set up your jobs, and start getting daily logs. Most contractors notice a meaningful difference within the first week — not because Rafter is super sophisticated, but because it’s simple and it actually gets used.

One more thing worth mentioning: Rafter has a referral program that’s straightforward. Refer another contractor, and when they pay their first month, you get a month free. Refer three contractors, you get three months free. Refer twelve, that’s a whole year free! Keep referring and you keep getting free months. In a tight-knit industry where you probably already know half the contractors around, that adds up fast — and frankly, if Rafter solves the problem for you, you’re probably going to tell someone about it anyway.

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A Word from Us

At Montana Insurance Brokers, we work with contractors every day. We help protect their businesses, their equipment, their crews, and their livelihoods. Rafter came from the same place — a genuine desire to solve the real operational problems small contractors face, not just the insurance ones.

This isn’t a software company that discovered contractors. It’s a Montana business that knows them.

If you want to talk about Rafter, or about making sure your construction business has the right coverage in place, we’re easy to reach.

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Ready to Try Rafter?

Start your free 30-day trial at getrafterapp.com — no credit card required, no sales call.

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Questions about contractor insurance in Montana? We can help with that too.

Ph: 406 401 7220
E: [email protected]

— Klinton Jones
Principal Broker,
Montana Insurance Brokers