Base Connect
Base Connect introduces licensed builders to clients planning a commercial fit-out. A client gets a free project brief from Base and can ask to be introduced to up to three builders. The Base Connect settings page is where an admin says which jobs suit the business and keeps its licence and insurance current. Jobs that match arrive under CRM → Connect jobs, where whoever runs the pipeline sees an outline of each job and accepts or declines it.
- You need to be an admin to change the settings page. Anyone with the CRM can see Connect jobs.
- Connect leads are included in paid plans. On a plan without them you are not offered jobs.
- For every state you work in that licenses commercial builders, your licence has to be checked before you are offered anything there. Have the licence number handy, and a copy of the licence for states with no public register.
- Public liability insurance has to be current. Have the policy number, the expiry date and the certificate of currency.
- On the settings page, under Lead preferences, turn on Offer me Connect jobs.
- Pick the states you work in. Add postcodes if you only want jobs in some areas; leave them empty to take jobs anywhere in your states.
- Pick the job types you take: Retail, Food & hospitality, Clinic / health, Office, Gym / fitness, Other commercial.
- Set the smallest and largest job in square metres, or leave either blank for no limit. Job size is the tenancy area as stated on the client's drawings.
- Set Offers per month. Once your open offers this month reach that number, you are skipped until next month.
- Press Save preferences. The line under the button says whether you can now be offered jobs, and the Licence and insurance panel below lists what each of your states needs.
- Turn on Pause for now and press Save preferences. Your settings stay, and no new jobs are offered until you turn it off. Turning off Offer me Connect jobs instead stops new offers too; jobs you have already accepted stay.
- Under Licence and insurance, find the state's row. It says whether the state needs a licence, and whether Base checks it against a public register or reviews your certificate.
- Enter the licence number, and the class and expiry if you have them. For a state with no public register, upload the licence.
- Press Save and check. The row then shows the dated result: checked against the register and current, or reviewed by Base from your certificate, or what went wrong (not found, expired, suspended, or a class that does not cover commercial fit-out). Where Base reviews the certificate by hand, the result usually arrives within a business day.
- Press Check now any time to run the check again.
- In the Public liability insurance row, enter the policy number, the insurer if you like, and the expiry date, and upload the certificate of currency. Press Save. The row says "Current until" the expiry date.
- Contract works insurance is the same row underneath, and is optional.
- Open CRM → Connect jobs. Under Waiting for you, each card is an outline only: the job type, the suburb, the centre if there is one, the stated area, how far along the drawings are, the target trade date, the trades involved, and anything the landlord does as Category 1 works. A badge shows how long you have left to answer.
- Press Accept, read what Base will set up, and press Accept and set up the job.
Base checks your licence again at that moment, then creates in your account a lead with the client's contact details, a project at quoting with the client's drawings and the project brief, and an indicative takeoff as pending estimate lines with no rates. The card moves to Accepted with links to both. You quote the client directly with your own template and terms; the contract is between you and the client.
- Press Decline on the card, choose a reason if you want to give one, and press Decline. The card moves to Closed. Declining does not count against you.
- Base only offers you jobs that pass every filter: opted in and not paused, a plan that includes Connect leads, the job's state and postcode, job type and size, under your monthly capacity, licence checked, public liability current.
- Among builders who pass, offers rotate. The fewer offers you have had in the last thirty days, the higher you rank, up to a cap. Fit with your preferences and answering offers, yes or no, count too. No one can pay to rank higher, and clients never see scores or rankings.
- When a job is offered to you, it appears under Waiting for you and you are notified. Each offer is open for 48 hours and then expires.
- Changing a licence or insurance detail clears its last check, so the next offer waits until it has been checked again.
- You see the client's name, street address, drawings and brief only after you accept. Until then the card is an outline.
- The indicative takeoff is a starting point, not a measure. Verify every quantity before you price it, or ignore the lines.
- In Queensland, quoting unlicensed on work over $3,300 is an offence, so Base will not offer you a Queensland job until the QBCC check comes back current.
- A licence is never shown as "verified". The row shows the date it was checked and what the register or the reviewer found, and that is all Base claims.
- Hitting Offers per month skips you quietly until next month. Raise the number if jobs seem to have stopped.
- CRM for the lead an accepted job creates.
- Projects for the project at quoting.
- The estimate for pricing the takeoff lines.