JobTread Document Types Explained: A Complete Guide

JobTread document types are the standardized records that track money on a construction job, and they answer two questions: is this money coming in from the customer or going out to a vendor, and is it a commitment (a promise of future money) or an actual transaction (money owed or paid right now). Every document in JobTread is one answer to those two questions. Once you see that pattern, the whole system stops feeling like a pile of forms and starts feeling like a ledger.

Most guides just list the document names off the JobTread menu. That does not help you decide which one to use. This guide explains the logic underneath, walks every document type, and shows how they connect across a real job, so you can set JobTread up to reconcile cleanly instead of guessing.

How JobTread Documents Actually Work

Every JobTread document lives at the intersection of two axes: direction (revenue coming in from your customer, or cost going out to a vendor) and stage (a commitment you have not settled yet, or an actual transaction that is now owed or paid). Get those two axes right and every document has an obvious home.

Here is the model as a simple grid:

	Commitment (future money)	Actual (money now)
Revenue (money in from customer)	Proposal, Contract, Change Order	Deposit, Customer Invoice
Cost (money out to vendor)	Purchase Order, Sub Agreement	Bill, Subcontractor Draw, Expense, Backcharge

The Bid Request sits just outside the grid, at the very front of the cost side: it collects pricing so you can create a cost commitment in the first place.

Why does this matter? Because your budget in JobTread is built from commitments, and your actual profit is built from transactions. When a document goes in the wrong box, or gets skipped, the two stop matching, and your job-costing reports quietly lie to you. Every rule later in this guide traces back to keeping commitments and actuals aligned.

Bid Request: The Cost-Collection Front End

A Bid Request is how you gather pricing from suppliers and subcontractors before you commit a single dollar. You send it to trade partners, they return numbers through the vendor portal, and you compare and award. It is the only document here that commits nothing; it exists to produce the numbers that become your cost commitments.

Bid Request

A Bid Request is a solicitation for pricing sent to one or more vendors or subs. Use it during preconstruction and buyout, when you need real numbers to build or validate your budget. Once a partner wins, you convert their bid directly into a Purchase Order or Sub Agreement, so the price you awarded is the price you commit.

Customer Orders: Establishing What the Customer Pays

Customer Orders are the revenue commitments. They define what the customer has agreed to pay before any money changes hands. In JobTread these are the documents that carry signatures and set your contract value.

Proposal (Estimate)

A Proposal is the priced offer you present to the customer to win the job. Use it during the sales stage, before a signature. It is a revenue commitment in draft form: it proposes what the customer will pay, and it becomes binding only when accepted and turned into a Contract.

Contract

A Contract is the signed agreement that locks in the scope and price the customer has approved. Use it the moment the customer accepts the proposal. It sets your original contract value, the baseline every Change Order later adjusts.

Change Order

A Change Order is a documented adjustment to the agreed scope and price after the Contract is signed. Use it every time the work changes, whether the customer added a request or a field condition forced a revision. It updates the customer-facing contract value and the internal budget together, which is exactly why skipping it breaks your numbers.

Customer Invoices: Collecting Payment

Customer Invoices are the revenue actuals. This is where committed contract value turns into money the customer actually owes you.

Deposit

A Deposit collects money from the customer before the work it covers is performed. Use it for upfront payments or scheduled milestone deposits at the start of a phase. It is cash in against future work, so it reduces the balance the customer will owe as the job progresses.

Customer Invoice

A Customer Invoice bills the customer for work that is already complete. Use it for progress billing during the job and for final billing at closeout. Unlike a Deposit, it records earned revenue: it represents work delivered, not money collected in advance.

Vendor Orders: Committing Your Costs

Vendor Orders are the cost commitments. They lock in what you have agreed to spend with suppliers and subcontractors, and they are what your budget's committed-cost column is built from.

Purchase Order

A Purchase Order commits a cost to a supplier for materials or products. Use it whenever you buy things: lumber, fixtures, appliances, equipment. It tells the vendor what you are buying at what price, and it holds that number in your budget as a committed cost until the matching Bill arrives.

Sub Agreement (Work Order)

A Sub Agreement, JobTread's subcontractor form of a work order, commits a cost to a subcontractor for labor or an installed scope. Use it whenever you buy work rather than materials: framing, drywall, electrical, plumbing. It is the labor-side counterpart to a Purchase Order, and JobTread lets you rename it to whatever term your company uses.

Vendor Bills: Recording What You Owe

Vendor Bills are the cost actuals. They convert your commitments into real payables and are where your actual job cost is finally recorded.

Bill

A Bill records what you owe a vendor against a commitment. Use it when an invoice arrives for a Purchase Order or Sub Agreement, ideally matched line for line to that commitment. Matching keeps committed and actual costs aligned, which is the whole point of the budget.

Subcontractor Draw

A Subcontractor Draw is a progressive payment against a Sub Agreement, the cost-side mirror of progress-billing a customer. Use it to pay a sub in stages as their work is completed rather than in one lump sum, so what you owe tracks the work actually in place.

Backcharge

A Backcharge is a cost you charge back to a vendor or subcontractor for something you had to cover on their behalf, such as rework, cleanup, or damage. Use it to reduce what you owe that partner so the cost lands on them, not on your job's margin.

Expense

An Expense records a direct cost that never had a commitment behind it, like a credit-card purchase or a field receipt. Use it only when no Purchase Order or Sub Agreement exists or ever will. If a commitment does exist, record a Bill against it instead, or your committed and actual costs will not reconcile.

Quick Reference: Every JobTread Document at a Glance

Document	Category	Money Direction	Commitment or Actual	When to Use
Bid Request	Buyout	Cost (pre-commitment)	Neither	Collecting pricing before you commit
Proposal	Customer Order	Revenue	Commitment	Presenting a priced offer to win the job
Contract	Customer Order	Revenue	Commitment	Locking in signed scope and price
Change Order	Customer Order	Revenue (and budget)	Commitment	Any scope or price change after signing
Deposit	Customer Invoice	Revenue	Actual (collected)	Upfront or milestone payment before work
Customer Invoice	Customer Invoice	Revenue	Actual (earned)	Progress and final billing for completed work
Purchase Order	Vendor Order	Cost	Commitment	Buying materials or products
Sub Agreement	Vendor Order	Cost	Commitment	Buying subcontractor labor or scope
Bill	Vendor Bill	Cost	Actual	Recording what you owe against a PO or Sub Agreement
Subcontractor Draw	Vendor Bill	Cost	Actual	Paying a sub in stages against a Sub Agreement
Backcharge	Vendor Bill	Cost (reduction)	Actual	Charging a cost back to a vendor or sub
Expense	Vendor Bill	Cost	Actual	A direct cost with no prior commitment

How the Documents Flow Together on a Real Job

Documents make sense as a sequence, not a list. Here is one job from first pricing to closeout:

1. Bid Request out. You send Bid Requests to suppliers and subs to price the scope and build your budget.
2. Proposal to the customer. You assemble the winning numbers into a Proposal and present it.
3. Contract signed. The customer accepts, and the Proposal becomes a Contract that sets your original contract value.
4. Deposit collected. You issue a Deposit for the upfront payment and mobilize.
5. Commitments locked. You convert awarded bids into Purchase Orders (materials) and Sub Agreements (labor), filling your committed-cost column.
6. Change Orders as you go. Every scope change becomes a Change Order that adjusts both the contract and the budget, so nothing drifts.
7. Progressive billing both ways. You send Customer Invoices for completed work and record Bills and Subcontractor Draws against your commitments as vendors perform.
8. Cleanup at the end. Backcharges recover costs that belong to a sub, Lien Waivers are exchanged as final payments go out, and a final Customer Invoice closes the contract.

At every step, a revenue document has a matching rhythm on the cost side. That symmetry is what makes JobTread's job costing trustworthy, and it only holds if the documents are used in order.

Mistakes That Break Your Budget Reconciliation

Most JobTread reporting problems are not software problems. They are document-discipline problems. The three that cause the most damage:

• Skipping Change Orders. When scope changes but no Change Order is written, the work no longer matches the contract or the budget. Your job looks over budget when it is not, or on budget when it is bleeding. Every scope or price change goes through a Change Order, without exception.
• Booking Bills with no matching commitment. Recording a Bill that has no Purchase Order or Sub Agreement behind it leaves committed costs and actual costs unreconciled, so your budget cannot tell you what is left to spend. Commit first, then bill against the commitment.
• Using Expenses where a Bill belongs. Expenses are for true one-off, uncommitted costs. Using them for work that should have had a PO hides costs from your commitment tracking and quietly inflates the "unexpected" line. If a commitment could exist, create one.

Get these three right and your JobTread budget reconciles on its own. Get them wrong and no dashboard will save you, because the underlying records do not line up.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between a Purchase Order and a Sub Agreement in JobTread? A Purchase Order commits a cost to a supplier for materials; a Sub Agreement commits a cost to a subcontractor for labor or installed scope. Both are cost commitments. A PO buys things, a Sub Agreement buys work.

When should I use a Deposit vs an Invoice? Use a Deposit to collect money before the work it pays for is done, and an Invoice to bill for work already completed. A Deposit is money against future work; an Invoice records earned revenue.

What is a backcharge in JobTread? A cost you charge back to a vendor or sub for expenses you covered on their behalf, like rework or cleanup. It reduces what you owe them so the cost lands where it belongs.

Do I need a Change Order for every scope change? Yes. Every price or scope change should flow through a Change Order so the contract value and the budget update together. It is the single most important habit for clean reconciliation.

What is a Subcontractor Draw? A progressive payment against a Sub Agreement, the cost-side equivalent of progress billing. You pay the sub in stages as their work is completed.

The One Rule That Ties It All Together

If you remember nothing else, remember this: every scope change goes through a Change Order, and every cost goes through an order before the bill. Revenue commitments become invoices; cost commitments become bills and draws. When each document sits in its right box and follows in order, JobTread's job costing reconciles by itself, and your reports finally tell the truth about the job.

Getting that structure right at setup is exactly what makes the difference between a JobTread account your team trusts and one they quietly abandon. If you want it configured correctly the first time, that is the core of our JobTread implementation work, and our guides on JobTread cost catalog setup and QuickBooks integration go deeper on the pieces behind these documents. And if the documents keep drifting because no one has time to maintain them, a JobTread virtual assistant can run them for you day to day.