For small public works agencies
The infrastructure your
community deserves.
Cottonworks is project, fund, and grant management software for towns, counties, RCDs, and special districts under 25,000 population — the agencies Cartegraph and OpenGov don't serve well, at a price that actually fits their budget.
No signup needed for the sandbox. Two minutes to see if it fits your workflow.
Cottonworks is shipping today as a partner-led rollout — small agencies first, hands-on setup, real conversations. We'd rather get a few agencies live and great than blast out a launch and call it. Talk to us if your agency wants to be one of them.
Our mission
We built this for the people
who keep small towns running.
Public works teams in small counties carry an enormous load — bridges that hold, roads that are safe, water systems that run clean — with limited budgets and lean crews. The big enterprise software wasn't built for them. We built Cottonworks because they deserve tools that take their work as seriously as they do.
- Built alongside actual public works staff, not for corporate IT departments.
- Workflows shaped around how PMs, inspectors, and directors really work.
- Priced for rural districts and small counties — not just metro agencies with consultants.
What's included
Everything a public works agency runs on. Nothing it doesn't.
One product, all modules included. Turn the ones you don't use off — they're still there when you need them.
Capital projects
ShippingTrack every project from planning through closeout.
- Gantt schedules + budget phases
- Federal funding & Caltrans workflows
- Per-project documents and team assignments
Emergency response (ER)
ShippingStorm damage, flooding, FEMA reimbursement — built for the days everything's on fire.
- FEMA disaster ID & damage tracking
- Force-account & contractor cost capture
- Reimbursement reports grouped by event
Assets & inspections
ShippingRoads, bridges, fleet, facilities, equipment — one inventory, full history.
- Condition ratings + inspection schedules
- Replacement cost & lifecycle tracking
- Photos, custom fields, GPS coordinates
Work orders & PM
ShippingMaintenance jobs, preventive schedules, parts inventory tied together.
- Assign, track, close out
- Auto-generated PM jobs on cadence
- Parts pulled from inventory automatically
Contracts & vendors
ShippingEvery contractor, consultant, and grant agreement in one place.
- Expiration & renewal alerts
- DBE goal & prevailing wage tracking
- Change order management
Invoices & signatures
ShippingVendor invoices from submission through payment, with digital approvals.
- PDF scan + auto-fill from upload
- Email-based signature routing
- Linked to projects and ER events
Public reports
ShippingCitizen calls in a pothole — log, flag, assign, close.
- One-click flag on the affected asset
- Email notification to the assigned staff
- Full resolution audit trail
Documents
ShippingDrawings, photos, permits, correspondence — searchable, attached where they belong.
- Nested folder structures per project
- Drag-and-drop upload
- Any file type, no size gymnastics
Multi-tenant + billing
ShippingAgencies, users, roles, audit log. Stripe + manual PO billing both supported.
- Invitation-only onboarding
- Per-agency feature flags + release channels
- Government-friendly invoice path
Compliance reporting
RoadmapSB1, FHWA, Davis-Bacon, DBE — turn on what your projects require.
- Driven by the modules you already use
- Configurable by region
- Talk to us if this is a priority
Public portal
RoadmapCitizen-facing project status pages, opt-in per agency.
- Curated subset of project data
- Embeddable on existing county sites
- No login required for the public side
AI assistant
In devNatural-language queries against your projects, vendors, and assets.
- Ask in plain English, get the answer
- Cited back to the underlying records
- Beta access for early-access partners
Your entire infrastructure.
On one map.
Every asset your agency manages — roads, bridges, culverts, facilities, fleet — plotted on an interactive map from real GPS coordinates. See where your infrastructure is, flag problem areas, and assign field crews without leaving your desk.
- GPS coordinates per asset, interactive pins
- Color-coded condition ratings at a glance
- Public-report flags shown on the map
- Filter by asset type, condition, or inspection status
Why Cottonworks
Built for the agencies the bigger names don't serve well.
Real pricing, not enterprise pricing
$699 a month. That's less than three hours of consulting from the big guys. Predictable, no "contact sales" gates.
Pay per agency, not per seat
Three users or thirty — same price. Add a new public-works tech without paying $40 more a month.
Government billing handled
Stripe for cards, manual PO/invoice for everyone else. Half our customers can't put SaaS on a credit card. We get it.
Built with you, not at you
Early-access partners help shape what gets built next. Talk to us about what your agency actually needs and where it fits in the roadmap.
Security
Public data deserves serious protection.
Taxpayer information, infrastructure records, and project data aren't just files — they're public assets. Here's how we treat them.
Hardened HTTP security
Standard security headers on every request — CSP, HSTS, X-Frame-Options. TLS for everything in transit.
Role-based access
Admins, project managers, inspectors, field staff — each role only sees and does what their job requires.
Full audit trail
Every change is logged: who did what, and when. Available for compliance audits and forensics.
Rate limiting
Brute-force, credential-stuffing, and automated abuse get throttled at the edge before they reach your data.
Daily backups
Automated backups with a rolling 7-day history. Hardware fails; your records don't.
Input validation
Server-side validation, parameterized queries, type-checked uploads. Standard hygiene, taken seriously.
Pricing
$699 / month
Per agency. All features. Unlimited users.
Two ways to commit
- Prepay the term up front for the biggest discount (2/3/4 months free for 1/2/3 years)
- Pay monthly on a contract for a smaller discount (0/2/3 months free for 1/2/3 years)
- Or month-to-month, no commitment, $699 every month
Worth two minutes to see for yourself.
No form, no sales call, no email collection. Just click around.
Open the sandbox →