Buildertrend

We did an introductory period with the software and it worked okay. It did the job well enough but there was nothing about it that “wow’d” me. When the trial period was done, we were given the option to continue but the pricing nearly doubled. We have 3 users and the price was nearly $800 per month. I would rate the software a strong “C”. I did not feel it was worth the increased price.

We love how user-friendly the system is. Our team did onsite training for the program and the software has signifcant capabilities. However we have found those capabilities more related to a general contractor. As a custom home builder, we have found the system not able to support many of our day to day activities. My project managers are having to track budgets and allocations of costs on spreadhseets. Though a great system, it has not been the best fit for our specific business.

Buildertrend is very user-friendly. It’s almost fool proof, with all of our staff easily adapting to the system. It also is very user-friendly for our clients seeking to view progress on their projects. We can easily upload 15-20 pictures in a day, assign it to a project, allowing constant visibility and transpareny to the client. The only downfall is the software has gotten very pricey.

It had everything we were looking for from start to finish. We were able to do estimates, project management throughout, tracking… it had kind of everything. It was kind of a whole package. Other software we looked into was just project management or just estimating. You almost had to get two systems and then every additional user cost more money. One payment with unlimited users is better. Support has been good so far. No complaints.

We’ve had some issues with ACH payment processing in recent months. Outside of that, it’s been helpful with managing different projects. We’ve been liking it’s ability to sync with QuickBooks. You can make check payments, enter invoices into Buildertrend and it will send it directly to QuickBooks. The cost codes in Buildertrend will match in QuickBooks.

It’s working pretty good. It’s price point in comparison to the big guys is unbeatable. A little wonky sometimes but overall I guess from a scale from 1 to 10 I think we’re at like a 7.5 for satisfaction. Support has been great. They’re really good about answering their calls and emails.

With Buildertrend we were unhappy with the recent price increase, especially as we find ourselves having to creste our own tools outside of the software to have our needs met. We do primarily remodeling work, with multiple projects running at once but the program did not allow us to set multiple tasks across the various sites. We have struggled overall with the scheduling features.

Good program in many regards. But it’s a dated program, example, there is no “Global search bar” which is a basic standard for most programs. It does sync well with QBO but it’s very non-user friendly as far as making change orders as you can NOT email a change order, but must give a portal for the homeowner to view. It’s basic functions are strong, but it’s just behind the times for what they charge. The newest update they released was rather sudden, and has completely changed the interface. Not for the better I will add. The simple things they could’ve improved Such as global search bar was not in the “upgrade”, and also you cannot see the full view estimate worksheet, you must scroll around to sift information. Frankly, for $500.00/mo I will be leaving their platform. It does not seem they are headed in the right direction, and the part that is most frustrating is they take your feedback, but don’t expect much to happen anytime soon. I would spend money elsewhere.

We needed something that could manage projects remotely which is what Buildertrend allows us to do. Buildertrend has helped us on a day to day basis. It has helped us manage a project from a customer standpoint. We have everything in one spot so the customer can see schedules photos, updates, everything is accessible in one spot. They can also make payments for the project online.

On the back end, my project managers can see what is going on, sales has their own section to input everything. It’s really made it easy to bring everything into one system that anyone can access,

The proposal feature in Buildertrend is really nice. We used to lose proposals all the time when it was a pen and paper process. The customer can approve things right on the spot and it pings our workers so we know we have another job to handle. From a sales side, it transfers it right into production and into our daily logs and we can message customers and interact with builders as well. Payment is accepted right online so from beginning to end it has a nice workflow.

For custom homebuilders, I would say the program is great and give it a 4 to 5 stars. For us, as a telecommunications contractor, it has deficiencies and is not robust enough. We only have a small number of customers and but perform multiple jobs for them which BuilderTrend isn’t able to manage. I would give it 2 stars from our direct perspective.