Buildertrend

Buildertrend is great--I love using the Activity Calendar and Lead Report to keep track of my follow up with my customers. I can use activity notes to remember what I discussed with customers when we last spoke, and this helps me engage in better dialogue when I follow up with customers. Our installation team loves using the project management feature to keep track of our installs and provide an easy transition from sales to installation.

The user interface is kind of clunky, especially on the app. Sometimes it is difficult to find stuff and the filters can get annoying.

This software is outstanding in many different areas

We initially purchased it initially to manage our clients selections for new homes and it quickly got integrated elsewhere to the point its the backbone of many of our processes

We use this now to manage client change order (it pays for itself on this alone every month) selections, materials ordering from site, daily logs, H&S management, RFI's for the design team and photo storage and programming to name but a few

We couldn't go back to the old ways of doing many of these

There are a lot of different features and you'll certainly find many that'll make it worth your while to use

Oh and the customer support is ace

Overall roll out is great and intuitive but you do need to comit to integrating BT to your business and this takes time and effort. THis is a software that gives back 10 fold what you put in, but it does need your comittment.

The best feature in this program is communication and scheduling. Also, where other programs have to borrow from many 3rd party programs to achieve their functions, this program is able to incorporate all in one. We are using it for every step of the construction process, from sales to estimates, to job management and scheduling and invoicing. Other neat features include requesting bids to subs and vendors within the program, financing for customers, interactive and customize-able selections for customers within the program. There are other features not mentioned in this review as well. The main point is that this program offers all management needs for builders and contractors, and the software team continues to update and add features according to the requests and needs of those who are using the program.
Also, where competitors charge extra for each user, this company includes unlimited users in their package, as well as unlimited subs and vendors. Some of the functions you would have to pay extra for in other programs like scheduling for crew etc. are included in their main package. Therefore the price, and what you get for your money is way better.

This software is a little more difficult to learn than other competing programs, due to it's complexity and depth of features. At times it's a bit overwhelming, though that is to be expected with the level of depth. Also some other programs have a general appearance which makes the program more inviting and user friendly. That being said, we still moved forward with this program because of the need for more features without having to pay all the extra money.
One feature they really need to improve is their proposal builder. They have good formatting options and cost codes/ item catalogs where you can build price lists within the system, but when you add items into the estimate or create a big template, when you want to go and edit info like quantities etc. you have to go through an ocean of items that are not clearly formatted (they have a worksheet tab for editing items, and a format tab for grouping and changing layout for final appearance, but the worksheet portion is unformatted, and in the format section you cannot delete items or change them at all. Therefore I found the proposal functions to be a bit rocky to deal with. However, buildertrend users can vote on improvements for the program and so there is at least light at the end of the tunnel.