Buildertrend

Revolutionized my sales follow up

Comentarios: I used other CRMs in the past, but love using BuilderTrend. Its simple setup has allowed me to keep track of my customers as well as provide better follow up to my clients. I just utilize the Sales section of BuilderTrend, but it has improved my client relationships and increased my overall sales.

Puntos a favor:

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.

Contras:

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

Arthur's BT experience at TCON Homes

Comentarios: It is helping in changing the culture at TCON Homes. It is a bit hard to explain for construction people that planning is more cost effective than starting smashing walls because you are aggregating value doing physical labour.

Puntos a favor:

Communication of job progress with subcontractors, client portal, upload photos, variatin and owner invoices.

Contras:

There is no taxes *yet. No milestones schedule items, but maybe not needed. Hope one day I can see To-dos on Gantt chart (not as a extra line, but a floating point).

Comentarios: 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.

Good product shady price poing

Comentarios: At the lower the price I started with it a great product but there are a handful of companies that are do as good or almost as good a job for 3-5 time cheaper.

Puntos a favor:

I did like all the features. Works great for Fixed price projects

Contras:

HATE the price and the shady way they keep increasing the costs. Start at $59 a month quit when they asked for $1300 a month. Actually they did not ask all of their price increase over the year have happened without notification. This latest increase was beyond crooked 200% increase with even informing their users.

Easy Onboarding with this polished project management system.

Comentarios: Buildertrend has really done there best to make our implementation go smoothly. We have ran into some bugs in the system, but they have always corrected the issues eventually. I definitely recommend this software to any small to medium sized construction company looking to tie their different departments together using one integrated system.

Puntos a favor:

Buildertrend has extensive customization options through the use of custom fields, filters, and views. The system is straight forward to navigate, and never leaves you wondering exactly where you're at in the program.

Contras:

The accounting functions are rather simplistic, and lacking some necessary features to make things work well. Also, the print-outs are not very consistent and sometimes lack pertinent project information such as the job name.