Your data
Your records stay in your folder, not in our database
Most construction software keeps your work on its own servers and rents it back to you. If you stop paying, you find out how much of it was really yours.
PoPs works the other way. We host the software, so it is always up to date and you install nothing. Your business records are saved in a folder you choose, on your own computer or office network. We do not keep a copy of them in our database.
What is saved in your folder
| Module | What goes in your folder |
|---|---|
| Project Tracker (with AIA Billing and change orders) | Jobs, budgets, actuals, forecasts, billing, change orders |
| Estimating | Takeoffs, estimates, the pricing you build |
| Bid Manager | Bids, bidders, quotes, drawings |
| Ledger | Customers and vendors, invoices, bills, the journal and chart of accounts, bank lines, payroll with pay rates, certified payroll, audit log, receipts and attached documents |
| Field | Work tickets, materials, crew assignments, clock-in records, timesheets and approvals, daily reports, photos, equipment hours |
| Procurement | Vendors, requisitions, requests for quote and quotes, purchase orders, deliveries, invoices, inventory, fleet and equipment |
| HR | Applicants, interviews and hiring records |
Pay rates and the books never leave your folder.
How a crew phone or a vendor fits in
A crew member clocks in from a phone, a vendor answers a request for quote from a link, an applicant fills in a form. None of them can reach your folder, so their item waits for you in a short-lived inbox on our server. The next time your office computer opens a PoPs page, it collects the item into your folder, and our copy is deleted. If your computer stays off, anything uncollected is deleted after 30 days regardless.
What we do keep, and for how long
| What | Why | How long |
|---|---|---|
| Your account: company, logins, licence, plan, billing status | So you can sign in and we can bill you | While you are a customer |
| The next invoice, job and purchase order number | So two people never get the same one. Just the number, never what is on the document. | While you are a customer |
| Inbox items: a crew phone’s clock-in, a payment notice, an applicant’s form, a vendor’s quote | So it arrives even when your office computer is off | Deleted when your computer collects it; 30 days at the latest |
| Snapshots you choose to publish: what a crew phone shows, what your own customer sees in the Client Portal | So phones and your customers can see it any time | Replaced each time you publish; gone 90 days after the last refresh, or when you stop sharing |
| A name list for Field and payroll: names, trades, hire dates, vacation balances (no pay) | So a crew login can be matched to a person | Up to 90 days after you last open the Ledger |
| Support requests | So we can help you | Short expiry |
The Client Portal, said plainly
When you share a project with your own customer, they see what you published: an invoice, a change order, photos you chose. That published copy sits on our server so they can see it any time, and it is removed when you press Stop sharing, when the project closes, or after 90 days with no refresh. Their decision (a change order approval) arrives as an inbox item and is collected into your folder like any other.
When you use a calculator or the AI features
The numbers you enter are used to produce the answer. Our own check on 2026-10-31 found the calculators and AI endpoints keep no copy of what you send. For AI features, what you send (a question, a drawing page) goes to our AI provider to produce the answer and comes back to you. We record only how much AI you used, a count and a cost, never the content, so your credit balance stays correct. Like any website, our hosting platform keeps standard request logs: the page, the time and the result, never what you type.
Your side of the bargain
- Back up your folder, on a schedule. Because the only copy is yours, a failed drive with no backup means lost records, and we cannot give them back. Copy it to a second device, such as an external drive or another computer. Or use a backup or sync service; those keep their own copy under their own terms, so if you want the data held only by you, choose a local or office-network backup. Keep at least one backup somewhere other than the building, and check now and then that a backup can be opened.
- The computer that holds the folder needs a PoPs page open now and then. Phones send to the inbox; the computer collects.
- You choose where the folder lives. If you pick a folder inside OneDrive, Dropbox or another sync service, that service keeps its own copy too, under its own terms. For "only on my machine", choose a plain local or office-network folder.
- Two office computers can use the same folder at the same time.
If you ever leave
Everything you have entered is already yours, in your own folder. Nothing is held back, and nothing has to be requested from us.
- Your accounting history stays with you. Invoices, bills, the full journal, the chart of accounts, bank lines, payroll and certified payroll, receipts and the audit log are all files in your folder.
- Export all your accounting records in one click. Export my accounting records saves every Ledger record type as spreadsheet files in your own folder. It needs no licence and no sign-in, so it works after you cancel.
- Subscribers to the Bid Manager and Estimating can also use Export my files to save their assemblies and lists in readable PDF and spreadsheet form for 30 days after a subscription ends.