Likelihood to Recommend Constellation HomeBuilder Systems
BuildTopia is ideal for bringing all components of the sales and construction process together for any homebuilder. If you're looking for a platform that also incorporates a robust CRM component, which is key for strong sales efforts, you'll likely need to utilize another platform in conjunction with BT for the best results
Read full review A large company where users have one function- for instance, where someone only receives or works in payables. That minimizes the number of windows they need. A smaller company where one user does multiple functions will require a lot more training and user knowledge to navigate, and it makes it harder to secure users. You also have to understand that GP started life as Great Plains, designed for accountants. The other modules were added on after Microsoft bought Great Plains, which means that modules like Manufacturing are red-headed step children with much smaller support ecosystems. So, if you're starting fresh, you may want to look at something built for the mobile world. D365 and Business Central are a lot more money, buggy, and hard to customize and essentially still vaporware. Microsoft is heavily investing there, leading to the previously mentioned question about the future of GP. If I was starting today I would be hard pressed to justify jumping into GP in a world where Salesforce ties in with so many programs. GP has MRP but it is limited so it's hard to justify a manufacturer starting with GP today.
Read full review Pros Constellation HomeBuilder Systems
BuildTopia excels at contract management. Every part of the contract process is able to be managed electronically from initial signing to closing, and can even handle more special cases like contingencies. BuildTopia manages all of our construction efforts well. All of our floorplans are pre-build in the system, so all we have to do is go in an build out the construction schedule from a pre-made template, and make any alterations from there. The selections process is always a headache, but BuildTopia makes it pretty painless. Everything is loaded right in to the system while making selections with the client, and more detailed things, like non-standard options, are easy to load in and process. Read full review User friendly interface Able to be extended into multiple areas of your business One feature we have been using for a few years is EFT for payables - it has significantly reduced the time spent paying vendors and reduced our check printing and mailing costs. It is very easy to setup and use. Read full review Cons Constellation HomeBuilder Systems
Requests for platform enhancements, while easy to submit and get approved, are slow to be turned around...often a year or more passes before they're implemented. BuiltTopia, while good for sales and construction, is missing one large thing...a CRM component. The system allows you to manage clients and prospects, but options for email marketing and other CRM-related efforts are lacking. Read full review With respect to the allocations, once the expense is entered into the allocation account, you lose the ability to run any detail on just the total of the expense. It would be nice if you could run a trial balance on the allocation accounts the same way you can with regular accounts. I've always thought security set up could be a bit simpler. It actually has gotten better through the years. Specifically, with eight separate entities, it would be nice to have a "master" setup where you could call up one group entity, assign the users rights, and then be finished. Currently, whenever I have a new user, I have to call up each individual entity and select all of the features I want the user to have. That means I have to do eight steps for each user. Read full review Likelihood to Renew Constellation HomeBuilder Systems
Due the economic challenges that Puerto Rico is having, the company has had to merge some companies in order to be more efficient. It has been easy in GP to process those merges, even thought we had to spend days to accomplish that the process was smooth and accurate. In addition we were able to streamline the purchasing and sales process and the organization is confident to keep renewing GP for the future versions.
Read full review Usability Constellation HomeBuilder Systems
Though it is a basic accounting package, I believe some users do not find the old style menus and navigation options intuitive. There is also a great lack of training resources in the market, so users have to learn the product without guidance a lot, resulting in inefficient workflows and misuse or misunderstanding of many features.
Read full review Support Rating Constellation HomeBuilder Systems
The rating is directed to the thrid party serive provider that we use. I do not now how good the Microsoft direct support is.
Read full review Implementation Rating Constellation HomeBuilder Systems
Basically the challenge with this implementation was the Business Portal, too many errors and even the aplication is up and running the users are still having issues. We will start planning the migraton to GP 2015 soon.
Read full review Alternatives Considered Constellation HomeBuilder Systems
I come from a strong background of using SAP. SAP doesn't have the flexibility of GP, an example would be SAP doesn't allow core mods, if they catch you, you lose support. Microsoft doesn't really care about mods, but they will be quick to have the vendor you used support your issue if it is caused by those mods. With SAP your company adapts to the software, where with GP you adapt the software to you.
Read full review Scalability Constellation HomeBuilder Systems
The functionality that GP and related ISV solutions offer and the ease of integration of GP to other systems makes it an extremely scalable solution
Read full review Return on Investment Constellation HomeBuilder Systems
Overall, our company has saved money by being able to shut down all the various platforms we were using for different departments and transition to just BuildTopia. Company efforts are more efficient, with all pertinent information being in one place and able to be viewed by everyone as needed. Efforts of the sales team are better able to be managed and reviewed from afar whereas we only had physical paper trails before. Read full review Microsoft Dynamics GP allows my clients to move from a paper or spreadsheet based company to an integrated, electronic, streamlined business. I love being able to help clients gain efficiencies through the use of Microsoft Dynamics GP. Microsoft Dynamics GP allows for better customer service because everything is at our fingertips. If someone calls questioning an invoice, we can easily look it up. If someone calls stating they paid an invoice with a certain check number, we can quickly run a query to find that particular check number to see where it was applied. Having everything on a single platform provides ease of use for upgrades, backups and end user training. There is only one software to learn! Read full review ScreenShots