How Calls Reach Your Restoration Software: Xcelerate, DASH, Albi, Encircle, PSA and JobNimbus

How do phone calls get into your restoration software?

A 2 am water call only becomes a job when its details reach your restoration software, and each platform takes calls in differently. JobNimbus and Albi have Zapier apps that can create contacts and jobs or projects. Encircle has a Zapier app and an open API. Xcelerate lists AnswerForce as a call partner. DASH and PSA publish APIs for partners, but neither has a Zapier app.

This guide covers the six job management platforms restoration owners ask us about most. For each one it says what the vendor publishes today (an API, a Zapier app, call or answering partners) and how calls from a live answering service or an AI receptionist can reach it. Everything was checked on the vendors' own pages and on Zapier on October 23, 2026. Where a vendor doesn't publish something, we say so rather than guess.

We build Botcadence, an AI restoration answering service, so we have a stake in this. To be plain about our side: Botcadence writes to JobNimbus natively, and to the other five only through Zapier or a webhook, and only where that platform offers a way in.

The six platforms at a glance

"No Zapier app found" means Zapier's app directory has no listing for that product as of October 23, 2026. A Zapier app named "Dash" exists, but it's a digital asset tool, not the Cotality restoration platform.

JobNimbus

JobNimbus is the most open of the six for call intake.

• Its Zapier app has two triggers (contact and job created, modified or deleted) and actions to create and update contacts, create jobs and add attachments, plus searches to find a contact by email or ID.
• Botcadence's native connector uses your JobNimbus API key. During the call, the AI creates or updates the JobNimbus contact and its restoration job from the details the caller gives: name, callback number, address, the loss and the insurance notes. Later updates in the same conversation are added as an Activity on that job. A later conversation from the same contact creates a separate job.
• Watch for: the job only holds what the caller actually said, which is the point; set your intake script so the important fields get asked. See the JobNimbus page for the field mapping.

Albi (Albiware)

Albi takes calls in two ways.

• Its own phone tools. Albi's product tour says it automatically tracks communications including phone calls, and lists Twilio among the tools it works with. If your Albi account already records and logs calls, check what it captures before adding a second layer.
• Its Zapier app. You connect it with an Albi API key from Settings, Integrations, "Albi API". Its actions include Create Contact, Create Organization, Create Project, Create Project Note, Create Task and Create Event, and triggers include New Project and Project Status Changed. Albi's own Zapier page describes creating tasks, contacts, projects and notes from Zaps.
• For an AI receptionist: a Zap can take the finished call, create the contact, create the project, and add the intake summary as a project note.

Encircle

Encircle is field documentation software, so a call becomes a property claim rather than a sales lead.

• Open API. Encircle's API page says it "provides an open API" with structured access to job data, and links public documentation and API terms.
• Zapier app. Five triggers (such as New Property Claim and Updated Property Claim) and actions including Create Property Claim, Create Property Claim Note, Assign User to Property Claim and Find or Create Property Claim.
• For an AI receptionist: use Find or Create Property Claim so a repeat caller doesn't create a second claim, then add the intake as a claim note and assign the on-call technician.
• It sits beside your job software. PSA lists Encircle among the tools it works with. If you run both, you may prefer the call to create the job in your job platform and leave Encircle to hold the field documentation.

Xcelerate

Xcelerate publishes a partner page for AnswerForce. It says AnswerForce's agents answer when you can't, capture the details, and Xcelerate then creates a master job from that call data, so nothing is re-typed.

• Public API: not published on Xcelerate's own pages.
• Zapier: no Xcelerate app in Zapier's directory.
• What that means: if you run Xcelerate and want calls to create jobs automatically, AnswerForce's listed partnership is the simplest route today. It's a live answering service; our AnswerForce alternatives page covers its price and when to stay with it. An AI receptionist can still send you an email or text summary of each call, but it won't create the Xcelerate job for you.

DASH (Cotality)

DASH, formerly DASH by Next Gear Solutions, is now Cotality's restoration platform.

• API. On September 3, 2026, Cotality announced a self-service API for members of its Digital Hub Alliance, its vendor program. It doesn't say the API is open to contractors or to vendors outside that program.
• What DASH lists: estimating and claims tools (Xactimate, XactAnalysis, Claims Workspace), Mitigate for drying documentation, QuickBooks, a CRM, and Restoration Engage for customer communication. No phone, call tracking or answering partner is listed.
• Zapier: no app for Cotality's DASH.
• What that means: ask Cotality which Digital Hub Alliance partners handle call intake before you choose an answering service. Without one, calls reach DASH by email or by someone typing them in.

PSA (Canam Systems)

PSA is made by Canam Systems.

• API. PSA's site says it offers "open API access" with industry solutions, and lists Xactimate, XactAnalysis, Symbility, Encircle, Matterport and DocuSketch. No public API documentation is linked.
• Zapier: no PSA app found.
• Calls: the site mentions SMS alerts, but no call handling or answering partner.
• What that means: ask Canam whether API access is available for call intake on your plan.

A field map that works on every platform

Whatever the route, the same intake fields matter. These come from our free restoration intake form:

What none of these routes do

• No live schedule lookup. An answering service or AI can't see free slots inside these platforms during the call. Book inspections into a calendar the AI can read, such as Google Calendar, and let the job record follow.
• Records arrive after the call. Zapier and webhook steps run when the call ends. That's fine for the job file; it's why waking the on-call technician has to be a separate alert.
• Duplicates. A repeat caller can create a second contact or job. Use a find or "find or create" step where the platform has one (JobNimbus and Encircle do).
• Zapier costs. Webhooks by Zapier, which an AI receptionist's Catch Hook needs, isn't on Zapier's free plan.

Which route to pick

• You run JobNimbus: an AI receptionist with a native JobNimbus connector, or any service through Zapier.
• You run Albi or Encircle: any answering service or AI that can post to a Zapier Catch Hook, with the steps above. Check first what Albi's own call tracking already gives you.
• You run Xcelerate and want jobs created automatically: AnswerForce, because it's the partner Xcelerate lists. Weigh its per-minute bill in storm months; our restoration answering service cost guide prices it.
• You run DASH or PSA: ask the vendor which partners handle call intake, and treat the answering service and the job record as two separate steps until then.

How Botcadence fits

Botcadence's AI receptionist for restoration answers your forwarded line, asks the safety questions first, and captures the intake above in English or Spanish.

• Active losses: it starts your on-call escalation, which texts and calls your technicians and backups until someone replies.
• Contained losses: it books an inspection into Google Calendar.
• Your software: it writes to JobNimbus natively. For Albi, Encircle and other software that accepts them, its Send to Zapier action posts the call summary and captured fields to a Zapier Catch Hook or a webhook; see the Zapier page. It doesn't create Xcelerate, DASH or PSA jobs.
• Price: the Voice AI plan is $299 a month with 1,500 minutes; see pricing.

For chat, text and WhatsApp intake on the same plan, see AI for restoration companies.