Questions people ask before they sign up.

Cost tracking for building jobs. You load the budget, your team logs what's spent and how far each trade has got, and siteMargin sets the two side by side, line by line.

It tells you, in rands, where the job will finish if nothing changes, while there's still time to change it.

Small and medium South African contractors and builders, usually outfits of two to ten people, who run the cost side themselves because there's no full-time QS.

It's also for people building their own house (the once-off Home Owner plan) and for developers, who sit on the other side of the same numbers.

The spreadsheet isn't wrong, it's late. It gets updated by the one person who has the whole file and no time to open it, so it usually catches up when a claim is due.

In siteMargin the foreman logs costs and progress from site, on a phone, and each line is flagged the day it starts running over. Nobody has to rebuild anything on a Sunday night.

No. It doesn't do invoices, VAT returns or payroll. It tracks each job's money against that job's budget. Your books stay where they are.

On the Company plan it can read paid supplier bills from Xero and put them on the right lines. It never writes anything back.

No. It talks in plain words, like “spending ahead of progress”, not variance formulas. Plain English mode hides the pages most people never need. Full detail is there when you want the trade terms.

No. It produces a payment certificate a quantity surveyor can read and challenge, but it doesn't do their judgement, and it isn't a JBCC compliance tool. What it does is make sure nobody is surprised when the QS looks.

Yes, for capturing. Costs with their slip photos, snags and site diary entries are saved on the phone and sent when signal comes back.

There's an Android app on Google Play, the iPhone app is on its way, and the full version runs in any browser on a computer.

Overruns, early. When the money spent on a line runs ahead of the work done on it, the line turns amber, and red once it's over budget. You see it at the first certificate, not at final account.

Say the brickwork has used 62% of its budget but the walls are only 41% built. That line is 21 points ahead of itself. If nothing changes it will finish over, and siteMargin shows by how much.

Spending alone can look fine right up to the end. Comparing it with the work actually done is what gives you the warning.

Under a minute per entry. Photograph the till slip and the amount, supplier and date are read for you. Progress is a slider per line. Most people update a job in a few minutes a week.

Yes. You can give your client their own progress page: how complete the job is, each trade's progress and the expected completion date. They only see what you choose to issue, and never your costs, rates or subcontractors.

On Contractor+ and Company the page can also show the contract sum, what's been invoiced and the agreed price per trade.

Upload an architectural, structural or services drawing and siteMargin explains each sheet in plain words: what it shows, what the notes and symbols mean, the inspections to book and what to ask. It's available in English, Afrikaans, isiXhosa and isiZulu.

It explains, it doesn't instruct. The signed drawings are what gets built. Every paid plan and Home Owner includes a monthly allowance of sheets.

Yes. Excel, CSV, a digital PDF or a Word quote all work. You see every line before anything is saved, so there's no retyping and no surprises.

Free covers one project. Contractor is R399 a month, Contractor+ is R649 a month and Company is R1 599 a month. Home Owner is R899, paid once for one build. Everything is on the pricing page.

Every new account gets 30 days of Contractor+ free, with no card needed. Then you stay on Free: no charge, and nothing you entered is deleted.

Free has room for one project. If you made more during the trial, you choose one to keep open and the others become read-only, kept exactly as they were, until you upgrade.

Only for people who see money. Office seats (owner, managers, viewers) come with the plan. Site seats for foremen are free: 3 on Contractor, 10 on Contractor+, 25 on Company and 2 on Home Owner.

Yes. There are no setup fees and no annual contracts. When you cancel, your plan stays open to the end of the period you've paid for, and nothing is deleted.

Yes. Each account sets its own currency and tax name and rate, and certificates and client pages follow it. Plans themselves are billed in rand.

You, and the people you add to your team. Foremen never see budgets, spend against budget or margin. That's closed to them in the database, not just hidden on the screen. Your client sees only what you've issued to them.

Your data stays in your account and is handled under South Africa's Protection of Personal Information Act. The privacy policy sets out what's kept, where, and who helps run it.

Drawings you ask to have explained are sent to Anthropic, which doesn't train on them and deletes them within 30 days.

Yes. On every paid plan and Home Owner you can download any job as a PDF, Excel or CSV file. If you delete your account, your jobs and data go with it.

Yes, on the Company plan. Paid supplier bills arrive on the budget lines they belong to, and anything that can't be matched waits for you to assign. It only reads from Xero and never changes your books.