Buildertrend vs. Contractor Foreman

Perfect for General Contractor's and subcontractor's that want to be a leader in their industry. Sure, you can limp along without a management system but you won't be able to take your business to the next level in most cases. If you are small enough and only doing one maybe two jobs at a time and you are good at keeping every single detail in your head and don't have any issues with schedule or timeframes then you may not need this. However, I have not been in a situation where software like Buildertrend didn't/couldn't add significant value and a need in my company

Incentivized

As the name suggests, Contractor Foreman is GREAT for general contractors. However, being a consultant, I feel as though if upper management within the company I serve were more tech-savvy, they could accomplish much of the same tasks on other platforms that could give more advanced metrics. I also feel that the platform may feel outdated on purpose to ensure that those general contractors who aren't as tech savvy can understand the platform more.

Incentivized

• The subcontractor PO management area makes managing the scope of work and payments for each subcontractor extremely easy and is well organized.
• The material selections section also greatly simplifies and organizes a somewhat challenging aspect of remodeling.
• The ability for customers to view the total project cost and make payments online is a major time saver and improves our cashflow.

Incentivized

• The service is top notch. You would be hard pressed to find other options with this kind of service.
• The ability to have your project flow through the modules makes it a breeze to use.
• Being able to track time as well is a key feature.

Incentivized

• In messaging an Out of Office type auto response would be great for when people go out on vacation
• When using the Job Type field of Mutli-Family this should allow the interface to group that all in one job but be section out into the different unit in that building. So different selections can all be located within that same unit.
• Building new jobs from templates can take up to 10 minutes some times. Please reduce the amount of time it take to make jobs off templates.
• Owner accounts should not be directly tied to a job, they should be completely separate so the account can be linked to different jobs and not cause problems to that account or what that account has access to.

Incentivized

• In the CDB, I'd like to be able to create a line item with a specified percentage, and when I pull that line item into an estimate or proposal, I'd like the system to automatically calculate it based on that contract value. (Example, Contingency line is always going to be 15% of the contract value).
• I'd like to be able to rearrange "blocks" on a page when I'm getting ready to send or print it. Lots of dead space on pages. Estimates 4 pages in total when it could be 2.
• I'd like to be able to create budget summaries. Where the line items are grouped into their respective master format categories, and the category has the sum of all the line items in that category.

We have compiled so much information on CF it would be counterproductive to move to another software. We have also sold a lot of clients on the client portal feature. It is crucial for our communication between customers. The only reason we wouldn't renew the service is if somewhere offered the exact same service but at a lower cost

Incentivized

Its simple to use and intuitive. The level of support that we have from online videos, to access to customer support, and the ability to call anyone at anytime on the main line has been invaluable to utilize and not get stuck on something you don't know yet. We've never not had anyone that couldn't respond in time for us.

Overall, Contractor Foreman is a great product, and I’m sure we’ve only scratched the surface of everything it has to offer. It can be a little quirky at times, occasionally displaying a 'Bad Gateway' message, but we haven’t experienced any timeout issues in the past few months. As we continue to use it, I’m confident we’ll uncover even more ways to streamline our workflow

Incentivized

Availability was good, FUNCTIONAL availability was more spotty

Incentivized

Many times we had issues that turned out to be errors and bugs. At first, we would be told forcefully that there were no bugs, then we would document them, and we would get an acknowledgement but no apology for essentially either gaslighting us or being ignorant of their system

Incentivized

I highly recommend. The only suggestion I have would be to offer a free trial. They do offer a 30 day money back guarantee. The price point isn't daunting if you have had a 100 % no strings attached/no effort to cancel or try to remember to get your money back - no strings attached chance to try out the product. Especially for such a big purchase decision, I think Buildertrend would see an incredible increase in sales. They have the value and companies just need a chance to see it first hand.

Incentivized

We have only had one issue the entire time we have had Contractor Foreman and that was that we had the hardest time getting the platform to allow us to log in, but we called our support and within 5 mins we able to log back in

Incentivized

The team that does your implementation is amazing. They're skillful, kind, they will take as much time as you need, and they have a sense of urgency

Incentivized

(Hubspot) For Sales & Marketing, it is really a killer awesome program that I would encourage Buildertrend to look into. Hubspot is just on another level of intelligence and access that Buildertrend doesn't match up to. At the same time, perhaps HubSpot lacks what Buildertrend has on the Finance and Construction Management side - that I don't know. Our business is virtually complete by combining both of these platforms together across our teams.

Incentivized

A few of them were too specialized, and we're trying to limit the amount of software we have data entry into. Buildertrend was probably the biggest competitor we reviewed, but the cost and migration effort didn't seem enticing to us as a business. I think Contractor Foreman has its own quirks, but once you understand the methodology behind the software, it works very well, and at the price, it's hard to imagine migrating away to something that does the exact same thing for 2-3x the cost (plus all the data migration).

We had just 2 users

Incentivized

• I started my business because of BuilderTrend.
• My return on investment was 933% in year one.
• BuilderTrend has not only helped me double my business year over year, but it's also created a new career for myself as a BuilderTrend consultant for new or existing users looking to maximize their ROI faster.

Incentivized

• It has allowed for more structure within the company
• It has given more clear communication from the sales office to the field
• It has increased the capacity of projects we are able to take on by allowing them to flow smoother and have less wasted time on projects