Buildertrend Reviews

The product does look good and they seem well capitalized which bodes well for their longevity. They also bought the software that we used, CoConstruct, and had said they were going to merge the two, taking the best of both software.

We moved from CoConstruct. Buildertrend has a ton of features but it is not intuitive and does not tie together well. It is a mile wide but an inch thick. It is not designed for the Custom Home Builder, it is for a production Builder software. It does not tie well to Quickbooks either. Overall Builder Trend has lots of features, but they "live" in different silos and one function does not communicate well with the other function. The estimate software is bad, and way too complicated. You cannot condense multiple estimate lines into love category, etc.... The specifications tab does not translate to the selections. You cannot add attachments to the specifications. CoConstruct was a beautiful software that worked wonderfully and was design to be efficient. Builder Trend is not.

Hi John. We really appreciate you taking the time to provide this feedback. Please reach out to our team when you get a chance. We'd love to see how we can better support you through the transition from CoConstruct to Buildertrend.

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!

I love how everything about the building process is in this one spot. Very user friendly, and Buildertrend is very interested to hear on how they can improve. I love the scheduling feature and use this daily. Our clients are ravening fans and love this software because of it's transparency.

Because Buildertrend is so awesome, it sets a high bar for itself. So when there are glitches or I cannot successfully upload many pictures I am highly disappointed. But 1st world problems right?!

Clint - love your honesty about those first world problems! But seriously, thank you so much for taking the time to give us your review and feedback. We appreciate it!

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.

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.

Hi Robert, thank you so much for your honest review and feedback! Feedback like yours is what drives us. I'll be sure to pass it along to our Product team. Thank you!

Buildertrend accomplished 90% of the roles I required of it from the moment we brought it onboard. More areas of my business were consolidated in the first 6 months of use than I ever thought would happen. This allowed field workers to properly communicate with us daily via BT.

A large number of functions are not as advertised. BTs inability to deal with tax while integrating with an accounting software poses a large challenge. This tax issue forces us to ignore use of all customer portal faucets that deal with the finance as the figures are tax free and inaccurate representations of their costs. Estimates are limited to one per job. This prevents us from using it to...

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What I like most about BuilderTrend is it's ease of use, the customization ability of the software, and the ease of edit/revision. We can design the program to where our PO generate directly off of selections, separate by trip, and include whatever options may have been chosen. From selections, I can easily edit budgets and generate estimated sales cost for each individual job.

The only drawback I can come up with is in direct correlation to one of their strengths. The company updates daily instead of doing batch updates periodically. As a result, they shut down part of their servers to perform their updates which can bog down and slow the program while they are doing this. This is usually no more than an hour or so and usually around the same time of the day. Knowing the benefit of doing this, it's a tolerable inconvenience.

It covers all the aspects of managing a job; from when the lead is created, to when the job is done. It gives you the power to customize, to a point, the program to fit your company and allows you to make changes on the fly. We keep up on the schedule daily but the schedule keeps our jobs running smooth. The time-clock is top notch and it communicates with QuickBooks. Overall, its the whole package and it all is two thumbs up.

The ability to customize certain things, like tabs or change the wording. All other items Builder Trend fixes as we bring them to their attention.

I have an organized mind. I like to keep things consistent and predictable. In this industry, nothing is consistent or predictable, so having an information base that is reliable and helpful and as organized as my mind is INCREDIBLY HELPFUL. Project managers come at me with all questions at all times and I can have an answer for them in 3 clicks of my mouse. Job status? Material samples? Delays? Change orders? I have it all. I like that as my understanding of this field grows, I will be able to customize and implement BuilderTrend to my liking and my needs.

There is so much to learn! I want to do it all, making our small business more efficient. I don't understand estimating or anything in the financial category. It can do SO MUCH, and I understand very little. It has taken me a long time to learn to make a schedule template that works for me, the difference between daily logs and to dos and scheduling, how change orders should be documented etc. But when I learn how to implement the program I get very excited. I can't wait to share the program with my colleagues and transform our job flow.

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.

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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This software is easy to use and fits our company model well. The customer service is amazing! The video tutorials are easy to use and understand.

The estimating section is difficult to navigate when each project is unique. I can't create a template for repeated use.

How easy it was to setup and use. The fact that me and my crew can access Buildertrend from my desktop, laptop, ipad and iphone. Keeps me up to date on my appointments and to do. To develop an estimate is easy and quick and it keeps all my information in one central location.

The software can use some more ability to work with custom fields. The software does not capture company names, which we use to develop proposals. When I print an estimate I have to come up with creative ways to insert the company name for my commercial and governmental clients.

BuilderTrend offers a comprehensive approach to managing customer interactions, project development and construction management. Implementing BuilderTrend will help you define processes for the key elements of your business - the processes that help you make the most money!

BuilderTrend integrates with QuickBooks desktop but the interface can be a bit clunky. It does work but requires a bit of patience, as do all things QuickBooks.

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,

It is better than most I have worked with. It is very easy to understand without having to use codes to get into sections.

It tends to freeze a lot when I am uploading documents . I have noticed that when I am inputting information it doesn't always save despite hitting the save button numerous times. Thank goodness one of my employers knows this programs faults and doesnt think I am not doing my job correctly. Although it has caused issues with other management wanting to know why certain projects were missing items that...

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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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As a designer, I appreciate the ability to communicate job details to clients, construction team members, vendors, and subcontractors. Making sure that everyone is on the same page and understands the design goal is crucial in meeting the expectations of our clients. As we use more of the features that BuilderTrend provides, the customer service representative has been knowledge and prompt in their responses.

There is a balance between making sure the software is intuitive as we move through the design/build project and making it easy for a first-time client to utilize. It would just add to the experience if potential and existing clients were able to visualize the products in the actual floor plan giving them a virtual experience. This would help up-sell the client, eliminate misunderstandings about what the materials will actually look like installed, and enhance the overall experience of our clients.

I feel the software is well developed. While I have not used every part I have a pretty good overview of the software and feel that the creators did a good job creating a system that is thorough for our industry.

What I would like to see improved is an ease to using the selections. I spend a lot of time copying and deleting things that could easily be moved around easier with some simple additions to a toolbar like copy, move to another selection / project / category... I would also like a save and close button on the selections. Each time I save a selection my screen jumps around 3 times and then I can...

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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.

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.

Cindy - thank you for your review and honest feedback! We appreciate you taking the time to do this and we've passed your feedback along to our Product team.

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.

Buildertrend is super simple for even the lowest tech person. It keeps all our data in one place that all employees can see. Communication is so much better with this product!

Only one complaint - There's no way for the users to record their lunch break so that we can conform to CA regulations, also there's not a way that I know of for the employee to electronically submit their timesheet info with a signature

We appreciate your review and feedback, Kris! I have passed your suggestions about the lunch break and electronic signatures for timesheet info on to our Product team.

I implemented my first system for production home building in 1991, so I have a little experience in this area. After trying 2 other competitors on a trial basis, we selected our first choice, BuilderTrend to help us manage our projects. It is customizable and also follows standards which help you efficiently manage your business whether a new builder, remodeler or other home improvement type company. But, the best part has been adoption and the response of customers. We actually remodeled two projects for the same customer while they were out of the country. The communication features in BT facilitated what would not have been possible in the same time frame in the past plus processed payments. Using BuilderTrend has been a great marketing tool to set us apart from the competition.

Subcontractor use has been our biggest roadblock as it takes more training with some and reminders to get them to use the software.

Stacy, thank you so much for your 5-star review and kind words! We are so happy to hear how well Buildertrend is working for your company.

- Time tracking with overtime automatically calculated. - Job costing with custom jobs/types. Can generate reports so you can see effectiveness of employees. - Different views for job schedule which can be nice - calendar, agenda, gantt. - Can store unlimited photos, videos, and documents. All are organized in folders and can be shared with the client easily. - Can assign multiple employees to...

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- Calendar feature doesn't allow you to drag and drop jobs or scheduled items and also allow clients to view it. You can either drag and drop or have it be viewable to clients. This is fairly simple to switch back and forth, but it adds extra steps. - App is not user friendly for employees or technicians. There are too many buttons to press. - This software only works well for companies that handle...

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Ethan, we very much appreciate your detailed feedback! We would love to have a member of our Product Team contact you to hear more of how we can make Buildertrend a fit for your industry. Thanks again!

Project management. daily reports, calendar, to dos, bidding, having a budget, documents, mobile app, templates

all things financial - PO's, Lien Releases, integration with QB (need to have PO's and budget integrate), subs submitting an invoice (shouldn't be all or nothing), progress billing. Securing areas of use. Not getting a sub report (with custom columns so we can print a list for customers). Not having custom fields in the PO. not being able to remove former employees from the list (make inactive, like...

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