Paving Software — Data Model | FieldCamp

A paving contractor does not run a one-hour service call. A lot gets measured, an estimate is built from square feet and tons, a crew lays mix by the load, and the same surface comes back every few years for sealcoat and fresh stripes.

FieldCamp models that. Your Customers, Requests, Estimates & Invoices, Jobs, and Visits already carry the client, the bid, the field schedule, and the billing.

On top of that, a paving setup adds the records a paving job needs and core has no home for: a Paving Project that runs the lot, a Pavement Measurement that holds the area and tonnage, asphalt materials priced from the catalog, and recurring sealcoat and striping handled as service agreements.

What the core already gives you

Most of a paving workflow is already wired into the core records. Keep them as-is and add the paving layer on top.

• The client book — a Customer carries a separate property address and billing address, the lead source, and the account history, so homeowners, property managers, and repeat commercial accounts live in one place.
• The bid front end — a Request captures the inquiry and the site visit, then converts into an Estimate. A paving bid is often a multi-option proposal: the Good / Better / Best scope — patch versus overlay versus mill-and-replace — is one estimate with selectable options, plus a deposit and an approval step.
• Billing — an Invoice handles deposits, payment terms, purchase-order numbers, overdue reminders, and card or online payment.
• The field schedule — a Job is the scheduled work, carried out as one or more Visits. A two-day mill-and-pave is one visit per day, each with crew assignment, on-site check-in and check-out, and a signature-gated finish step.
• On-site data capture — a pre-pave site survey, a daily pour log, a compaction and density sign-off, and a striping layout check are captured as job forms, not loose fields.
• The price book — hot-mix asphalt by the ton, tack coat, aggregate base, sealer, crack filler, and striping paint are line items in the price book with vendors and cost ladders, and feed every estimate and invoice.

So the paving layer is additive. Core handles the client, the bid, the billing, the field schedule, and the forms; the specialized objects handle the project, the measurement, the materials, and the recurring sealcoat and striping.

What paving adds

Each item below is a custom object built on FieldCamp's customization engine — its own fields, its own links to the core records, its own stages where it needs them, and its own record page assembled from building blocks.

Together they capture what defines the paving business: a project spine for big lots, a measurement record that turns area into tons, the mix and aggregate that get laid, and the sealcoat-and-stripe work that comes back on a schedule.

Paving Project — the lot spine

The Paving Project is the record that runs a paving job from a signed contract through final stripe.

It exists because a core Job models one scheduled work order, while a parking lot is a multi-phase project with its own contract value, its own measurement and materials, and its own longer lifecycle.

It carries the project name, the project type (residential driveway or commercial lot), the work type (new construction, overlay, mill-and-replace, patch, or repair), the surface type (asphalt or concrete), the site address, the contract value and signed date, the start and target-complete dates, a permit-required flag, project photos and documents, and notes.

It links to the rest of the model: to the Customer it belongs to, to the Estimate and Invoice that handle the bid and billing, to the Jobs that produce the visits and crews, to its Pavement Measurement, and to the team member running as foreman.

Pavement Measurement — the area-and-tonnage takeoff

Square footage, thickness, and tons are reused by the estimate and the material order, so they are a record, not a note buried on the job.

The Pavement Measurement holds the total area in square feet, the planned lift thickness in inches, the asphalt density used for the conversion, a waste-and-compaction factor, and a calculated tonnage figure.

It also carries the base-aggregate depth, the linear feet of crack filling, the count of parking stalls and ADA stalls for striping, the measurement source, and the site sketch or photo set.

Estimated tonnage is a formula field — FieldCamp multiplies area, thickness, and density and applies the waste factor, so the tonnage updates itself as the measurement changes rather than being retyped.

The priced totals still flow through the estimate and invoice line items; the measurement is the takeoff worksheet, the estimate is the quote.

Materials — mix, base, and the loadout

Paving materials are line items, not new records. Hot-mix asphalt by the ton, tack coat, aggregate base, sealer, crack filler, and striping paint live in the price book with cost, price, unit, and vendor detail, and flow onto the estimate, the job, and the invoice.

For a big lot, the project page can add a loadout sheet that compares projected, loaded, and actual tonnage so the mix budget stays honest across the pour, a vendor-pricing block for the plant's cost ladder and alternate suppliers, and a shortage alert if a load runs short.

Trucking and mobilization are line items too — added to the estimate as their own catalog entries rather than buried in the asphalt price.

Recurring sealcoat and striping — the maintenance plan

Sealcoat and re-stripe are not one-time work.

A lot comes back every two to three years for a fresh coat, and stripes fade and get repainted on their own cycle — so the recurring side is modeled as a service agreement, the same pattern a maintenance contract uses.

A Sealcoat Agreement carries the covered surface, the service interval (every two or three years for sealcoat, annually for striping touch-ups), the next-service date, the agreed price, and the renewal terms.

From it, FieldCamp's recurring Job type generates the visit when the cycle comes due, so the customer is on the calendar without anyone re-entering the work. Crack-fill, oil-spot priming, and ADA re-striping ride along as line items on the recurring job.

How the paving objects link to the core

A Customer owns Paving Projects for new work and Service Agreements for recurring sealcoat and striping.

Each Paving Project pulls in the core bid and billing records, the Jobs that produce its visits and crews, and the Pavement Measurement that drives its tonnage — with a team member as foreman.

Each Service Agreement spins up a recurring Job when the cycle comes due.

The paving project flow

A paving project moves through a named lifecycle — longer than a service call, and built around the laydown day the whole crew turns out for. The diagram shows the path from the bid through measure, schedule, pave, and stripe.

A few of these stages carry requirements before a project can move on. Marking a project Signed asks for the contract value and signed date and shows a confirmation.

The move into production asks for the linked Pavement Measurement, so no crew rolls out without a tonnage figure. Final invoice can ask for the completion photo set and, on residential work, a homeowner signature.

Along the way, the project keeps itself in sync. Marking it Signed spins up the first paving Job.

The project rolls to in-production when the laydown starts and to paid when its invoice is paid. Reaching Scheduled, Striping, or Paid sends a notification to the office, the foreman, or the customer.

The phase names are yours to rename. A driveway outfit might run Measure, Pave, Done; a commercial paver might run Mill, Base, Pave, Stripe, Closeout — the same pipeline, relabeled to the way the shop talks about its work.

Residential driveways vs commercial lots

One model serves both. The differences are a handful of fields and stages that turn on or off per segment — not a separate build.

The Paving Project and Pavement Measurement records serve both — fill the fields each segment needs.

The ADA stall count and the permit flag matter on the commercial path and stay empty on a driveway; the recurring Service Agreement is where commercial accounts earn their long tail, and a one-off driveway can skip it entirely.

Built on the customization engine

None of these records are a separate product bolted on.

The Paving Project and Pavement Measurement are custom objects with their own fields; the tonnage figure is a formula field; the project lifecycle and the measurement gate are stages and workflows with their own requirements and automations; the recurring sealcoat and striping runs on the service-agreement pattern with the core recurring Job type; and each record page is arranged from building blocks like the project board, the loadout sheet, the cost view, and the vendor-pricing ladder.

Rename a stage, add a field, or rearrange a page, and the model bends to how your shop actually runs — without touching the transaction spine underneath.

Related records

Coming from HCSS

Many paving and heavy-civil contractors run their bids and field tracking on HCSS — HeavyBid for the estimate and HeavyJob for the field.

Most of that structure has a home in FieldCamp: the customer, the project, the bid items and crews, the equipment, the price book, and the field quantities all map across.

The difference is that in FieldCamp you own and shape the model, rather than fitting your shop to a fixed civil-estimating structure.

What you gain. In HCSS the structure is built for heavy-civil bidding, and the objects and how they relate are set for you.

In FieldCamp every one of those records is yours to rename, extend, restage, and relayout, so you can match your old setup first and then shape it to your shop with custom objects and fields and your own stages and workflows.

One honest difference. HCSS is a deep estimating and field-cost engine — a digital takeoff that measures the lot off a plan set, mix-design selection, detailed cost-code production tracking, and reconciling delivered plant tickets against the budget are core to it.

FieldCamp records the area and counts, runs the tonnage formula, tracks loads on the loadout sheet, and compares estimated against actual — but it does not draw the takeoff, select the mix design, or reconcile plant tickets.

If that estimating depth is central to how you bid, plan that part of the move deliberately.

See also

More in the FieldCamp data model.