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Trackmint — Getting Started, Step by Step (8 Use Cases)

Date: July 19, 2026 · Zero to running, then two full walkthroughs each for software development, legal, general contracting, and general (non-profession) businesses.

This document assumes you’ve never opened the app. It picks up where docs 08–11 (screenshots and the 30 numbered flows) leave off — this is the “sit down and actually do it” version.

Part 0 — From zero (do this once)

  1. Open the app. Prototype: open the sidebar artifact. Real app: npx expo start on your Mac, then press i (simulator) or scan the QR with Expo Go on your phone.
  2. Sign in. Tap “Continue in demo mode.” No account needed — your data saves on-device. (Real accounts via email/password work the same way once Firebase is connected; see doc 17.)
  3. Pick your pack and tier. Go to the More tab → pick a pack (today: Software Dev or Legal — Bankruptcy; see the note on General Contractor and General Business below) → pick a tier (Basic, Mid, or Advanced).
  4. Land on the Board. You’ll see a Kanban board pre-seeded with a couple of sample items so it’s never empty on first open.
  5. Everything below assumes you’re at this point — signed in, pack chosen, tier chosen, looking at the board.

A note on today’s two packs vs. the four business types below. The app currently ships two profession packs — Software Dev and Legal (Bankruptcy) — because those are the two with working code today. General Contractor is a fully designed pack (see doc 11) that hasn’t been built yet: its job-costing boards, COI tracking, and lien-waiver/WH-347 generation are roadmap items. “General Business” isn’t a pack at all — it’s every business that just needs boards, timers, budgets, and invoices with no profession-specific paperwork, which the Basic and Mid tiers already do today, pack or no pack. So the two GC walkthroughs and the two general-business walkthroughs below use the Software Dev pack as the working stand-in (just mentally swap “Issue” for “Job” or “Task”) — the steps and screens are real and working now; only the contractor-specific vocabulary and forms are still on the roadmap.

Part 1 — Software Development (pack: Software Dev, built today)

SD-1: A freelance developer bills a client for a sprint’s work

  1. Board tab → “+ New.” Title: “Build client billing dashboard.” Type: Feature. Client: type a new name, e.g. “Acme Corp.” Estimate: 12 hours. Assignee: yourself. Tap Create. It lands in Backlog.
  2. Drag the card (press and hold, then drag — see the new drag-and-drop note below) or open it and tap Move to ▸ In Progress.
  3. Open the item. Tap Start timer. Work; the clock counts up live even if you switch tabs.
  4. Tap Stop & log when done. Your hours are now in “Logged.”
  5. Repeat across a few days — use Add hours manually for time you tracked elsewhere (e.g., a commute-time client call).
  6. Dashboard tab. Check the MoneyFinder card — it flags any logged-but-unbilled work so nothing slips through at month end.
  7. Invoices tab. Tap Create invoice for Acme Corp — it pulls every unbilled hour on that client automatically, at your assignee rate.
  8. Pick payment methods to accept (Card / ACH / Zelle / Venmo / PayPal / Check) and send.
  9. When the client pays, tap the invoice → Mark paid → pick how they paid. Done — no spreadsheet touched.

SD-2: Catching a fixed-bid project before it blows the budget

  1. Create an item: “Rebuild onboarding flow — fixed bid,” estimate 20 hours, client “TechFlow.”
  2. Open it and check the Estimate usage bar under Billing — it starts at 0%.
  3. Log time as you work (timer or manual). Watch the bar move.
  4. At ~80% of estimate, the bar turns toward amber/red — this is your signal to check in with the client before you’re working for free.
  5. If you go over, the “over” chip on the card turns red on the board too — visible at a glance without opening every item.
  6. Use this moment to either scope-change the estimate or have the overage conversation with the client — the app shows you the number, not just a feeling.

LW-1: Intake to AI-filled schedules

  1. Pack switched to Legal — Bankruptcy (Setup tab). Tier: Advanced (AI doc scanning requires Advanced).
  2. Board → “+ New.” Title: “Smith Chapter 7 — schedules,” type “Petition,” client “J. Smith.”
  3. Setup tab → Security & Compliance card. Confirm the AI master switch is on, and toggle client AI consent for this matter — the app won’t run documents through AI without it (this maps directly to doc 21’s compliance requirement C1).
  4. Docs tab. Tap the item, then Scan document → pick a sample pay stub or W-2.
  5. Watch the 4-step demo: upload → extraction → confidence scores per field → source tracing (you can see exactly which document line produced each number).
  6. Anything below the confidence threshold is flagged for manual review — the “attorney review required” chip stays on every AI-touched document, by design (this is the UPL/§110 safeguard from doc 21, not a bug).
  7. Repeat for a bank statement — the app cross-checks figures (e.g., stated income vs. deposits) and flags conflicts instead of silently picking one.

LW-2: Installment invoice for a flat-fee case

  1. On the same matter, open Billing and set a flat fee instead of hourly (Mid tier and up).
  2. Invoices tab → Create invoice. Check Payment plan to split the fee into installments — common for consumer bankruptcy clients who can’t pay a flat fee upfront.
  3. Choose accepted payment methods — installment clients often pay via ACH or a check by mail, so leave those on even if you personally prefer card.
  4. Send. Each installment gets marked paid individually as it comes in (Mark paid → pick method), so your books always show exactly what’s outstanding.
  5. If this were a real trust matter, this is also where IOLTA three-way reconciliation would sit — flagged in doc 21 as a Phase 2 build, not yet in the app.

Part 3 — General Contractor (pack: roadmap — walkthrough uses today’s Software Dev pack as a stand-in)

GC-1: Job-costing a kitchen remodel

  1. Pack: Software Dev (stand-in — read “Issue” as “Job,” “Type” as “Job phase”). Tier: Mid.
  2. Board → “+ New.” Title: “Johnson kitchen remodel — demo & framing,” estimate: whatever hours you’ve quoted, client: “Johnson.”
  3. Log crew hours against it the same way as SD-1 — timer or manual entry, per person if each crew member has their own login (multi-user is already supported via the Member/rate-card model).
  4. Dashboard → MoneyFinder still applies: any logged hours plus any expenses not yet invoiced show up here, same as any other business.
  5. When the phase wraps, invoice Johnson for hours + materials (see GC-2 for the receipt side).
  6. What’s missing until the GC pack ships: job-phase templates with contractor-specific stages (Demo → Framing → Rough-in → Finish), a “Job” vocabulary instead of “Issue,” and pay-application formatting. The underlying board/timer/budget/invoice mechanics you just used are the same mechanics the GC pack will sit on top of.

GC-2: Tracking materials against a job budget

  1. On the same job item, add expenses via Invoices tab → Add expense (or the Docs tab’s receipt-scan demo, which works the same way as the pay-stub scan in LW-1 — it’s the same AI engine, just no official-form output yet for construction).
  2. Expenses roll into Billing the same way logged hours do — check the budget bar to see hours + materials together against your quoted total.
  3. Invoice the client for labor and materials in one document via Create invoice — no separate materials spreadsheet needed.
  4. Roadmap-only for this vertical (see doc 11): supplier-receipt scan auto-coded to the right job, subcontractor insurance-certificate (COI) expiry tracking, state-specific lien waivers, and WH-347 certified payroll. None of these exist yet — this walkthrough shows what’s real today (job costing) versus what’s designed but unbuilt (the paperwork automation).

Part 4 — General Business (no profession pack needed — Basic/Mid tiers, works today)

Any business that bills for time or a project — a marketing agency, a consultant, a photographer, a small design studio — can use Trackmint today with zero profession-specific setup. Pick either pack as your board template (Software Dev’s vocabulary reads more neutrally); ignore the AI Docs tab entirely, since it’s opt-in and profession-specific.

GB-1: A retainer client — monthly hours against a set budget

  1. Board → “+ New.” Title: “Acme monthly retainer — July,” estimate: your monthly retainer hours (e.g., 15), client: “Acme.”
  2. As work comes in through the month, log it against this one item with the timer or manual entry — treat it as a running bucket rather than a single task.
  3. Check the estimate usage bar weekly. If you’re at 90% hours with two weeks left in the month, that’s your cue to flag scope to the client before you’re donating hours.
  4. At month end, Invoices → Create invoice for Acme — it bills exactly the logged hours at your rate, no manual tally.
  5. Reset for August by creating a fresh item — keeps each month’s billing cleanly separated for reporting.

GB-2: A one-off project — quote, timer, invoice, get paid your way

  1. Create an item: “Brand refresh — logo + style guide,” estimate 25 hours, client “Nova Fitness.”
  2. Work the project, logging time as you go (SD-1’s timer flow works identically here — there’s nothing dev-specific about a timer).
  3. When done, Invoices → Create invoice, and turn on every payment method the client might use — a one-off client is more likely to want to pay by card or PayPal than an ongoing retainer client paying by ACH.
  4. Mark paid when it lands. If the client wants to pay in two installments, use the same Payment plan checkbox shown in LW-2 — it isn’t legal-specific, any business can split an invoice.
  5. This is the whole pitch in miniature: one board, one timer, one invoice — no separate time-tracking app, no separate invoicing app, no retyping.

What’s different about this doc vs. doc 08

Doc 08 has screenshots and covers dev + legal only. This document adds the “start from a blank app” onboarding steps, a second use case per profession, and — new — General Contractor and General Business, both clearly marked for what’s real today versus what’s designed-but-not-built. If you want screenshots added to this doc the way doc 08 has them, say so and they’ll be captured from a fresh run-through.

A note on the drag-and-drop mentioned in SD-1

Board cards can now be picked up with a press-and-hold and dragged to another column, in either direction (forward or back) — this was added in response to testing feedback and verified in the code (clean typecheck, clean web-export smoke test with no console errors). The one thing not yet verified in this environment is the live touch gesture on an actual iPhone, since this sandbox has no iOS simulator — please try it in Expo Go and let me know if the pickup feels off (timing, sensitivity, anything), and it can be tuned.