LBCAssist user guide
Plain-language help for registration, billing, projects, field assistants, files, reports, account administration, and security settings.
U.S.-based customers and authorized users only.
LBCAssist is organized around tenants, licensed users, and projects. Most day-to-day work starts on the portal, where you select a project and open the service you need: Diagram Assistant, Time Assistant, Mileage Assistant, Task Assistant, or Files.
Quick Workflows
New tenant setup
- Register the contractor business and default administrator.
- Select the initial license bundles and count.
- Complete Stripe Checkout to start the trial or paid subscription.
- Add users, assign licenses, and grant only the permissions each user needs.
- Create projects and assign users to the project services they should use.
Daily project work
- Sign in and choose a project from the portal.
- Select the project address if the project has more than one location.
- Open the relevant assistant for diagrams, files, time, mileage, or tasks.
- Use Reports to review completed work, invoices, file activity, task activity, time, and mileage.
When something is missing
- Confirm your user has an active assigned license.
- Confirm your permissions include the page or service you need.
- Confirm the project has that service enabled.
- Confirm you are assigned to that service on the project.
Access, Roles, Permissions, and Licenses
Access is tenant-scoped. Your tenant is the contractor business account you belong to. The application reads your tenant, permissions, billing status, license assignment, and project assignments from the server.
| Control | What it affects |
|---|---|
| Assigned license | A user must have an active assigned license to sign in and use paid services. |
| Default tenant administrator | Super user for the tenant. This user always keeps one protected paid license. |
| Administrator role | Grants all tenant permissions and broad administrative access. |
| Project service assignment | Controls whether a user can open Time, Mileage, Tasks, Files, or Diagrams for a project. |
| Billing status | Setup, trialing, active, past due, suspended, terminated, or other Stripe-driven states. |
Core permissions include project create/edit, user management, audit log viewing, reports viewing, account management, billing management, time management, mileage management, task management, diagram access, and file upload, view, download, edit, delete, management, and legal-hold controls.
Registration and First Billing Setup
Create an account
Registration collects contractor business information, the first administrator's user information, a password, legal acceptance, and an initial billing package. The first user becomes the default tenant administrator.
LBCAssist registration and billing are available only to U.S.-based customers. Business and billing addresses must be in the United States.
The default administrator can use the business contact info for the admin email, username, first name, and last name.
Select license bundles
Choose at least one paid license. Bundles can be mixed. The selected total becomes the starting paid license pool after Stripe Checkout completes. Trial eligibility applies only up to the configured trial license limit.
Complete Stripe Checkout
Stripe collects and verifies payment information. If a free trial applies, billing starts automatically when the trial ends. If the selected package exceeds the trial limit, paid billing starts immediately.
Use a promo code
Enter a promo code before checkout when one has been provided. Codes can be limited to certain tenants, bundles, dates, or redemption counts, and the billing service confirms eligibility before sending the discount to Stripe.
Portal Home
The portal is the hub after sign-in. It shows account-level links, your project list, and a selected-service workspace for the project service you choose.
Top links
Tenant, Billing, My Profile, Users, Reports, Audit Logs, and Help appear based on your permissions. My Profile and Help are available to signed-in users.
Role-based navigation
LBCAssist shows the pages and service actions your role, license, tenant settings, and project assignments allow. Server authorization remains the source of truth if access changes while you work.
Location access
Location prompts help record field activity such as time and mileage. Users can still navigate without location access, but some field entries may need manual/admin override.
Billing setup state
New tenants that have not completed Stripe setup can reach Billing and My Profile, but the project workspace stays closed until billing and license setup is complete.
Projects and Project Setup
Project list
The portal project list shows active projects by default. Use Reload Projects to refresh and Show archived to include archived projects. Selecting a project opens project actions, project address selection, and a service switcher for Diagram, Files, Mileage, Tasks, and Time. Choose one service to work in its full-width panel.
Create project
Create Project captures project name, optional description, owner information, property address, property type, owner mailing address, enabled services, file retention override when Files is enabled, and the mileage tracking mode. Address validation uses the active address flow; parcel or tax identifiers are entered manually when needed.
Edit project
Edit Project lets permitted users update project details, owner information, property locations, mailing address, enabled services, Files retention override, legal hold where allowed, mileage tracking mode for future entries, and user assignments. Projects can also be archived, restored, or deleted.
Files service setup
When Files is enabled for a project, the project can inherit the tenant document retention setting or use a project-specific retention override up to one year. Legal hold requires the legal hold permission or service administrator access. While legal hold is active, file data is retained until the hold is released.
Project user assignments
Assign users by service. A user may have access to one service on a project and not another. Service columns only appear when that service is enabled for the selected project.
Project Diagrams
Project Diagrams opens in project context with a first-party construction diagram canvas, trade shape palette, zoom controls, object list, and touch-friendly save, delete, exit, and export actions.
Diagrams can be exported to Project Files as PNG files for the selected project address. The export uses the normal Project Files scan-and-store flow before the file is available to web and mobile clients.
Time Assistant
Current session
Choose a start reason and start time tracking for the selected project. Open sessions appear until they are stopped. Closed entries show in the entry history.
Manual entries
Users in Manage Time mode can create or edit entries for assigned users. Manual/admin override entries are useful when location or device capture was not available.
Time reasons
Tenant managers with time permissions can add tenant-specific reasons and mark time reasons as billable or non-billable. Default reasons can be disabled or re-enabled.
Mileage Assistant
Mileage Assistant tracks project travel. The project controls whether new mileage activity is tracked per segment or per trip. Existing entries keep the mode they were created with.
Per segment
Users start a trip and later end it. The entry stores start and stop time, locations, reason, and distance when available.
Per trip
The system can update location during the trip and close when the user returns to the start area, or the user can end the trip manually.
Manual/admin entries
Manage Mileage mode allows manual start and stop details, address entry, editing, deletion, and force close support when appropriate.
Task Assistant
Task Assistant supports individual task views and management views for users with task management permission.
My Task View
Filter by start date, due date, and status. Task statuses include open, in progress, blocked, question, closed, not closed, and all.
Manage Tasks
Managers can create, update, assign, clear, reload, and page through project tasks. Tasks can be assigned to all assigned users or a specific assignee.
Comments and questions
Task rows support comments, questions, answers, edited note history, question assignee changes, and question withdrawal where allowed.
Files
Files are stored in project address context. The Files tab shows documents for the selected project and address, and the available actions depend on both the project service assignment and the user's file permissions.
Upload and scan
Upload uses the browser drop zone, Choose file button, or mobile device file picker, camera, photo library, or document picker. The normal upload limit is 100 MB per file. Platform service administrators can adjust tenant and project upload ceilings up or down when support approves a different limit. Files are isolated, validated, and scanned for security issues before they are stored with the project. Browser and mobile uploads show pending, successful, or failed confirmation from the server.
Diagram PNG exports use the same Project Files upload, validation, scanning, storage, and replacement controls as manually uploaded files.
View, edit, and download
View, download, edit, and delete are controlled by separate permissions. Supported files include common project documents such as PDF, Word, Excel, Draw.io, PNG, GIF, and JPG where the browser or mobile device can open them.
Retention and legal hold
Tenant document retention defaults to 180 days and is managed from Tenant. Projects can override the setting up to one year when Files is enabled. Legal hold keeps scoped file data until the hold is released; release schedules deletion of the held file data on the next daily purge.
Subcontractor Collaboration
Tenants can connect to another tenant only through a permissioned invite and acceptance workflow. One tenant creates a one-time subcontractor invite code, the other tenant redeems it and accepts the relationship disclaimer, and the issuing tenant reviews and accepts before the relationship becomes active.
Relationship setup
Tenant managers and users with relationship permissions can create subcontractor invite codes, submit invite codes, accept or deny proposals, and close active relationships. Relationship invites, proposal decisions, relationship closure, and platform administrator override closures are audit logged for both tenants.
Subprojects
A permissioned owner tenant user can assign a project address subproject to a connected subcontractor tenant. Subcontractor users remain inside their own tenant and do not become users on the owner tenant's project.
Document exchanges
Subcontractor document exchanges are reviewed through a send-back, question, response, and acceptance workflow. Browser and mobile clients can submit or download exchange documents when permissioned. Documents must complete required scan processing and tenant-specific source/owner storage before review and acceptance controls are enabled.
Completion
Both tenants must accept subproject completion. Activity after completion is allowed only with a closed status banner and is audit logged according to the current relationship state.
Reports
Reports are tenant-scoped and use the filters shown for the selected report type. Results can be viewed in the browser or exported as CSV, XLS, or PDF. Time reports honor the tenant report-time setting on Tenant: actual time, or rounded up/down to the nearest 15 minutes, 30 minutes, or hour. Time totals display as hours and minutes, such as 2h2m.
| Report family | Examples |
|---|---|
| Time | Time by user/project, time by user/date range, total time, billable/non-billable project hours. |
| Mileage | Total mileage by project, mileage by reason, and close-mode filtering. |
| Tasks | Tasks by project, task note edits, task questions and answers. |
| Files | Uploads, opens, downloads, edits, deletes, scan verdicts, retention changes, and legal hold activity. |
| Notifications | Push notification coverage, enabled categories, devices, and latest delivery outcomes. |
| Billing invoices | Stripe invoice lines for full-month charges, partial periods, prorations, credits, and upcoming previews. |
Company Management
The Company page changes tenant-level settings. Treat these options carefully because they affect everyone in the company account.
| Tenant option | Impact |
|---|---|
| Contractor business | Changes the tenant business name shown across the portal and reports. |
| Business information | Updates contact number, primary email, website, license number, insurance provider, policy provider, and licensee name. |
| Audit log retention | Controls how long tenant audit log entries are retained, within the allowed range. |
| Document retention | Sets the tenant default for project file retention. The default is 180 days, and the maximum is one year. |
| Reports | Controls how worker time is rounded in reports: actual, round up, or round down to 15 minutes, 30 minutes, or one hour. |
| Tenant MFA policy | Sets multi-factor authentication as optional, required, or disabled for the tenant. Disabled mode bypasses configured user factors until the policy changes again. |
| Session timeouts | Sets web idle timeout, web max session length, mobile access-token lifetime, and mobile refresh-token lifetime. |
| Password policy | Controls minimum length, expiration, history reuse, complexity, and lockout attempt count. |
| Tenant termination | Default-admin-only request that keeps service active through the current billing period, then starts suspension, termination, and purge processing, including file data unless legal hold applies. |
| Customer data export | Default-admin-only ZIP export of tenant-scoped persisted service data, including available project files, with security secrets redacted and unsafe or unscannable files omitted or represented by metadata. |
| Time reasons | Adds, edits, enables, or disables tenant time reasons. Default reasons can be disabled or re-enabled but not edited or deleted. |
| Mileage reasons | Adds, edits, enables, or disables tenant mileage reasons. Default reasons can be disabled or re-enabled but not edited or deleted. |
| Tenant default administrator | Shows the protected super user for the tenant. This user keeps the required first paid license. |
Billing and License Management
License pool
Billing shows paid licenses, assigned licenses, available licenses, monthly package amount, current billing status, and pending package changes.
Billing changes require U.S. customer eligibility and a U.S. billing address.
Package changes
Added licenses are sent to Stripe for immediate prorated billing. Reductions are scheduled for the next billing cycle and do not create credits or refunds. The tenant cannot reduce below one paid license.
Promo codes
Promo codes can discount eligible bundles for a fixed number of months, one invoice, or indefinitely. Codes are checked by tenant and package before Stripe receives them, and usage is reflected in billing audit history, monitoring, and invoice reporting where Stripe supplies discount details.
Reducing licenses
If assigned users exceed the paid license count when a reduction takes effect, LBCAssist unassigns newest non-default-administrator license assignments first until assigned users fit the paid pool.
Payment method
The Update payment method button opens Stripe Billing Portal. Stripe handles card entry, required verification, invoices, and payment-method storage. LBCAssist does not store full card numbers, expiration dates, or CVV/CVC values.
Mobile clients open payment-method, subscription, paid-license, and checkout changes in the device system browser through a short-lived LBCAssist handoff. Store-distributed mobile builds show those purchase links only when the applicable App Store or Google Play rules allow them.
User Management
Users with user management permission can create users, assign licenses, set permissions, resend welcome email, create a one-time password when needed, lock or archive users, delete passkeys, and delete eligible users.
| User option | What it does |
|---|---|
| Assign license from pool | Lets the user sign in if billing is active and a paid license is available. |
| Welcome email | Sends a secure setup link so the new user confirms their email address, accepts current legal terms, and sets their own password. |
| Email confirmed | Shows whether the user completed secure setup. Unconfirmed users cannot sign in until the welcome link is accepted. |
| Resend welcome | Rotates the setup token and sends a fresh confirmation link when the prior welcome email expired or was lost. |
| One-time password | Creates a temporary password the admin can send out-of-band. The user must still confirm email and must change that password at login. |
| Permissions | Controls access to projects, users, audit logs, reports, account, billing, time, mileage, tasks, diagrams, and file actions including legal hold. |
| Lock User | Prevents sign-in without deleting the user record. |
| Archive User | Hides the user from normal lists and removes them from day-to-day selection surfaces. |
| Require password reset | Forces the user through password reset at next sign-in. |
| Delete passkeys | Removes saved passkeys for that user so they must sign in by password or register a new passkey. |
| Delete User | Removes eligible non-protected users. The current user and default admin are protected from unsafe deletion. |
My Profile
Multi-factor authentication
Add named authenticator-app or email-code factors, choose a default, and enable, disable, rename, or delete factors from My Profile. If tenant MFA is required, the server keeps at least one enabled default factor before normal web or mobile service access is enabled.
Task notifications
Configure push notification windows, event categories, task management notifications, project scope, and registered device cleanup.
Passkeys
Add or remove passkeys for passwordless sign-in.
Password
Change your password. The tenant password policy controls the allowed new password.
Mobile Access
Mobile clients are first-class LBCAssist clients. When a user has the required permission, the mobile app can use the same tenant features available in the browser, including projects, time, mileage, tasks, files, diagrams, reports, audit logs, users, account administration, notifications, and subcontractor collaboration.
Registration
First-time registration opens the LBCAssist registration site in the device default browser. The app uses a return state so a future universal-link return can securely resume the mobile setup flow.
Billing changes
Subscription, license-count purchase, payment-method, and checkout changes open the LBCAssist website or Stripe-hosted flow in the system browser. The mobile app should follow the server-reported purchase-link policy for iOS, Android, enterprise, direct, and web distribution.
Subcontractor actions
Permissioned users can see subcontractor action items from the mobile subcontractor surface, respond to proposals and completion actions, exchange messages, and upload or download scanned exchange documents. In the web portal, these workflows live on the Subcontractors page instead of Tenant.
Voice assistants
Future Siri and Google Assistant integrations must use the same mobile session, permissions, legal acceptance, billing status, tenant boundary, audit, and notification rules as in-app actions.
Monitoring
Administrators can review service health and operational metrics after the monitoring stack is enabled in the production portal. Monitoring covers service availability, API request volume, response times, browser and mobile sessions, mobile web handoffs, projects, addresses, license counts, subcontractor exchange health, questions, comments, and other key usage counts.
Prometheus
Prometheus is the detailed metrics view for service health, request rates, errors, pods, CPU, memory, and storage. Production retains 14 days of metrics; development retains 7 days when enabled.
Grafana
Grafana presents dashboards for system overview, services and APIs, tenant and user activity, infrastructure, and billing and licensing.
Alerts
Alerting is designed to notify the service owner when pods, endpoints, database-backed services, CPU, memory, disk, or error-rate conditions need attention.
Audit Logs
Audit Logs show tenant activity history for users with audit viewing permission. Filters include date range, user, log entry type, project, entry type, service, and admin override status. Use audit logs to review changes, troubleshooting history, file opens/downloads/edits/uploads/deletes, scan verdicts, retention changes, legal hold changes, billing/license events, and administrative actions.
Legal and Service Terms
The Legal page links to Terms and Conditions, Privacy Policy, Service Level Addendum, and Termination and Suspension Policy. Registration and first-login legal acceptance are versioned. When the legal policy set changes, users may be asked to review and accept the current version before continuing.
Open Source Notices
LBCAssist uses reviewed open-source components and tools. This customer-facing notice is intentionally limited to attribution and license visibility; it does not publish internal image digests, deployment topology, scanner rule content, or other operational security details. Platform administrators can export the full reviewed inventory and a customer-safe notice bundle from the platform admin portal.
| Component | License | Use in LBCAssist |
|---|---|---|
| ClamAV | GPL-2.0 | External antivirus scanner for uploaded Project Files before clean objects are promoted to private object storage. |
| YARA | BSD-3-Clause | Required rules-based scanner in the Project Files upload progression. |
| Oracle Linux | Oracle Linux open-source package licenses | Runtime container base and operating-system packages for LBCAssist service images. |
| Grafana OSS | AGPL-3.0 | Operational monitoring dashboard made available only through the protected monitoring path. |
The OSS attribution and license inventory is reviewed as part of the release process. When an OSS component or scanner tool changes, the platform admin inventory, this help notice, and the legal references are updated together before production promotion. Public machine-readable artifacts are available at /legal/open-source.json and /legal/sbom.cdx.json.
Troubleshooting
I cannot sign in
Check username/email and password, confirm the account is not locked or archived, confirm a license is assigned, and confirm tenant billing is active, trialing, or otherwise allowed.
I was sent back to sign in
If a saved page such as Reports is refreshed after the browser session expires, the portal returns to the sign-in page and shows that the session ended. Sign in again before continuing work.
A service button is missing
The service may be disabled on the project, you may not be assigned to it, or your user may not have the required permission.
An uploaded file is not visible
The file may still be scanning, may have failed scanning, may be over the allowed upload limit, or your user may not have view permission for Files on that project. Files that fail validation or scanning are not added to the project.
Stripe checkout or billing portal does not open
Reload Billing and try again. If the tenant is still in setup state, finish checkout from Billing. If a payment method needs verification, Stripe will prompt for it in Checkout or Billing Portal.
Time or mileage location is wrong
Confirm browser or mobile location permissions. A user with the relevant manage permission can correct entries with manual/admin override where business rules allow it.