BuilderTREND Reviews

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.

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

Brian, thank you for your review and honest feedback! We love hearing how Buildertrend has helped your company.

This software is outstanding in many different areas We initially purchased it initially to manage our clients selections for new homes and it quickly got integrated elsewhere to the point its the backbone of many of our processes We use this now to manage client change order (it pays for itself on this alone every month) selections, materials ordering from site, daily logs, H&S management, RFI's for the design team and photo storage and programming to name but a few We couldn't go back to the old ways of doing many of these There are a lot of different features and you'll certainly find many that'll make it worth your while to use Oh and the customer support is ace

Overall roll out is great and intuitive but you do need to comit to integrating BT to your business and this takes time and effort. THis is a software that gives back 10 fold what you put in, but it does need your comittment.

Richard, thank you so much for your honest review and feedback! We appreciate you sharing how Buildertrend works for Appletree Estates, and we feel so lucky to have you as customers.

BuilderTrend has a lot of features for project management and is a good product to create a display of information for a client to interact with.

The software operates slowly, there's significant lag time. Specifically, when developing a construction schedule, it takes a few seconds to receive information once it's inputted. This significantly decreased my productivity putting together a schedule.

We appreciate your honest feedback, Patrick. I'll be sure this gets over to our Product team!

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CRM is excellent. Project scheduling is working well but we don't use all the features. Estimating and budget management is fairly easy to use. Like the features for high level management of projects but not for site level and day to day management.

There isn't as much flexibility in using the software how we would like for our workflows. You are pretty locked into doing things the way the system is set up. Also, some of the features with templating don't carry over into new jobs when imported. It makes using templates sometimes a waste of time and not as beneficial as they can be. Project management for site supers is less effective and lacks some of the features needed for day to day management.

Philip - thank you for your honest feedback! I will pass this along to our Product team.

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...

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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...

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Jesse, thank you so much for your honest review! We appreciate you taking the time to give us such detailed feedback and I will be sure to pass it on to our Product team. Thank you again!

The client portal is awesome! I wish my current software has one as nice and interactive as BT’s. The dashboard is great as well. I like the daily logs as well, it’s a great little communication tool for project management. Finally the sub portal is fantastic.

It’s difficult to run reports for lead management and marketing. When setting up the Fanny it is dependent on the previous stage, however if someone is assigned to a stage and it doesn’t get Mark as complete on the day it was supposed to there is no automatic dependency, it’s all manual. So for us when there is 30 projects in different pre, in progress and post production phases, it’s a lot to go in and figure out. If you have less than five projects going then it’s fine.

Thank you for your honest review and feedback, Dustin!

Buildertrend has extensive customization options through the use of custom fields, filters, and views. The system is straight forward to navigate, and never leaves you wondering exactly where you're at in the program.

The accounting functions are rather simplistic, and lacking some necessary features to make things work well. Also, the print-outs are not very consistent and sometimes lack pertinent project information such as the job name.

Thank you for your review, Boone! We really appreciate it. We value your feedback and have passed it along to our Product team.

My favourite bit about this software is that I can add as many users as I like and not incur extra charges like we do for other software. At one point we had over 40 users. It's extremely helpful to us to have this feature because as a small business, we want to grow and it's difficult to do that if we can't include all the people we need in a system due to cost.

We had issues with the cost codes. There were issues that could only be dealt with through the backend. I wish we had the ability to fix things like that ourselves including uploading a csv into the system.

Diana, thank you so much for your review! It's awesome to hear the way you are using it for your business, along with your friend in her business too!

This program helps track our costs with purchase orders and change orders. We do rough scheduling and the daily reports helps clients see what is being done on site daily

They recently came out with a new pay structure which nearly doubled the costs of the program. Its a shame as we are now looking elsewhere for a program that has many of the same functions.

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...

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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.

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.

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.

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

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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,

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.

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...

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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

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.

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.

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.

Dave, we appreciate you taking the time to give us a review and feedback! Continue to lean on your Buildertrend Coach and our Customer Success team for any help they can provide you.

It provides a solution for managing a construction company

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,...

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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.

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,...

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

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....

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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.

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

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.

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.