Read this before you rip out the stack.
TradeFlo Pro is pre-launch, so we’ll say it plainly: full documentation lands with launch. What’s here today is the material worth reading now — how switching off HCSS actually goes, which docs are coming, and straight answers to the questions heavy-civil contractors ask us.
Switching off HCSS,
station by station.
This is the sequence we run with you in early access. Nothing gets turned off until its replacement has carried real work — every phase has a rollback, and the old stack stays live until you stop reaching for it.
This isn’t a self-serve checklist yet — we do it with you. Our team sits with your estimator and your controller, moves the data, and stays on it until the first full cycle runs clean. The full workbook version of this guide ships with launch.
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STA 0+00 · Phase one
Take stock
Before anything moves, inventory where the numbers actually live. Most heavy-civil shops find the same four piles: the estimating library in HeavyBid, field history in HeavyJob, the equipment list in Equipment360, and the money — SOV, billed-to-date, retainage — in spreadsheets only one person fully understands. This phase is a list, not a leap: both systems keep running.
You gather
- HeavyBid activities, crews & resource rates
- Cost-code list and open-job list
- Equipment list with meters
- SOV, billed-to-date & retainage per job
Keeps running
- Everything — nothing is switched off yet
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STA 1+00 · Phase two
Move estimating first
Estimating moves first because it’s the head of the chain — every downstream number is born in the bid. Your cost codes, crews, production rates, and price book come in, then your estimators price the next real bid in both systems, side by side, until the TradeFlo Pro number is one they’d sign.
Comes in
- Estimating library & price book
- Crew makeups & production rates
- Historical estimates worth keeping
Keeps running
- HeavyBid — until the side-by-side stops being interesting
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STA 2+00 · Phase three
Put crews on the app
Foremen get the field app: today’s schedule, GPS time clock, daily quantities against bid items. It works offline and syncs when signal comes back. Run it parallel with your current timecards for a pay period or two and reconcile — the day the paper matches the app, the paper has done its job.
Comes in
- Crew rosters & PIN sign-ins
- Active jobs with cost codes
- Telematics feeds, if the iron has them
Keeps running
- HeavyJob & paper timesheets through at least one full pay cycle
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STA 3+00 · Phase four
Cut billing over at a month boundary
Billing switches at a clean month-end, never mid-cycle. Open SOVs, billed-to-date, and retainage held come in per job, so your next G702/G703 continues the pay-app numbering your GC already has on file. Accounting sync — Sage 100 Contractor live today, QuickBooks Online and Desktop adapters built — keeps the ledger tied while both systems overlap.
Comes in
- SOV for every open job
- Last approved pay application
- Retainage balances to date
Keeps running
- Last month’s process — as the reconciliation check on the first TradeFlo Pro month
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STA 4+00 · Phase five
Turn the old stack off
When one full cycle — bid, mobilize, produce, bill, close — has run through TradeFlo Pro and tied to the ledger, retire the seats. Your history stays yours: everything you moved in, and everything created since, exports whenever you want it.
The exit checklist
- A bid priced and won in-platform
- A pay period of field time reconciled
- A pay application accepted by the GC
- A month tied to the ledger
Then, and only then
- Stop paying for the old stack
HeavyBid, HeavyJob, and Equipment360 are HCSS products. TradeFlo Pro is an independent alternative and is not affiliated with or endorsed by HCSS.
Docs land with launch.
Here’s the honest list.
Documentation is being written alongside the product. Nothing below links to a stub — a guide appears here the day it’s finished, and not before.
Getting started
Account setup, first job, first estimate, first crew on the app — the first two weeks, in order.
Lands at launchModule reference
Every module, estimating through accounting sync — what each screen does and where the data goes next.
Lands at launchHCSS switch-over guide
The full workbook version of the outline above — export steps, mapping templates, and the parallel-run checklists.
Outline above · full guide at launchIntegration guides
Sage 100 Contractor (live today), QuickBooks Online & Desktop, and telematics feeds from Samsara, John Deere, and Komatsu.
Lands at launchForeman’s field-app guide
A pocket guide for the crew: PIN sign-in, GPS clock-in, logging daily quantities — written for a phone in a truck, not a desk.
Lands at launchRelease notes
What shipped and what changed, in plain language — every release from launch day forward.
From launch dayAvailable today: the switch-over outline above, the FAQ below, and a direct line to the people building the product — [email protected].
Heavy-civil FAQ.
The questions contractors actually ask, answered without the sales gloss.
Can TradeFlo Pro actually replace HeavyBid?
That’s the design goal, and it’s built the way heavy-civil estimators think: bid items broken into activities, activities into crews and resources, priced from production rates and your own history — not a blank spreadsheet.
In early access we import your estimating library and have your estimators run real bids side by side against HeavyBid. Where a feature you rely on is missing, that’s exactly the feedback that steers the roadmap — pre-launch, fixes ship in days, not release cycles.
What replaces HeavyJob?
Field production and job costing: foremen log time and daily quantities from the mobile app, and cost-to-date posts against the estimate by cost code — labor, equipment, materials, subs — the same day the work happens.
The point isn’t matching HeavyJob screen for screen. It’s that the field, the estimate, and the billing share one database, so there’s no export ritual between them.
Does it work with Sage 100 Contractor?
Yes — the Sage 100 Contractor sync is live today, running in production with our design partner. Jobs, vendor bills, payments, and billing stay consistent between the platform and the ledger. QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop adapters are built as well.
Does the field app work where there’s no signal?
Yes. Clock-ins, schedules, and quantities work offline and sync when the phone finds signal again. Heavy-civil work happens in dead zones — an app that needs bars would be useless on half your sites.
Are the pay applications real G702/G703?
They’re AIA-style G702/G703 applications with continuation sheets, generated straight from your schedule of values, with retainage tracked per line to release.
When you migrate mid-project, billed-to-date comes in with the SOV, so your next application continues the numbering your GC already has on file.
What equipment telematics does it read?
Samsara, John Deere (JDLink), and Komatsu feeds today. Hours and location flow in and get costed to the job the machine is on. If your iron talks a different protocol, tell us — the integration list is driven by what early-access fleets actually run.
How long does switching take?
Honest answer: it depends on how much history you move and how many jobs are mid-billing. The sequence above is staged so there’s no big-bang cutover — estimating first, field second, billing at a month boundary — and nothing gets turned off until its replacement has carried real work.
During early access, migration is hands-on: we do it with you, not to you.
Do we lose our historical data?
No. Estimate history, cost codes, and job records come in during migration wherever there’s a clean source to read from. And everything in TradeFlo Pro — imported or created — stays yours and exports whenever you want it. No hostage data.
Who else is using it?
We’re pre-launch, so the honest answer is: TradeFlo Pro is being built alongside one working heavy-civil contractor whose real jobs, payroll, and pay applications run through it every day.
We don’t have a logo wall, a customer count, or testimonials to show you — and we’d rather tell you that than invent them.
We’re a building GC or MEP shop — is this for us?
Probably not yet. TradeFlo Pro is built for self-perform heavy-civil work — grading, earthwork, utilities, paving — and the estimating model reflects that: crews, production rates, unit-price bid items.
If that’s your world, we should talk. If you’re mostly managing subs on vertical work, other tools will fit you better today.
What does it cost?
Per-seat pricing is being finalized ahead of public launch. Early-access partners lock in founder rates, the whole platform is one price, and there’s no long-term contract. Details on the pricing page.
The product is
the documentation.
The fastest way to learn TradeFlo Pro is to run it on your own jobs. Start free, or write to the people building it at [email protected].