Every house in HouseRater needs a builder, and HouseRater manages builders differently depending on information from programs (internal or utility sponsored). Builder contracts will handle the heavy-lifting for you at determining what approvals are needed for the new building company—just make sure to select all the programs this builder is participates in.

When creating builders for all-internal programs, no outside approvals are necessary, and the builder will be available instantly. You can also quickly create internal builder contracts when adding a new house by typing into the Builder dropdown.

To make new builders for these programs, you can use the Add New Builder link when creating a house, or follow the guide below. With automatically confirmed builder contracts, you can manage additional information about the company in the Managing Existing Builder Contracts guide further down.

Utility sponsored programs act a little differently, because the program admin needs to confirm territories and licenses before the builder is available. You won't be able to use the Add New Builder shortcut when creating a house for Utility Rebate Programs. Instead, we'll request a new Builder Contract from the Organizations sidebar menu. Once the new contract is approved by a program admin, the builder will begin showing up in the Builder dropdown.

Follow the guide below, and ensure to select both internal and external programs for the new builder when requesting your contract.

From the Builder Contracts page, under Organizations in the sidebar of HouseRater, you'll be able to manually add builder contracts. This is where you can request utility sponsored builders to be added, view and edit the clients you work with, and update various other information for building companies.

When looking at the Builder Contracts page, you'll see an Add New Builder button. This will take you to the screen for completing details about the builder client you'll work with. Based on the information you fill out, the contract may or may-not be immediatley available.

Requested Builder Name will be used as the builder name once the contract is approved by your program admin, and it's used in utility sponsored programs for ensuring the builder doesn't already exist with a slightly different spelling. Address and license information on this page can be updated at any time.

After creating the Builder Contract, you'll be able to complete more information about the company, like the Builder Logo, and the Report Recipients at the organization.

After the builder contract is confirmed, you're able to upload the logo, report recipients and various other data points for this client. We have more information on using HouseRater's report sending features at our Sending Reports to Builders guide.

The builder logo is displayed on consulting reports generated from HouseRater, and serves as an identifier for their organization. Square logos show up best in reports, but any shape can be resized and displayed on the generated PDF report.

At any time, you can update the address and license information from the builder contracts page. Select the contract, and be sure to select Save when you're done making changes. From this page, you won't be able to update the name of the builder or the programs it participates in, because this info was approved by the utility sponsorship program admin—to change these fields, just send us a message and we'll work with program admin and your staff to coordinate the update.

Report recipients are used to track contact people at building companies, and are used when sending generated reports right from the HouseRater web app. You can learn about Sending Reports to Builders at our other guide.

Once report recipients are added, they can be selected as the Main Job Supervisor or other contact recipients on communities and houses.