Getting started
Set up your company account
Create your Buildpal account, add your company's details, choose a plan and invite the people who will book workers and run your sites.
5 min4 steps
Learn to run your sites on Buildpal
Walkthroughs, video tutorials and step-by-step guides for contractors and site teams, from your first booking to paying your crew.
Looking for work on site?I'm a worker
Start here
Your first week on Buildpal, step by step. Tick each step off as you go.
0 of 5 done
Video tutorials
Short videos that show each step on screen.
Set up your company account
Video soon
Book your first crew
Video soon
Set up Site Access readers and cards
Video soonApprove days and pay your crew
Video soon
All guides
Pick a topic, or search above.
13 guides
Getting startedAdd a site and invite supervisors
Create each construction site once, set where it is, invite the supervisors who run it day to day and choose how attendance is captured.
4 min4 steps- Booking workers
Book your first crew
Describe the work you need done and Buildpal offers it to verified workers who fit. You see who accepted before the first day starts.
6 min5 steps 
Booking workersHow matching works
Workers aren't listed for you to pick from. Here is how Buildpal decides who is offered your work, and why it stays fair on both sides.
4 min5 steps
Booking workersRebook workers you trust
Invite workers you've worked with before to a new booking. Past work together counts in matching, but never shuts other workers out.
3 min3 steps- Attendance and Site Access
Set up Site Access readers and cards
Put a reader at the gate, link it to your site, and workers check in and out with a tap of their card. No phones or paper at the gate.
8 min6 steps - Attendance and Site Access
Record attendance with the Field App
No readers yet? Supervisors can check workers in and out from the Field App on a phone, and the attendance record works the same way.
5 min4 steps 
Attendance and Site AccessWhat the reader tells a worker, and what to do
When a reader accepts or refuses a tap, it says why on the spot. Here is what each answer means and how to sort it out.
4 min5 steps- Approvals and pay
Approve days and pay your crew
Review the attendance, approve the days worked, and pay reaches each worker's mobile money on schedule. Every step is recorded.
6 min5 steps - Approvals and pay
How rates work
Worker rates are published, not negotiated. Here is what makes up the rate on a booking, and the one lever you have to raise it.
4 min5 steps - Workers and reputation
Rating workers fairly, and disputes
Your ratings shape workers' reputations. Here is how to rate well, how disputes work, and why one rating never defines anyone.
4 min4 steps - Your account
Plans and billing
Choose a monthly plan per active project or pay as you go. Here is how each one works. Ask the team for current prices.
4 min5 steps - Troubleshooting
Working with no network
Sites often lose signal. Here is what keeps working offline, what happens when the network returns, and what to check if taps don't appear.
3 min4 steps
Troubleshooting
Quick answers to the problems people run into most.
Check the day's attendance: a worker who hasn't tapped in shows as absent. Workers on the booking's standby list can be offered the place, and a no-show counts against the absent worker's reliability. You can also send a new request for the same day.
Edit the booking. Workers who already accepted are asked again, because a real change to the dates or the rate needs their fresh yes. If someone declines, the place can go to the next worker on the standby list.
The reader shows the reason on the spot: the card is lost or not active, the worker isn't booked on this site, or the tap was a duplicate. Fix the cause, for example by adding the worker to the booking, and ask them to tap again.
Readers report their own health. Check the power and the network first. A reader keeps recording taps while it is offline and sends them when it reconnects, so the day's attendance isn't lost.
A failed payout shows its reason and the money goes back to the worker's wallet, so nothing is lost. The usual cause is a mobile money number that doesn't match. The worker can correct it and withdraw again.
Ask them to report it straight away so the card stops working. The replacement is theirs and is registered to them, and their record stays exactly as it was.
Ratings can be disputed. A dispute goes to moderation, and reviews that are abusive, personal or retaliatory are removed rather than averaged in. Keep every rating about the work.
Invite them from the site's team page. Each supervisor has their own login, and every monthly plan includes up to two site supervisors per project.
Glossary
The words you'll see on Buildpal, in plain language.
- Booking
- Your request for workers: the trade, how many, the dates, the site and how long. Verified workers are offered the work from it.
- Offer
- The invitation a matched worker receives for your booking. They accept or decline within a set window.
- Standby list
- Eligible workers ranked after those already offered your work, ready to take a place if someone declines or doesn't arrive.
- Verified worker
- A worker whose identity has been checked, with a trade profile built from checkable facts rather than claims.
- Tier
- A worker's level from 1 to 4, earned on reliability, quality and attendance. It is a record of proven work, not a rank of skill.
- Base rate
- The day rate Buildpal publishes for each trade. It is the floor for every booking and always sits above the statutory minimum.
- Tier premium
- An amount on top of the base rate for workers with a higher tier.
- Contractor premium
- An optional amount you add on top of the rate to make your work more attractive. It is the only rate lever a contractor has.
- Completion bonus
- An optional bonus you can offer for seeing the booking through to the end.
- Site Card
- The worker's own card, with a printed serial and registered to them. They tap it at the reader to check in and out.
- Reader
- The device at the site gate that reads Site Cards and records who came in and out, and when. If it refuses a tap, it shows the worker why.
- Approved day
- A day of attendance you have confirmed. Approved days become the amounts paid to your workers.
Still stuck?
Tell us what you're trying to do and the Buildpal team will help you set it up.