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Straight answers to what people ask before signing up.
If yours isn't here, email us — we'll answer it and add it.
What is Covered, exactly?
Software you run your business in. It covers the full cycle — estimate, job, schedule, invoice, payment, books, payroll, year-end — as one connected system instead of five that don't talk. You do the work in it. We build it so there's dramatically less work to do.
What makes it different from what I'm using now?
Most shops run a scheduling tool, an accounting tool, a payments processor, and a spreadsheet holding the whole thing together. Every handoff between them is a re-entry, an export, or a reconciliation. In Covered, an estimate becomes a job, a job becomes an invoice, and an invoice becomes a line in your books without anyone typing it twice. One record, followed all the way through.
What does "single source of truth" actually mean for me?
It means your customer's address is right in one place instead of wrong in three. It means the revenue number on your dashboard is the same number your year-end is built from, because it's literally the same data. Most of the tedium in running a business isn't the work — it's keeping copies of the same information in agreement with each other. That's the part Covered removes.
Do I still need a bookkeeper or an accountant?
Depends on what you want. Covered keeps your books current and your filings organized, and plenty of businesses run it themselves and bring an accountant in for year-end review. If you'd rather have a bookkeeper working inside Covered, that works too — give them access. We're not trying to replace your accountant, we're trying to make sure they aren't billing you to untangle a shoebox.
How hard is it to learn?
You'll spend real time on it in the first week or two — this is the system your business runs in, and there's no version of that you can skip. What you get back is that you're learning one system instead of maintaining four. Most people are comfortable with the daily flow — estimate, schedule, invoice — within a few weeks. The financial side takes longer and matters less day to day.
What happens to my QuickBooks data?
It comes with you. Customers, job history, and balances transfer during setup, and we reconcile against your existing books so the numbers match before you go live. You're not starting from zero.
What if I want to leave?
You export and go. Customer list, job history, financials — yours, in standard formats, whenever you ask. No exit fee, no hostage period.
How long is setup?
Most businesses are running within a week or two. We handle the data migration or you can do it.
Does it handle CRA filings — HST, source deductions, T4s?
Covered tracks what you owe and when, and prepares the numbers you need for HST remittances, source deductions, and T4s — pulled from your actual transactions rather than assembled at year-end.
Am I too small for this?
If you're invoicing, no. A one-truck operation gets the same benefit as a ten-crew shop — less of it, because there's less volume, but the same relief from re-entering everything.
Does it work in the field?
Yes. Estimates, scheduling, dispatch, job notes, and invoicing all work from a phone. A tech can close out a job in the driveway and it's in the books before they're back at the shop.
Does Covered monitor customer reviews?
Yes. Covered brings new customer reviews into one place so you can stay on top of feedback without checking every platform yourself. It can also prepare response drafts for you to review — nothing is posted until you approve it.
Can Covered help with social media posts?
Yes. Covered turns business updates, completed work, and seasonal ideas into social post drafts that sound like your business. You review and approve each draft before anything is published.
Do you work with businesses outside Hamilton?
Yes. We're Hamilton-based and work with service and trade businesses across Ontario, with payroll and tax handling set up for your province.
Where does my data live, and who can see it, and how is it protected?
Where it lives
Your books, payroll records, and tax forms are stored in a managed cloud database run by Neon, on infrastructure operated by Amazon Web Services. Covered doesn't keep your data on an office computer or a machine under someone's desk — it lives in a professionally operated data centre with physical security, monitoring, and independent security audits.
Your data is backed up continuously, so a mistake on your end or a failure on ours doesn't mean losing your records.
Who can see it
Your business's data is walled off from every other business using Covered. Every single request to view a record is checked against your account first — if it isn't yours, it isn't returned. There's no shared view, no "all customers" screen, and no way for another Covered customer to reach your books.
Inside your own business, you decide who sees what. Covered has role-based permissions, so your bookkeeper can be given access to invoices without access to payroll, and staff can be limited to just the parts of the system they need. Only an administrator can change those roles.
How it's protected
In transit: Everything travelling between your browser and Covered is encrypted. Your data is never sent over the internet in a readable form.
At rest: The disks holding your data are encrypted with AES-256, the same standard used by banks and governments.
Passwords: We never store your password. We store a one-way scrambled version, which means even we can't read it — and if you forget it, we reset it rather than look it up.
Sessions: Signing in creates a session we can revoke. If a device is lost or an employee leaves, access can be cut off immediately.
What does it cost?
Plans start at $ 149/month and scale with headcount and volume. Full breakdown on the pricing page — no setup fees, no annual contract.
How do I get started?
Email info@coveredcanada.ca or book a demo. We'll look at what you're running now and tell you honestly whether the switch is worth it.