Company database

The company database holds your company's pricing history, bid results, competitor bid tabs and the shared call record. Estimating Intelligence reads it, and crux's own bid log and quote records are kept in it (see Records and win/loss). Every estimator on your team connects to the same one; a one-person company can keep it on its own computer.

Open Settings > GC > Company database. Setup is this form, never a chat.

Choose where it lives#

You can switch later. Switching never deletes anything: the local file stays, and the server settings stay saved.

Your own server#

Ask whoever runs the database for the server name, port, database name and your login. Encryption (SSL): keep Require (recommended) unless your IT person says otherwise; Off is only for a private network they trust.

Cloud (Supabase)#

1. In your browser, go to supabase.com and sign up (the free plan is enough to start).
2. Click New project, name it, pick the region closest to your office, and set a database password. Write it down somewhere safe.
3. On the project's page, click Connect.
4. Under Connection string, choose the Session pooler (port 5432; the host ends in pooler.supabase.com). Copy the whole string.
5. Paste it in crux and type the database password in its own box. crux shows What crux read from the string and fills the password in for you.
6. Click Test connection, then Save. A new project is empty, so crux offers Create tables (below).

Each estimator pastes the same string and password on their own computer.

Tip: The Transaction pooler (port 6543) works too. The Direct connection needs an IPv6 network, which most offices do not have. A free project pauses after about a week without use: restore it from the Supabase dashboard and crux reconnects.

This computer only#

Nothing to install and nothing to sign in to. Only this computer sees it, and it is included in crux's own backups of your data folder.

Your password#

The password is typed only in this page. It is sealed for your Windows account on this computer; crux never shows it again and never sends it to the chat. Never type it in a chat.

When your company layer carries the server, port and database name, they are already filled in ("Prefilled from your company's settings"): add only your own login and password.

Your company's names on bid tabs#

Your company's names on bid tabs (comma separated): the names your company appears under on public bid tabulations. crux uses them to find your own bid on a tab.

Test, save, and the tables#

• Test connection says connected or not, your login, and each part's schema version against this pack's (Pricing and project history, Competitor bid history).
• Create tables appears only on an empty database. Type CREATE to confirm, and crux creates its tables at this pack's versions.
• crux reads and writes rows only. It never changes an existing database's structure: a database at a newer version is read-only until the pack updates, and an older one needs your database admin's migration. The page says which.

Growing out of this computer#

When a one-person company hires a second estimator:

1. Set up the server or Supabase database in the same page, Test connection, Save, and Create tables.
2. Under Export to the server, type EXPORT and click Export. It copies everything from this computer into the server in one go, only into an empty server database. Nothing is merged, overwritten or deleted, and the local file stays as it is.
3. Click Switch to the server. Each new estimator connects to the server.

When it cannot be reached#

With a server or Supabase database, the reading side answers from an offline snapshot (refreshed after a live call when it is more than six hours old), marked offline with its age. Writes (a quote, a bid tab, a call, a merge) are refused until the database is back, and nothing is queued: crux tells you what did not save so you can redo it. This computer only is always here.