STrOp · Learn
Practical knowledge for specialty contractors
Compliance, change management, project controls, and the data discipline that compounds across bids. Written for California specialty subs — owners, PMs, estimators, and the field.
14 of 47 articles in Field. Clear
All 58 topics
Apprenticeship on public works — DAS 140, DAS 142, and the 1-to-5 ratio
The two notices you owe the apprenticeship committees and the journeyman-to-apprentice ratio auditors actually count — miss them and the penalties accrue per violation, per day.
Build your crew roster
Add your workers once — name, classification, agreement, rate — and every timecard, schedule slot, and certified-payroll line downstream fills itself from the roster instead of being retyped.
Buy out the material — a PO from the estimate to the lot
Build a purchase order from the estimate's material lines, issue it, receive the truck from the lot, and watch committed cost land on the budget the day the PO issues, not the day the invoice does.
Certified payroll — one run a week, eCPR out the door
Build the week's certified payroll run from approved timecards, generate the eCPR XML DIR takes, print the A-1-131 for the GC's portal, and read the Compliance tab before you leave.
Certified payroll — weekly cadence and DIR submission
When CPRs are due, what "work performed" means, and how STrOp builds the LCPtracker / eCPR export.
Daily site photos and the daily report
Capture the day while it's happening — the timecard's daily report (work completed, areas, site conditions, delays, deliveries, weather) and the photos, shot from the phone with a caption and a category — so when a claim or an audit asks what the site looked like on a Tuesday six months ago, you answer in thirty seconds.
Enter and approve timecards
The foreman's daily crew entry and the PM's approval pass — how hours become job cost, payroll data, and the record that survives an audit.
Import a DIR wage determination (and keep it current)
Load a California prevailing-wage determination — including its scheduled July-1-style increase — so your projects validate pay against the right floor, and refresh it when DIR reissues.
Meal and rest breaks — the PAGA exposure on your timecards
California's break rules in crew terms, the premium owed per missed break, and why the daily attestation on the timecard is the record that keeps a slip from compounding into a seven-figure claim.
Prevailing wage rates — how to find the right one
Which rate applies to which worker on which project, where DIR publishes them, and how STrOp pulls the right one onto your timecards.
Productivity rate capture — today's timecard becomes tomorrow's bid
The estimator's productivity assumption is the single biggest source of bid variance. The fix is a feedback loop, and the loop only works if timecard data lives in the same system as the assemblies.
Schedule the crew week
Drag workers onto the week's work orders once, and the plan flows downstream — the field sees where to be, and the foreman's timecard starts from the crew you scheduled.
T&M tag — why the owner signature is everything
What a T&M tag is, what makes it legally enforceable, and what STrOp does when the signature is missing.
Where the job stands — read the budget and the business report
Read the job's Budget tab (baseline from the estimate, current adds executed change orders, committed from POs, actuals from approved hours and receipts, by cost code) and the daily, weekly, and monthly business report.
See STrOp in action
Single-pipeline operations for California specialty contractors — bid through warranty.
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