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The big construction platforms were built for American builders. Ridgepole was built for Canadian ones.
Ridgepole bills the way a Canadian job gets paid: holdback by province, GST or HST and PST on separate lines, and a published price in Canadian dollars. Try it free for 14 days, stay month to month, and get set up with us at no charge.
Side by side
| Topic | Ridgepole | The big US platforms |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $49, $99 or $249 a month, in Canadian dollars, published on our pricing page. No charge per person on any plan: Starter includes up to 5 people, Growth and Enterprise as many as you have. | US dollars, or a price you only get from a sales call. Priced per office user, or on your yearly revenue or construction volume. |
| Trying it first | 14 days free with every Growth feature. No credit card. Use it on a real job before you decide. | Often no free trial. |
| Commitment | Month to month. No contract, no setup fee and no cancellation fee. Cancel from Settings and keep access to the end of the month you paid for. | Often a term that renews, with payments you cannot cancel part way through it. |
| Setup and onboarding | Guided setup the day you sign up, with your tax numbers, logo, and tax and holdback defaults filled in from your province. One-on-one onboarding with us, included on every plan at no charge. | Implementation can be its own project: an onboarding tier, implementation services, or a week to a month before you are running. |
| Holdback | Holdback, by province. Pre-filled from your province with the act named on screen, taken off each progress claim before tax, released on a tracked date and held back from your sub-trades too. Our holdback guide cites the act and section for each province. | Retainage, the US term, at a percentage you type in yourself. |
| Sales tax | GST or HST, and PST, RST or QST, each on its own line with its rate and your registration number. Labour and materials can be taxed differently on the same invoice. | Often one sales tax on the client’s invoice, or Canadian tax set up through your accounting software. |
Built for Canada, not adapted to it
Holdback, by province
Holdback is the Canadian word, so it is the word Ridgepole uses. Manitoba’s 7.5% comes from The Builders' Liens Act (Manitoba), s. 24, not the 10% most people assume. The percentage is a starting point you confirm against your contract, and your figure wins. Quebec gets no invented figure, because its legal hypothec is a different regime.
Two taxes, two lines
GST or HST prints beside PST, RST or QST, each with its rate and your registration number, on the invoice your client pays. A sales tax report groups what you charged by tax and rate, ready for your returns.
Workers’ comp, by board
Each sub-trade’s workers’ compensation clearance is kept as a dated document, and an overnight check flags it 30 days before it lapses. Your own board account sits on your company profile under your board’s name: WSIB, WorkSafeBC, WCB Manitoba, CNESST and the rest.
Canadian dollars
Your subscription is billed in Canadian dollars, so the price on the page is the price on your statement, with no exchange rate in between. When a client pays an invoice online, the money goes into your own Stripe account, and Ridgepole takes no cut.
Moving over is simple
Bring your cost catalogue and your sub-trades in from Excel or a CSV file, and your suppliers too on Growth and Enterprise. Excel workbooks are read as they are, with no saving as CSV first. Columns are matched from your own headings, and you see every row before anything is saved.
Guided setup covers your company, tax numbers, logo and provincial defaults on the first day. Then open each running job with its contract value and budget.
Jobs already part way through come over as they stand. Enter the progress claims you have already sent, dated the day they went out and marked as sent so your client is not emailed again, and record the payments you received. Billed to date and the holdback withheld then sit where they really are, ready for the release. Payments to sub-trades go in with the holdback you kept back, so what you owe each one is right from day one.
Questions to ask before you sign with anyone
Ask every company you are looking at, Ridgepole included, and get the answers in writing. Here are ours.
| Question | Ridgepole’s answer |
|---|---|
| What currency is the price in? | Canadian dollars. $49, $99 or $249 a month, published, so the price on the page is the price on your statement. |
| Do I pay for each person who logs in? | No, on any plan. Starter includes up to 5 people, and Growth and Enterprise include as many as you have. Clients and sub-trades in their portals never count. |
| How long is the contract? | There is none. Every plan is month to month. |
| If I stop part way through, what do I still owe? | Nothing past the month you have paid for. Cancel from Settings and you keep access to the end of that month, which is the last charge. With no yearly term, there is never a year left to pay out. |
| Is onboarding extra? | No. Guided setup and one-on-one onboarding with us are included on every plan, at no charge. |
| Does it say holdback, or retainage? | Holdback. Pre-filled from your province with the act named, taken off before tax, and released on a date Ridgepole tracks for you. |
| Do GST and PST print as separate lines? | Yes. GST or HST, and PST, RST or QST, each on its own line with its rate and your registration number. |
Questions builders ask
Is Ridgepole cheaper than other construction software?
Ridgepole’s prices are on the page: Starter $49, Growth $99 and Enterprise $249 a month, in Canadian dollars. There is no charge per person, no setup fee, no paid onboarding and no yearly contract. The big US platforms usually price in US dollars or through a sales call, often per office user or on your yearly revenue or construction volume. Put any quote you are given beside ours, at your own headcount, for a full year.
Can I try it before I pay?
Yes. 14 days free with every Growth feature, and no credit card. Put a real job in it. When the trial ends nothing is deleted: the account becomes read-only until you choose a plan.
Can I leave whenever I want?
Yes. Every plan is month to month, with no contract and no cancellation fee. Cancel from Settings, Billing, and you keep full access to the end of the month you paid for. Your reports export to CSV, and under our Terms your data stays available for export for 30 days after that.
Do I pay extra for onboarding?
No. Guided setup takes you through your company and province, the GST and PST numbers printed on your invoices, your logo, your tax, holdback and payment-term defaults, and your team, the day you sign up. One-on-one onboarding with us is included on every plan, at no charge.
Does it handle holdback in my province?
Yes. In nine provinces the holdback percentage and release period are read from the province’s act, and the screen names the act. In Quebec and the territories you set the figure your contract requires, rather than one we made up. Holdback comes off each progress claim before tax, the release is dated and taxed when it goes out, Ontario’s yearly release is tracked, and you hold back from your sub-trades the same way. Every figure is a starting point: your contract governs.
Does Ridgepole work with QuickBooks?
Yes, QuickBooks Online on the Enterprise plan. Ridgepole sends your client invoices and holdback releases, client payments, supplier bills and what you pay on them, and sub-trade payments to your Canadian QuickBooks Online company, so your bookkeeper stops typing them in twice. Holdback goes to its own Holdback Receivable and Holdback Payable accounts, and every line carries the tax code that matches its GST or HST and PST. It syncs every hour.
See it on your next job.
Start free. 14 days to decide. Questions go straight to someone who knows Ridgepole inside out.
14 days free. No credit card. Use it on a real job. Cancel any time, there is no contract and no exit interview.