Buildertrend Reviews

Pros
Buildertrend is great--I love using the Activity Calendar and Lead Report to keep track of my follow up with my customers. I can use activity notes to remember what I discussed with customers when we last spoke, and this helps me engage in better dialogue when I follow up with customers. Our installation team loves using the project management feature to keep track of our installs and provide an easy transition from sales to installation.

Cons
The user interface is kind of clunky, especially on the app. Sometimes it is difficult to find stuff and the filters can get annoying.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 8/10

Pros
The best feature in this program is communication and scheduling. Also, where other programs have to borrow from many 3rd party programs to achieve their functions, this program is able to incorporate all in one. We are using it for every step of the construction process, from sales to estimates, to job management and scheduling and invoicing. Other neat features include requesting bids to subs and vendors within the program, financing for customers, interactive and customize-able selections for customers within the program. There are other features not mentioned in this review as well. The main point is that this program offers all management needs for builders and contractors, and the software team continues to update and add features according to the requests and needs of those who are using the program. Also, where competitors charge extra for each user, this company includes unlimited users in their package, as well as unlimited subs and vendors. Some of the functions you would have to pay extra for in other programs like scheduling for crew etc. are included in their main package. Therefore the price, and what you get for your money is way better.

Cons
This software is a little more difficult to learn than other competing programs, due to it's complexity and depth of features. At times it's a bit overwhelming, though that is to be expected with the level of depth. Also some other programs have a general appearance which makes the program more inviting and user friendly. That being said, we still moved forward with this program because of the need for more features without having to pay all the extra money. One feature they really need to improve is their proposal builder. They have good formatting options and cost codes/ item catalogs where you can build price lists within the system, but when you add items into the estimate or create a big template, when you want to go and edit info like quantities etc. you have to go through an ocean of items that are not clearly formatted (they have a worksheet tab for editing items, and a format tab for grouping and changing layout for final appearance, but the worksheet portion is unformatted, and in the format section you cannot delete items or change them at all. Therefore I found the proposal functions to be a bit rocky to deal with. However, buildertrend users can vote on improvements for the program and so there is at least light at the end of the tunnel.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 8/10

Rating breakdown

Pros
The scheduling feature is what we use most. Its nice to have all the info to our trades and managers so they are fully aware of the project, can see pictures, and have a full scope of work prior to start date. We use the estimating part of the software as well I do wish the contract section had more detail in it which I think it could if we took some extra time to develop that.

Cons
Very happy now I can have as many job starts as I would like instead of being limited. Little unhappy that I can have only 3 users and have to pay for more than 3. As the owner who does estimates I want access as a user. I also have a designer who does estimates and she needs access. I also have 2 project managers/carpenters that need access to it as well so I will be looking at having to pay for additional users on top of the price increase I have already incurred but making it unlimited job starts. Haven't fully used BT to its full potential but we will at some point. The software is top notch I don't have really any complaints that I can think of at this time.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 9/10

Pros
organization, everything in one place...even if you want your QB to link to it, which we don't...I kinda like the two separate. We don't really use the PO portion of the software but have tried it and it's nice to know that its there...wish there were more video's on the entire program from set up through project completion. Techniques and more demonstrations on product capabilities and link-able aspects of the program. I use chief architect for our design software, have been for over 20 years. They have great video's of product usage, tips and techniques by chapter from set up to a completed set of quality professional plans. I believe BT could do the same, this is a great product for managing a company like ours and the cloud just makes it that much easier to work remotely anywhere in the web is. The price point is perfect for us and allows us to operate at a competitive rate.

Cons
For what I use it for I don't really have a dislike but I don't use but maybe half of the program. Wish there were more video's on the entire program from set up through project completion. Techniques and more demonstrations on product capabilities and link-able aspects of the program.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
The customer service is surprisingly amazing. Anytime I have a question, I am able to reach someone by phone or email very quickly. The integration with Quickbooks Desktop is almost flawless. We use the daily logs quite regularly. These logs allow the entire team to remain up to date on the jobs and their progress. We've also found that the homeowners are reassured by these daily logs. The bids section has saved us tremendous time and increased our estimating accuracy. The ability to be able to template jobs, bid packages, and so many other items saves us a ton of time.

Cons
The software seems to be most suited for a cost-plus project. As we bid jobs on a fixed price, we have found a few of the features less useful. We are only using about half of the features. I can't fairly say that these unused features are not good, but we do want to use some of these features, and the fact that we have been unable to implement them causes me some frustration. These features include the selections and the warranty sections.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 9/10

Pros
Phenomenal Software, it should replace everything that a construction company uses. I get that some dont like moving forward to tech, but once you actually put the work into BT to use it, it makes everything so much faster and coordination is top-notch. The fact we can give homeowners access to see whats going on construction wise saves us time and stress. We generally dont need to communicate basic things to them, they can see it for themselves!

Cons
The selections software is still a little bit limited, takes hours of work. Some sort of master template to feed everything would be amazing if it could be implemented in the future. Also the loading glitch, and how I have to "click X" to search another property. Can make going through several properties fast to a chore since it has to refresh so many times.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
I liked that it covers just about all the bases and has a great notification tool. Lots of good options on how the information is received and shared as well as filter features. The 'All-in-one-place' features are what is great both desktop and the app.

Cons
I dont like that I cant give my subcontractors the same control or permissions as my internal users. For example i would like to give my contractors ability to write a change order as a request the same way that they write an RFI as well as make requested adjustments to the schedule. Also the reporting features are not robust and useful. Much more reporting features needed for big builders that have many projects going on.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 8/10

Pros
Ability to share information between our team members as well as customers in an easy to read format.

Cons
No allowance for Australian GST. No integration to other accounting software except for Xero. However, we have now converted to Xero and the integration is fantastic.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
Quickly find and organize every aspect of my jobs. The optional phone and iPad apps are very useful for on site use.

Cons
Can be a little bit complicated at first.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
Communication of job progress with subcontractors, client portal, upload photos, variatin and owner invoices.

Cons
There is no taxes *yet. No milestones schedule items, but maybe not needed. Hope one day I can see To-dos on Gantt chart (not as a extra line, but a floating point).

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
It is cloud based, so you can access it from any computer or phone. The software is semi-customizable, which has allowed us to label and schedule things how we need them. We absolutely love the scheduling portion and the ability to upload daily logs/pictures from the job site for every job. There are a ton of other features that are really useful, such as the owner payment, job costing, and change order sections. Your overall experience will depend on how well you set up the program initially. If you set it up right, it is a great tool.

Cons
While the program is semi-customizable, it is not completely customizable. There is not much they can do to help if you want a feature more customized other than submit a ticket and hope other people are complaining about the same thing. But, that is to be expected with any mass sold cloud based software.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
The live updates in communication with subs and clients makes this software very desirable for my clients. Simplifies the process of communication and keeping people up to date.

Cons
For a single person that handles all day to day operations for a company and trying to learn a new software is a challenge. Not necessarily a con but to integrate the software makes for a bigger workload for a couple weeks.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
Scheduling, Logging, Time clocks, to do's ETC are very easy to use and extremely handy/ useful for use as a construction company for various reasons such as keeping a constant flow of action happening on our building sites and in theory there should be no gaps of time on the building site where nobody is working or unable to work, we believe keeping a consistent flow of action on a building site is possible through buildertrend and with nobody having to go out to site to check whats happening on site 90% of the time

Cons
sub contractors don't generally enjoy singing into our computer system every time they want paid or to confirm theyre gonna take action on a job ETC, this isnt to blame on buildertrend its just we struggle to get our sub contractors to cooperate using our online services,

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
I love the all encompassing information housing Buildertrend provides for each of our jobs. All of our team members can access this info with ease. No more information hiding in private emails or documents hiding on company drives...all of which cause major problems when team members are on holiday or out sick.

Cons
There are a few quirks and drawbacks I have found on Buildertrend. The most common qiurk seems to be the inconsistency of the same functions across different sections in Buildertrend. For instance uploading a file is done one way in one section of Buildertrend and a different way in another. Same with deleting items. In one section things just delete, in other sections you have to verify deletion and then select done...two extra steps. In the Leads section I can send a document out to be signed whether or not a customer has a log in to Buildertrend, but in the Change Order section (once the lead is a job) I can no longer send documents to an external emails for approval. I have to use Docusign to get signatures. This is not very streamlined. Seems like they had different teams writing code for different sections and they never communicated to each other on how to keep functions consistent throughout the software. The worst drawback is that there is essentially no function for schedulING. The scheduLES within each job are great, but when it comes time for a foreman to see what team members and subs are scheduled on what jobs and what ones are available to schedule, there is no function :(

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
The software is so clever it is almost too clever. There is so much covered for the construction projects that we don't actually use everything (yet). We have integrated a lot into our day to day working practices and we love instant access to vast quantities of information in one place. It helps track and record so much which is really important. One of the biggest gains for us is that we track changes better and upgrades more and more meaning we are getting paid for what we are doing and we are more accountable but so are our customers and their changing demands. This also helps avoid disputes as often its all in writing clear and concise. we have adapted a lot to our own taste and needs which i another great benefit of the software

Cons
Some of the accounting package link-up can be frustrating and we lost a function recently which was not particularly helpful for us and was driven by other contractors needs who use the software. Generally, it is adaptable and you can feedback these types of things but we felt like bigger contractors have more clout and we are also not in the USA so feel a little isolated and translation sometimes a small issue. There is also a lot of functions and some we have not quite worked out if they fit or even how they fit but again this may be translation and what we do use is more than enough. Training across contractors is also quite a mission and still ongoing but we keep going and it pays off.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 9/10

Pros
The best aspect of Buildertrend, would have to be the daily logs and customer ability to follow their daily project progress. Time tracking for employees, lead tracking, customer tracking, ability to sign projects electronically, receive payment online with minimal fees, and communicate with everyone involved with each project.

Cons
Buildertrend is a bit convoluted and cumbersome for the small company like myself. Being out on the job physically working to make ends meet due to employee shortages, leaves me with little time for office work. When I do have time for office work, I struggle to find the time needed to enter enough information in BT, to get back what we are paying for it. The more we enter the more we benefit. BT was difficult to learn in some areas of the program, and upgrades sometimes require even more training. We struggle with scheduling, and getting project information to show up on quickbooks.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 9/10

Pros
It provides a solution for managing a construction company

Cons
although the program performs many tasks, and even more than we need, it is glitchy and does not provide a smooth experience. When we click on windows to update budgets for instance, the windows flash and reload and resize multiple times. I have tried different browsers and different devices. This is not a user problem, but a problem with the way the data is served up. To perform some routine tasks, there is too many clicks required to get where you need to go. Too many windows and drilling down to get a number changed etc. Too many places for messages to be hiding. Customers send a message and think we have it, but we have at least three places to check to find the message. Sometimes, messages that come to email cannot be replied to. Very frustrating. BTW: We used Co construct for a while and liked the flow of the program much better. It ran smoother and was much quicker to get what we needed. It kept the spec sheet in front of the customer and kept good organization of communication. We switched to BT because of job costing and the time card feature, which we now understand are available with CC. Another huge grind, the budget sheet does not do a good job of showing the running cost on the job and whether we are over or under our budget (variance). Several reports can be created, but none of them do that. We have to export to excel and manipulate it ourselves. Seems like this should be a basic function. CC does this well also. Just sayin' :)

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 5/10

Pros
I like how easy BuilderTrend is to navigate and use. The system is definitely more user friendly than any other platforms I have used in the past. I also like how visually appealing it is, rather than only focusing on functionality, creators also focused on it being nice to look at every day, which truly does make a difference when working in the same program for hours every day.

Cons
The quickbooks connection to desktop is very very clunky and can can and has caused major issues for us in the past. In terms of accounting, there are somethings that could be better. I would like to be able to see what has been sent over vs. what has actually been paid out to a sub, so the builder can tell without having to ask the accounting department whether or not someone has actually been paid, a more detailed status report would be great. I would also like for it to play better with the "projects tab" in quickbooks. Quickbooks has made a great projects tab, but it is not usable without how the information is brought over. this may not be possible, but it would be nice. :) Buildertrend is designed mostly for custom builders in the way that it is designed to connect homeowners and use allowances. I would like in the future if there were more production building type features.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 9/10

Pros
I like the sense of security it provides to our customers since they can log in and see how their job is doing.

Cons
It does everything, but it doesn't do everything WELL. For instance, it does time tracking and GPS tracking.... but it only tells us where our guys are when they clock in and out. It doesn't give us a map of where they went the whole time like T-sheets did, so we have no way of knowing if someone went to the job site, clocked in and then left. It sync's to Quickbooks for payroll, but not correctly. It sends over all of the guys time as Regular time. I have to manually input their hours if I want to pay them for their overtime. It has this Buildertrend Flat Rate Code that nobody can edit or delete and it causes a lot of problems for us. The list goes on..... Whenever I ask them if they can help, I'm told, "Well it doesn't have that feature." Then I ask if they can put in a tech request, but they go on telling me how I should do it online, it will be more effective. That's not right. They should be able to put in a tech request for me and have it be just as effective as if I did it online.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 8/10

Pros
I love that buildertrend is so customizable. The software was able to be tailored for our specific needs while many of the other programs we looked at were not. The purchase order feature has allowed us to streamline and reduce our expense processing time. The app works well for our field operations and sales reps. Tech support and online chat people are very helpful in quickly answering questions.

Cons
Although it's infrequent, we sometimes struggle with internet connections in storm/rural areas and the software does not have an offline mode. I dislike the receive payment feature as you can't record a payment by itself, you do it inside the invoice and although you can receive partial payments, you can record multiple checks in the payment box

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
I really like that there is unlimited storage and that since it is cloud-based, everyone sees the same data as soon as it is entered. There are also ways to customize the software in several areas, especially To-Do's. Permissions are very granular which can be good, although it can be complex as well.

Cons
Understanding how all areas of the software interact is complex, you can't customize fields in Events/Schedule, most of all I dislike the search and filter settings. They are very poor and make it hard to deal with large data sets. Their filters are missing exact matches between items in the same category. There are a handful of other little complaints, but they really need to add custom fields to Events and then update their filter settings to allow exact matches only and also use standard search engine criteria in the text fields.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 7/10

Pros
A great construction management tool. Offers flexibility in formatting of different components within the program. Leads are easily tracked with notifications, summary page is very thorough and useful, job info, templates, scheduling, daily logs, To-Do's, Change Orders, time clock c/w geo-fencing, docs & photos, surveys, estimates, bills & PO's, Budget and owner invoices all flow well and again are customizable to fit individual company needs. Owner view is a great option and allows for owner participation and information flow.

Cons
No tax module is addressed within the system. This adds a lot of steps and confusion to make sure taxes are added independently in QuickBooks Online (QB). It also confuses the customer on their Buildertrend site. We send all invoices out of QB for contract invoices and change order invoices. A big negative. A great management tool but weak on the interface with QB.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
Daily Reports, Budgets, Owners Portal , Lead tracking and use. file management great. All information is in one place & organized. The To-do Ap is great and has a task check off sheet which is great except for one fatal flaw.

Cons
Messaging comes from Buildertrend and not from our own email or our name in front. Confusing clients, reducing branding opportunities for us, creating junk-mail issues with our clients. - We just do not use it. The Billing side is weird but improving. The payments to subcontractors has improved and can be done on a percentage basis but the billing to clients does not. We use an AIA billing form and use that with the Buildertrend system but the Change orders appear and add to the bill making it awkward and we have to tell clients not to ignore the amount owed on the bottom of the billing. The selections ap is a good idea and is believed in by some in our organization. It is awkward and confusing and I personally think it would work better if it was treated somewhat like a change order. I think if the change orders show up on Billing page so should selections. The To-do Ap is great except that it allows the task to be assigned to multiple people. In a way that is good but if more than one person is responsible than no one is. I think it should have a primary responsible person (this can bye done by assigning tasks but that is cumbersome and has other issues. -The To-do Ap is great and has a task check off sheet which is great except for one fatal flaw. The task check off sheet inside the to-do task is great except that the task can be marked complete by anyone though not all the sub tasks have been marked complete

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 8/10

Pros
I like that Buildertrend brings together all aspects of residential construction - homeowners, sub-trades, vendors, internal users, and allows everyone to see the information they need to see, as well as provides them the ability to upload photos, documentation and even provide comments to certain areas within the program. This gives everyone an overall sense of what is happening within the project. Having everyone tied into the program eliminates a lot of extra searching for information, as well as lessen the overall messages one needs to send out to verify parts of the projects - selections, drawings and pricing can be Approved or Declined. This also helps to eliminate outdated/non-approved details from occurring.

Cons
The program has a lot to take in, which I suppose is expected, but for me, knowing how things affect something else is really important, as we are a Canadian company trying to work with an American program and American terminology. I have had to experiment a bit with how best to enter information, and sometimes redo it altogether. I do not like how often I have to press on users to be entering information and using the platform for communications, but that does not have anything to do with the program itself.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 9/10