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.

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. 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 I know I completed. Another issue that would make my and many others very frustrated is when we have worked with a client and sold a job then we get another project from the same client on the same property months later we have to create a whole new lead and copy and paste all the information on the old lead and paste it into a new lead in order for us to be able to create a new job. It is very time consuming to do this. It would be great if there was some way we could attach or add another job to the same lead and be able to create another job from the same lead without all the copy and paste steps we have had to do. Also when I am creating a todo on the bottom it asks which salesperson is this job from so I select it. If I do not add the salesman to job assigned to he will not be able to see what is happening with the job. It would be great if I could just hit the button on the bottom where I select the salesman and he automatically will get a notification and access to all information on this job instead of me having to assign it to him and select him on the bottom as well.

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 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 :(

- 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 jobs as well as subcontractors and their prices and information.
- It will show your current costs, so you can see how much the job is costing the client in real time.
- Most everything is customizable and template based.
- You are assigned a specific rep from BT that will answer all questions and do live training with you - Very helpful.
- There are a fair amount of videos available online from other users who are also using the software.
- Effective for companies that deal with large jobs with many moving parts and subcontractors.
- Client portal for each job that includes notes, pictures, videos, progress, invoices, etc. This all can be hidden from clients as well and customized to how much information you are wanting to share.

- 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 large jobs that are long term with many elements.
- To-do's are fairly simple and not well designed. Great that you can add photos, videos, docs to each checklist item. But there's only 1 checkbox per item, no title for the item, and no way to make the to-do list required for employees.
- If you don't press "save" after uploading photos/videos or writing notes, they will disappear and you can easily erase notes. No window that reminds you to save work before moving on.
- Extremely job-based. You must chose the job and then you can view schedule, clock in, add notes, complete checklist, etc. Not easy to view all jobs at same time.
- No line items for invoices.
- Client portal is set up to be job-based and not client-based. That means every job will have to have a different username for the client to log into.
- Overtime that is automatically calculated doesn't automatically calculate a higher rate on the client's budget.
- Learning curve is overall fairly steep. As a fast learner and pretty technically able, it took me a while to figure out how the software worked. Not super intuitive.
- Not a very updated or attractive look.

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 subs). reminders on the bell are always wrong or not relevant. Not able to have a change order directly associated with a PO so we can see the full value of the contract with changes. Managing retention. No PO approval process (internally route). Unable to get signatures on additional lien waivers. Time it takes to push from BT to QB - during billing there is a long delay. Constant circle of death. Unable to pull up vendor from a PO or add a new vendor from PO. With Bills and POs we should be able to select on that bill/po if we want it added to the budget / new expected. On the budget we should be able to select which columns are viewed.

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.

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.

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?!

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.