BuildTools Features

BuildTools has far more features than other systems we compared in its class. This has allowed us to perform not only almost all major business functions: selections & client management, change order documentation, communications, bids procurement, budget monitoring, scheduling, and invoicing but also other important but less well promoted capabilities such as daily logs (for health, safety & schedule deviation monitoring), meeting minutes that permit tasks to be assigned & tracked (for use with clients, subcontractors/suppliers, or internally) among others. This combined with the product's progressive incremental improvements and willingness to occasionally make changes based on our own suggestions or requests add up to good value.

The advantage of having so many features can also be a detriment to new users, for whom learning and navigating the system may be overwhelming at first. This is exacerbated by weak FAQs/video tutorials and lack of proactive hints/suggestions as to how to get the most out of the software. However if one is patient and implements the system section by section as each are successively mastered and while doing so makes use of the excellent and always responsive (and free) support staff, then this shortcoming can be overcome, revealing all of the features and capabilities.

I like that our clients and trades can see the progress of their home as it is being built from start to finish. They can access anything from building permits to daily schedules and pictures of progress. It's a wonderful way to schedule your trades in advance as well to ensure they will be there when they are needed and lets the clients know who will be out at their home and when.

There is no way to create a master schedule for all the jobs for in-house use in terms of accountability. We would like to be able to put all current jobs major scheduling items on one grand schedule. I was told by September there was to be a new roll out of the software including using the schedule as we need and my company would be a tester of that roll out and I have not heard anything since then. There is also little pains such as when pictures are uploaded they get turned sideways no matter that the original orientation was straight up.

Ease of use and implementation. We have found that even older, none tech savy employees can still understand it.

We are unable to control some of the notifications to people it's not applicable to.

Ability for client log ins, lead tracking, Financial and Change order processes, the customer support team is great, reports, and the client dashboard. We also like the scheduling side, but think a few tweaks could be made.

Selections - This tab is great to have but is very difficult for us to use (inputting items for selections, modifying and general use is difficult). General Back end items - making changes to the settings or back end items is not intuitive. We updated our cost codes this year and making those changes on the back end and then the front end was difficult to do. Some setting changes are also hard to find in the administrator.

Build Tools has excellence customer service. We are able to address any concerns immediately. They also, have excellent on going webinars about variou features of the software. The scheduling and document management features are the brightest features. Budgeting is also good.

Financial features are confusing for our clients. On their own they are fine as an overview of the project financials, but there is no direct invoicing feature without creating a special report.

The folks at Build Tools are friendly and accesible, which they need to be because they have no training manual, which is a challenge for a product that spans so many functional areas. No average team member would be able to puzzle out this rubics cube by themselves. However, the tech support always does their best to help you figure it out! The scheduling and warranty modules are the easiest to work with and once you figure out an appropriate notification regime for your company, you can get the schedules to work. Although its a bit awkward to update schedules (too many clicks to just say something is "done", the basic idea is pretty good.

After using schedules and warranty for two years, we are dying to try selections, budgets, and PO's....and integrate into Quickbooks. However....there are a lot of levels of data entry to get this set up and not a lot of guidance on what the best practice should be. A LOT of cross links and that generates nervousness. Some challenges just getting the budget to show expected profit. All must be workable, however without a clear manual, its hard to know.

Total construction scheduling, document storage, bid package, and cost accounting

Would like the ability to add data fields to align with internal processes

BuildTools utilizes an user friendly interface that is easy to rollout to a team of varying tech skills. The customizable nature of the platform has allowed us to keep a lot of our legacy procedures while updating to more effective and efficient digital platform.

The biggest issue that we have had is how the platform integrates with our QuickBooks accounting system. The QuickBooks integration has been fine, however it is more rigid and less customizable to our legacy procedures.

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Build Tools has done an excellent job at listening to what the customer needs in their software development. We are a custom home builder and appreciate the details in the day-to day use of their product. Our clients like the access to the information and that helps us look more professional and gives a higher level of customer service. We send out the weekly reports (updates) on all of our jobs on Tuesdays. Clients love this interaction and ability to stay informed. Happy client, happy projects!!! Thank you Build Tools.

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We've been using BuildTools for just under two years. I can say without question that it is one of the best decisions that I've made for my remodeling business. We looked at several different competitive products, and were amazed at the differences we found in BuildTools. The Schedule module is really second to none. We actually now schedule projects without ever speaking with subcontractors. We publish the schedule and update as things change. We send messages and documents to the contractors electronically. We track all of our project selections and change orders using BuildTools. I'm sure we been saved from countless mistakes because of the level of organization BuildTools has added to our building process. I highly recommend this product! I could not run my business without it.

None. The buildtools team has been quick to respond to our requests for new features, and training was very simple.

The features are useful and helpful to the bottom line. I can track the health of my project much easier and it helps add structure to our company organization. The pricing structure allows us to utilize the software on all our projects without having to pay a premium per project. It is perfect for custom builders and re-modelers. We can track our resources more efficiently and maintain a tighter project schedule.

It occasionally will have minor glitches or lags where I will need to refresh my browser and re-try.

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Fast, streamlined and simple, good customer service. Nice style and presentation..

Too residential, limited features, no sub contract change orders, no way to resend purchase agreements or sub contracts. Most of the emails sent from Buildtools get sent to spam by vendors.

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We've had a great start to BuildTools. We've been with BuildTools for a month now and really feel like we know the system. It took a couple of weeks to get spooled up, but we're rolling now. The training team was great; we set up several initial training sessions with my team. Trainings were customized for the various users. The support folks were also very responsive for quick questions, both on the phone and via email.

We haven't found anything to complain about. Based on the support we've had thus far, I'm not worried.

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good customer service, but you will need them quiet many times.

extremely slow for people which time is an asset, many basic stuff dont exist

The interface is easy to navigate. It has a good budget and schedule.

After the initial set up/sales process, most interaction is handed off to their third party tech support. They are typically easy to get ahold of initially but did not have answers and had to get back to us. We typically did not hear back from anyone without repeated follow ups from us. There is not any type of help button or knowledge base outside of the above mentioned tech support.