Crane Customer Portal

The Problem With Managing GC Communication by Email

When crane companies manage general contractor communication by email, the result is invoice disputes that should not exist. A GC receives a field ticket via email, the approver is out, the email gets forwarded, and by the time someone approves it, the crane company has been waiting 10 days to generate an invoice. Email threads are not audit records. An email chain is not proof of GC approval in a payment dispute.

GC approval delays compound across jobs. A dispatcher managing five active GC relationships via email is spending two to three hours a day on follow-up: who has the ticket, did they sign it, has accounts payable seen the invoice, when is the check coming. That follow-up time does not produce revenue. It is pure administrative drag created by the absence of a structured communication channel.

The operational drag of managing GC communication outside the dispatch workflow also means the dispatcher's attention is split between running jobs and chasing paperwork. CraneOp's GC portal moves all GC-facing communication into a structured interface where every action is tracked, timestamped, and tied to the job record.

Branded Portal, Not Third-Party Software

CraneOp's GC portal is white-labeled. When a general contractor visits the portal, they see the crane company's logo, brand colors, and company name. CraneOp does not appear in the GC-facing interface. This is intentional: the crane company owns its client relationships. Inserting a third-party platform brand into that interface weakens the relationship and signals to the GC that the crane company is reselling someone else's technology rather than operating its own system.

GCs access the portal via an invitation link sent from CraneOp by the crane company. The GC creates an account using a one-time token from the invitation. Once logged in, row-level security ensures the GC can only see records tied to their company ID. A GC from one construction company cannot see jobs, tickets, or invoices belonging to a different GC. This is enforced at the database layer, not by the application logic, so it cannot be bypassed by URL manipulation.

GC accounts are scoped to the crane company. If a general contractor works with two different crane companies, they get separate portal accounts for each relationship. There is no cross-company data access at any level.

Job Visibility and Field Ticket Approval

GCs can view all active and completed jobs in the portal using plain-language status labels designed for non-operators. A GC does not need to understand dispatcher terminology. Job status shows: what crane is on site, what work was done today, and what is scheduled tomorrow. Job updates appear in near real-time as the dispatcher updates the board.

When a field ticket is ready for review, the GC receives a push notification and can view the ticket details in the portal: hours, standby time, materials, and photos. The GC approves the ticket with a digital signature. That approval signature is timestamped, linked to the GC user account, and compliant with ESIGN/UETA. Once the GC signs, the ticket is locked and invoice generation triggers automatically.

GC rejection is also supported. If the GC disputes a ticket, they can reject it with a reason. The rejection creates a dispatcher task to resolve the dispute. The resolution path is structured: the dispatcher can edit the ticket, resubmit, and the GC signs the corrected version. The full dispute history is retained.

Payment Directly Through the Portal

GCs can pay invoices directly from the portal using ACH bank transfer or card. The payment flow is built on Stripe Connect, with a Modern Treasury white-labeled ACH flow for companies that prefer bank-direct payment. The GC sees the crane company's branding throughout the payment flow, consistent with the white-labeled portal experience. No CraneOp payment screens are visible.

Payment status is visible to both the GC and the crane company's dispatcher simultaneously. When a payment clears, the GC's portal shows the invoice as paid and the crane company's dashboard updates automatically. For new GC bank accounts, a first-payment hold is applied until the bank account clears. GCs can see the hold status in the portal, which reduces the inbound calls asking why a payment is not showing as applied. Learn more about all CraneOp features or view pricing plans that include the GC portal.

Give Your GCs a Portal That Runs Itself

The branded GC portal is included on every CraneOp deployment.