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Buildertrend
What Is Buildertrend?
Buildertrend is the leading residential construction project management software trusted by home builders, remodelers and specialty contractors. Since 2006, we’ve empowered contractors to take control of projects and bring efficiency, organization and seamless communication to their businesses. Builders can manage jobs, sales, finances, materials, client relationships and more on one convenient platform.
To learn more about Buildertrend, visit buildertrend.com and @buildertrend.
Who Uses Buildertrend?
Buildertrend is ideal for home builders, remodelers and specialty contractors.
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Reviews of Buildertrend
Buildertend, 1 year user review
Comments: I find its interface comfortable and the customer feels secure.
Pros:
It allows better communication between us, the company, and the customer. This allows the client to know how the work is progressing and for us to make the corrections he wants.
Cons:
The cost is somewhat high, but it is still cost-effective to use. It also does not have many integrations with construction applications.
Buildertrend Response
last year
Hi Lisbeth, thanks for taking the time to share your experience with Buildertrend! We appreciate your feedback and will be sure to share it with our team.
Alternatives Considered:
Buildertrend has all the features a construction business might need
Comments: Buildertrend has been a very helpful solution for our construction business. We use it to manage and monitor the activities of our field personnel, we use it for quoting, mobile app, work orders, and more. It works ver well and is priced relativel lower than some of the competitors. All in all, it's been a treat for our operations.
Pros:
I think what separates is from other similar tools is that it's completely customized for construction. It has estimating and quoting, work orders, task management, field service monitoring, you name it. It saves you from having to buy and use a dozen different software for each thing.
Cons:
It's kind of confusing an all over the place in the beginning, and there isn't a lot of support documentation online. Pretty easy to use once you get the hand of it though.
Buildertrend Response
11 months ago
Hi Janelle. We're glad to hear you are getting some great value out of Buildertrend. We understand implementation can be a challenge and appreciate your feedback!
Builder for future
Pros:
Customer support was excellent . Navigation through modules . Integration with QBooks.
Cons:
this platform mostly design for residential construction but we are municipal /commercial contractors.
Alternatives Considered:
Don't waste your time or money.
Comments: Cumbersome dinosaur of a product that doesn't live up to its potential. We now use Ressio software and find it much more easy to adopt, a more honest sales team, and easy to use and integrate into our processes.
Pros:
I didn't really like anything about Buildertrend except for their promises for usefulness.
Cons:
That they repeatedly told me that the software could do something that it could not in fact do. After I was thousands of dollars into it with subscription fees and set up labor including countless hours on the phone with their support - we discovered that it could not in fact do what the salesperson said it could. Major waste of my time.
Alternatives Considered:
Great Platform - Bit Pricey
Comments: Overall, we would still be using BuilderTrend if it was more affordable, and if the features that are not compatible with a Canadian company could be accommodated. It would also be helpful to have Canadian billing to keep the cost more affordable for small business.
Pros:
The platform itself is very well set up. Once you complete the BuilderTrend role training it is very easy to navigate all aspects of the system from lead status to completion.
Cons:
Compared to other platforms that are set up almost the same, we found BuilderTrend to be quite expensive. There are also features that are not compatible with a Candian company as they are American, which also added to the overall cost due to the exchange rate.
Buildertrend Response
last year
Hi Bethany, thanks for taking the time to share your experience with Buildertrend! We appreciate your feedback and will be sure to share it with our team.
BuildTrend - Perfect Software for any Builder
Comments: Aces!
Pros:
This is a great software for a small to mid-size builder. It has all the bells and whistles, plus integrates with QB so no double entry. It is an excellent inexpensive solutions from pre-con to warranty.
Cons:
We need to work on the integration between QB and BT. And I believe it is something that is being done.
Buildertrend Response
last year
Hi Tracy, thanks for taking the time to share your experience with Buildertrend! We appreciate your feedback and will be sure to share it with our team.
Best construction management app
Pros:
Well, Buildertrend made my life a lot easier. The best thing about it is that I can assign the jobs for the subcontractors and see everything through their Daily Logs. I dont need to go to the field to see the details, I can easily manage the job just looking to the pictures and the information that they upload. It also logs the date, time and location of each update, which I can use as proof that we finish that job on that specific time, and if something happened after that it was not our fault.
Cons:
I dont have anything to complaing about BuilderTrend, it is being really helpful. I can easily assign and close jobs using it, it is simple and really helpful.
Construction Management at its best
Comments: Great! It kept the several houses I oversaw in check at different phases of content
Pros:
As a Superintendent, it would have to be my Daily log and project progress pics. And scheduling
Cons:
I cant say much since I used it only for the purposes above.
Gets the job done
Comments: Found the program easy to use. Lots of information can be loaded
Pros:
Easy to navigate. Very user friendly easy to understand
Cons:
All good Have nothing negative to report
Great management platform
Pros:
Easily plan projects on the calendar with clear checkpoints.
Cons:
Had some trouble navigating at first but once you get used to the platform it’s really nice.
Maximizing Efficiency in Construction Project Management.
Comments: The scheduling feature is particularly powerful, and the fact that it updates in real time and syncs with the team and me helps them avoid delays and misunderstandings.
Pros:
I like how I can customize the platform to fit my specific needs from forms to reports.
Cons:
Honestly, sometimes I would like there to be even more possibilities for integration with other programs that my company uses.
Buildertrend Response
11 months ago
Thanks for taking the time to provide this feedback, Eudys. We appreciate it!
Not a trust worthy company
Comments: After being with BuilderTrend since 2014 we were hit with a 75% price increase without notice. They say that they sent out an email but we never received it. After telling them that we sere going to cancel they offered to drop the price backdown to almost where it was. I don't agree with those types of business practices.
Pros:
BuilderTrend worked OK for the most part but was a little slow. Always a lag time refreshing screens
Cons:
Functionality could be improved. Navigation could have been improved. They spent all of their time adding more things that they could charge more for.
Build An AI model of Building Using BUILDERTREND
Pros:
1. Consist great group of tools that helps to visualize the building properly2. Have feature of direct contact with the trader which is currently available on field.3. Helps to reduce the costing of company as less money is spent on man work because of advancement in the technology.
Cons:
1. The mobile version is difficult to use as it contains bunch of errors and bugs .2. Autosave feature sometime run into error due to which the recent task is not being saved.
Buildertrend Response
2 years ago
Hi Parth, thanks for taking the time to share your experience with Buildertrend! We appreciate your feedback and will be sure to share it with our team.
Bringing Residential Construction Management Under Control
Pros:
I love how easy it is to create Daily Logs, Upload Pictures, Communicate with other users.
Cons:
The time keeping section doesn't have easy to use filtering to be able to toggle between cost centers before exporting to Excel.
Great software
Pros:
Very easy to keep track of various different elements throughout construction.
Cons:
Not able to incorporate a selections schedule and construction schedule together.
Buildertrend Response
2 years ago
Hi Brandi, thanks for taking the time to share your experience with Buildertrend! We appreciate your feedback and will be sure to share it with our team.
Scam. You cannot cancel. Do not sign up.
Comments: Sucks.
Pros:
None. I wanted to try it out and of course had to sign up. No problem. Then I couldn’t cancel and was charged thousands of dollars when I wasn’t using the product.
Cons:
You cannot cancel. When you think you cancelled they just keep charging you. “We will have an account representative reach out to you” means they are not going to cancel anything!
Great software for job organization!
Comments: Overall Buildertrend has transformed our company for the better and brought us successfully into the future. We were able to go from all paperwork to virtually all digital. Files drawers full of paperwork sorted by each job are a thing of the past. Now all the information anyone needs is all packaged nicely, per job, at our fingertips!
Pros:
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.
Cons:
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 :(
BuilderTREND Review - Property Management Company
Comments: BuilderTREND has been a great tool that has continuously allowed us to grow at over 30% annually. We purchase over 50 properties per region/do constructions on those properties. BuilderTREND has been able to help us stay organized and on top of things as we scale.
Pros:
Our company and employees really enjoy BuilderTREND due to its project tracking capabilities. In addition, it is able to integrate into the third-party product we use (Salesforce). This makes this product an obvious choice for our companies needs.
Cons:
There are no real cons I can vouch for at this time. This product currently meets our needs!
Buildertrend Response
3 years ago
Deric thank you for your kind words and 5-star review!
Improving but needs more work
Comments: It’s been easy so far but a lot more to understand. A large expansive software that allows me to communicate effectively with trades. I wish the software was more user friendly for trades and their schedules
Pros:
I like how user friendly it is for me. I am 26 years old. I understand how to operate a computer. For a lot of my colleagues who are older, they have a harder time. I like how the site has been very easy and quick to get down. User functionality is a plus.
Cons:
I don’t like how the software allows me as an admin more ability to see details of jobs in certain views and makes my trade partners click into each job to see names of jobs, and job description etc.
Buildertrend Response
4 years ago
Addisen - thank you for your review and feedback. I'll be sure to pass this along to our Product team!
Review for buildertrend
Comments: Absolutely amazing .
Pros:
I have been in the construction industry for 20 years. I have used different software to aid us along the way. We decided to implement Builder Trend in the beginning of 2019. We are very happy with all aspects of how Builder Trend works and how it helps us .
Cons:
Issues are so small, don't really bothered to mention.
Buildertrend Response
2 years ago
Hi Norman, thanks for taking the time to share your experience with Buildertrend. We appreciate your feedback!
Comments: We are a boutique custom home builder; each project is unique and personalized. Although I was not involved in the selection of this software, my understanding is that we wanted a program that could be accessed by all the parties involved, handle the scheduling and move us away from paper checklists - ultimately allowing all users to be both informed of changes and to be able to plan for future events without having to directly communicate with each person. As far as scheduling goes this system has failed. It has caused more time consuming questions. My complaint is that you can only link item to item by a (or a couple) predecessor(s) that, ultimately, the program struggles with which item is next in the list if a few of them share the same linked task. Also in a best case scenario, this scheduled list is how you build a house - but in most cases something, whether it be trade related or whether related or inspection related, cause a task to be delayed but the other ones would continue on schedule however the program has linked the start date to the the delayed task and now the whole calender is messed up. Or perhaps the exterior of the house generally starts after framing and roofing but maybe a winter storm makes this impossible so you continue the interior for weeks. Then you try and adjust backwards and because your best case scenario template stated it should commence at framing completion and you delayed that. Thus your left with a domino affect of wrong dates. and a series of emails sent to vendors informing them of the delay that really didn't apply to them. So they change schedules and you are left with no trades to do the interior work that in your mind could and should be fine. I also find that the program doesn't offer enough flexibility in the selection section. It allows me to upload a previously created document to be stored that a homeowner could then log on and download. They then fill out and can't re-upload this document, so they are forced to fax or scan and email back to us. This is neither time effective nor practical. Perhaps it would be better if we were able to create a checklist that was interactive in this section, similar to the change orders where we type out the change and the client could update decisions. In our company we don't limit our clients to three choices of floor plans and two cabinet doors and 4 granite selections, they are free to choose anything they can dream of. As a result we cannot load a document that would apply to all builds. However, I believe the change orders tab is well thought out, easy to use and provides all the options to make it a valuable asset. The warranty section does a great job of tracking and notifying and saving time and assuring that service and warranty items are handled and accepted. The daily log and messaging capabilities that allow us to keep a record of notes or messages in one area logged by date and job site is extremely valuable and a good system. Furthermore, the software as a whole is easy to learn, has a logical and simple layout so even those who are not computer savvy can fumble through without creating errors and won't be too intimidated by the complexity of the software to attempt to use it. Finally, the technical support and training provided is always quick to help resolve an issue or aid in a question. New training is scheduled in a very quick time frame for free and is tailored to the person that requires it. This is handled exceptionally well in a time when often companies forget you exist once the purchase is complete. So, we have decided that we will use BuilderTrend for those things that they excel at and don't use it as a scheduling tool.
Buildertrend is a Game Changer
Comments: Our team has been using Buildertrend for just over 2 years now and we would be lost without it. It's a no-brainer! The program has given our team a competitive advantage by providing our customers with their own project website, has improved the efficiency in our processes dramatically and has made project management on site incredibly easy. Even after 2 years, I'm still learning about new features that will help our team. The program's unmatched support team, detailed and highly-developed features and complete integration has helped us increase our volume, revenue and profits... It's completely changed the game for Owen Homes.
Pros:
The included customer service team and support are unmatched. When you're running your business through this program, sometimes you need an immediate answer or need to learn a new feature on the fly and having instant access to those webinars and forums is invaluable. I also love how detailed and thought through each feature is - it's what made the switch from our old process so easy because they literally thought of everything! I could go on forever... the custom fields, different types of users and permissions, project templates, sync to Quickbooks... Buildertrend is doing it and doing it well.
Cons:
Some of the features like selections, financials, and the gantt chart portion of the calendar are definitely more challenging when trying to switch from our current process over to Buildertrend. However, I'm not sure if there is a better way for any of those; I know those will have a learning curve because those are the more difficult parts of the project. It's hard to come up with cons for the program because I feel a lot of my issues could be resolved by learning more about the feature. I guess I'll leave with a suggestion: maybe emailing or notifying users of the next month's available webinars or reminders to use the resources -- I forgot these existed for about a year, I was just watching the videos available. I would like to see more videos uploaded -- long and short on specific features.
Game changer for our daily operations
Comments: Overall we've had a very positive experience and don't foresee us switching anytime soon.
Pros:
Having one place to manage all of our field operations has been a game changer. Especially the iunlimited document & photo storage -allowing us to grant access to all paperwork and details to the field team with just a few clicks. The flexibility of the scheduling platform and ability to connect tasks and create interdependent "living" schedules is great and the ability to have multiple levels of permissions for subs/clients & our team is very comprehensive as well and allows us to customize for the way we use the system. Their customer service is top notch and there is always someone available to chat about an issue and they are on top of any issues with updates and consistently adding valuable features to the platform based on very specific user feedback.
Cons:
I think they need more work on the Lead/sales managing side of the platform -we had been using ACT customer management system and would love to have the ability to also manage all client contacts and leads in Buildertrend but it is not nearly as comprehensive although they did just roll out a reports function that will help I think more option for customization would be helpful. Even if they were able to integrate with ACT or the like. I also wish they integrated with more accounting software as we use Sage and it is not supported. Admittedly it is not as common as quickbooks but the lack of integration creates more work for us on the accounting side of things.
Buildertrend Response
5 years ago
Thank you for your kind words and review, Jennifer! We also appreciate your feedback on our integrations and our CRM - I will pass that feedback along to our Product team. Thanks again!
I am a horrified customer forced to use this product to refit condos destroyed by Hurricane Harvey.
Comments: It looks like a well thought out package. It would be so much better if users could change selections. Road Runner said it is not possible, because the construction company needs to protect itself, in case a user changes an item after construction starts. Hogwash! Use a time stamp. Take a snapshot! Freeze the app at construction start date. There are many ways to skin that cat.
Pros:
Pictures, prices, all available in one spot. I love the fact that I can view by location, or category. But it is impractical to use because there is so much dead space between items. It is great being able to tally up costs as you pick items. unfortunately the costs show up in the wrong fields. See the cons section for more. I really love the pictures and the details. the fact that I can see multiple images , in different rooms of the floor that I picked, for example. Very intuitive.
Cons:
Summary Price information is all wrong. My total price and remaining balance are the same! How can that be? As I pick additional items the dollar figure under selections made goes down. How can that be? I have no idea what my condo rebuild will cost me. It takes 500 click for me to pick flooring for 1 condo. I should be able to say "I want Tile- Wood Plank- 6"x 24" Lumber Gray tiles throughout". It takes hours for me to record what should take 1 minute! Each section is organized difrently. in the 1st section (enterance) my tile is 1st on the grid. Then on the second(Kitchen) it is last! This makes it so hard to search. If I look at a category view, there are page, after page of blank space between items, making it impossible to use. I have to go through 10 pages to move between flooring selections in this view making it useless. The same hold true for the location view. I suspect this is a function of the data loader, but the company and project managers always say "that is the way BY works" When I complain to Road runner restoration they say they can do nothing about it. They state they cant modify the software! The user has no capability to undo selections! So if we make a mistake we need to wait a month for the construction company to make changes. Items . If I logon to two units in the same webbrowser, one overwrites the other! Aaaah!
Buildertrend Response
6 years ago
James, we are really sorry to hear about your negative experience. We strive to make sure all parties that are using our platform are getting the information they need. Buildertrend can be customized to fit many needs from many different types of companies. We will reach out to the Buildertrend account owner to make sure they are aware of all permission settings. Thank you again for your feedback.
G.C. point of view
Comments: Overall my experience has been outstanding with this product. It has freed me up to better RUN my company (instead of it running me) and finally be able to have some decent structure to it all in a few pieces of software to include BT.
Pros:
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 of the program. I use chief architect for our design software, have been for over 20 years. They have great video's of product usage, tips and techniques by chapter from set up to a completed set of quality professional plans. I believe BT could do the same, this is a great product for managing a company like ours and the cloud just makes it that much easier to work remotely anywhere in the web is. The price point is perfect for us and allows us to operate at a competitive rate.
Cons:
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.