From Blueprints to Balance Sheets on One Screen
Building BajaCabo’s End‑to‑End Construction Management Suite
1. Client Snapshot
BajaCabo serves mid‑sized general contractors working on residential and light‑commercial projects across the U.S. & Mexico. The SaaS platform streamlines project setup, billing schedules, change‑order approval, and document control for crews distributed across offices and job‑sites.
Impact
- Cut monthly billing‑cycle time from 10 days to < 72 hours.
- Change‑order approval turnaround improved 60 % after live CO billing modal.
- 95 % of duplicate data entry eleminated in finance & field.
- 99.97 % uptime with auto‑scaling handling 3× more traffic during peak draws.
- 40 % reduction in annual software spend by replacing 3 legacy point solutions.
2. The Challenge
- Fragmented workflows — job setup, pre‑lien, billing, and change orders lived in disconnected sheets and email threads.
- Financial accuracy — contract value, progress draws, and change‑order billings had to reconcile instantly without double entry.
- Complex documents — lien waivers, agreements, and compliance forms needed automated generation and version control.
- Field mobility — superintendents required a mobile‑first UI that worked offline on remote job‑sites.
- Granular permissions — owners, subs, and accountants each needed role‑based access with full audit logs.
5. Services Delivered
- Full‑stack architecture & development
- Real‑time calculations & websockets
- Automated PDF & document management
- Role‑based security & audit logging
- DevOps, CI/CD & cloud infrastructure
- Ongoing maintenance & performance tuning
3. Our Solution
| Pillar | Implementation Highlights |
|---|---|
| Modular service layer | Node.js + Express APIs segmented by domain (Jobs, Billing, Docs, Users) with PostgreSQL & Prisma ORM; GraphQL gateway for front‑end flexibility. |
| Real‑time finance engine | WebSocket channel pushes live contract balance, retainage, and CO totals; server‑side hooks auto‑recalculate on every modal save. |
| Document automation | PDF generation micro‑service (Puppeteer) produces lien waivers & contracts on demand; files stored on AWS S3 with pre‑signed URLs. |
| Field‑ready UI | Next.js + Bootstrap SPA with offline data cache (IndexedDB) and a responsive drawer navigation—usable on tablets in bright sun. |
| Secure DevOps | CI/CD via GitHub Actions → Docker → AWS ECS; OWASP rule‑set WAF, row‑level RBAC, and encrypted secrets in AWS Secrets Manager. |
6. Tech Stack
Next.jsReactBootstrapNode.jsExpressTypeScriptPostgreSQLPrismaGraphQLWebSocketsAWS (ECS, S3, RDS)DockerPuppeteer