Contractor Foreman vs. Revit vs. Todoist

Project, estimate, employee, and customer management are the best items in Contractor Foreman. It's nice to be able to assign leads out and use the same card to convert a customer through the entire process. I really like the kanban method of managing projects, and Contractor Foreman is well-suited to that.

Revit is very well suited to creating designs and construction documents for standard buildings. Buildings that need to utilize phasing in their construction process are also well suited to this software. Revit is not as well suited to buildings that have irregular shapes or components that need to be highly detailed.

Incentivized

There have been lots of times when we need to add a new habit into our daily work routines, and having the option to do so in the To-Doist app on the very first screen is incredibly helpful. It's a good reminder, and I believe that professionals who truly appreciate and properly value the implementation of good habits would be very grateful for this feature. It's also a time saver because you don't have to manually type it in every day/week / etc.

Incentivized

• Their customer service is next to none. They always have someone available to help
• The interface i completely customizable so that there is not more information than necessary
• They way the cost items get tracked within a project that allows for every penny to be accounted for

• Revit allows users to create real buildings and is very much rooted in making functional buildings.
• Revit allows users to collaborate both within their own firms and with other types of firms as well. This is particularly useful for coordinating buildings between architecture and engineering firms.
• Revit integrates fairly well with other programs such as AutoCAD and Sketchup. This allows us to bring in elements modeled in other programs into our revit models.

Incentivized

• Free plan offers two viewing options and 4 color themes; paid plans offer more
• Can integrate with Google Calendar, IFTTT, and Zapier apps
• Viewing format is pretty uncomplicated, including sidebar, easy on the eyes
• Importable and exportable data, emails
• Optional beta testing opportunities (can opt in/opt out at any time)

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.

• Versioning - Revit is not backwards compatible. This creates issues if you are working with people who are using older versions as you cannot save to a previous version. I understand why this is and I do not see this ever changing, however, Its very annoying.
• Autodesk - They are the 800 pound gorilla in the industry. The lack of competition inhibits development and it seems Autodesk has put more effort into its BIM 360 platform and Revit development has suffered because of it. I would like to see better competition so Autodesk would step up its game.

Incentivized

• The Todoist application now works almost identically across all platforms. There is a minor improvement that I would like to see on iOS and that is the ability to show task count by custom filter.
• In Board view, I want to be able to easily add sub-tasks to a parent task.
• Besides those two minor improvements, I am extremely happy with the application.

Incentivized

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

We will almost certainly be renewing all of our current seats of Revit and will likely be adding seats as we look to get more and more of our staff trained and using Revit. The software is starting to become the standard for our projects as we move forward as more and more of our clients are requesting or accepting use of it

Incentivized

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

It is a professional environment, but far from easy and overly complex in many places. The system is often too deep in settings and overrides (see Visibility/Graphics in combination with linked files, filters, color overrides and view templates). I don't really like the dialog-in-dialog interface and its spartan looks. But it works well overall if you know what you are doing.

Incentivized

Excellent features and concept, simple implementation, but the software is not very clear in training new users and communicating features. The occasional unexplained crash or freeze is not handled gracefully by the desktop software, requiring either the user or tech support to manually restart.

Incentivized

Availability was good, FUNCTIONAL availability was more spotty

Incentivized

Revit seems to always be available when I need it. I have not experiences an outage. There are occasions where we need our internal IT department to trouble shoot a file on our Revit dedicated server and that sometimes causes a delay however that is not a software access issue

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

Revit is a fairly graphics heavy piece of software. It is powerful in its capabilities but as a result it takes a lot of the graphics card, the memory, etc. For all that it can do and the specs of my computer I find it pretty good from a performance standpoint

Incentivized

Absolutely top notch! They were always there to help and immediately. Very happy with the communication they provided and the knowledge they had of their product. I would venture to say that they are one of the best in terms of support in their space.

Incentivized

Autodesk has always had a good support system in place. There is a massive user base for Revit, and there are thousands of forum threads and other discussions online about any and every problem that you could ever run into. For being such a large program with so many different options, there aren't many roadblocks or pitfalls that users can fall into.

Incentivized

I've used Todoist for about three years now and I haven't needed to contact support, which I'm considering a 10 out of 10. Honestly, their platform is so easy to use that I never had to look up a knowledge base or forum to be able to do what I wanted in Todoist. So I'm not sure what their support system looks like or how it works, but I do know that if I haven't needed support, that's also a good sign!

Incentivized

The training was Revit Essentials and it was very beneficial. I would say that it is best to get the training right before you know you will be using Revit as learning the basis then applying what you learned immediately is the most effective and best value for your money.

Incentivized

The online training is hit or miss. I feel that its better to be live to be able to pace and ask questions to a live person as you are learning hwo to do things. Its not natural to learn Revit especially if you know AutoCAD so my suggestion is the live training

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

Implementing Revit as your main drafting software (i.e. moving to BIM from CAD) may be a tough decision if you have learned drafting. It is a different way to approach and think about developing a project. However, if you are able to adapt to a new way of thinking and get used to it by working through a few projects than it is as efficient as CAD in most areas in general and will also be both better/worse in some areas

Incentivized

Contractor Foreman’s pricing is much more cost-effective for small to mid-sized construction businesses, making it a better fit for my company’s budget. It offers an intuitive interface with pre-built construction templates, minimizing setup time and making it easier at least for my team to adopt and start using. The platform’s focus on project tracking, financial management, and nice integrations that makes it highly efficient for tracking project progress, staying on budget, and managing subcontractors/bills. These factors combined made it the ideal choice for meeting my company's specific needs efficiently and cost-effectively.

Incentivized

Revit is used primarily for creation of contract documents and documents that need to be used to build in the field. Sketch Up is great for a quick concept sketch, but lacks the details that Revit has which are needed to construct. AutoCAD is a great tool for details as well, but does not have as many building capabilities as Revit.

Incentivized

[Todoist: To-Do List & Task Manager] is significantly simpler and cheaper than most of the alternatives and doesn't complicate the management of tasks with a plethora of unnecessary features. While all the alternatives have strong feature sets, what Todoist does better than any of them is manage tasks, in theory the central point of them all.

Incentivized

We had just 2 users

Incentivized

While I am not directly involved with the deployment of Revit, it seems that our internal IT department has appreciated the ability to increase or decrease the number of seats. I have never had an issue with the deployment if and when needed, especially regarding the availability of a set

Incentivized

• Positive return for invoice/change order tracking
• Great price
• Prior to using Contractor Foreman we had to wait until the end to capture all change orders in one summary. Now, with the client portal, we can capture in real time and the client has visibility.
• We have been trying to reduce administration time in tracking field expenses and with Contractor Foreman our field crew can uplaod reciepts and track expenses right from their mobile phones.
• Punchlist - the punch list and To Do features are so robust we have drastically improved getting punchlists and small tasks completed in single trips without the wasted time and travel of multiple trips due to missed/forgotten items.

Incentivized

• Though implementation of Revit is usually front heavy which means a lot of effort is put in at the front end of the project, the return of investment towards the remainder of the project is really good. All the effort in decisions made at the beginning of the project pays off with Revit incorporating all the building information in the model so the team can glean from this throughout the life of the project is a major plus.
• A major negative is the many false assumptions that comes with using Revit on a project. Just like any other computer application, Revit is only a tool. It's only as good as the operators who implement this tool. Revit is not a cureall for fixing all the problems that still can come out throughout the life of a design & construction project.
• A major positive for our office involving the use of Revit is the ability for our staff from multiple offices to work on the same project central file. We don't need to maintain an expensive server. With the addition of Collaboration for Revit the entire project can be stored in the cloud for our staff to access and complete the project faster than ever.

Incentivized

• Location-based reminders ensured that my staff didn't miss things when they went onsite with a customer. This has led to renewals on a regular basis.
• Sharing of task visibility for managers with their direct reports has enhanced 1-on-1 meetings and ensured that field coaches kept focused
• The cost of Todoist vs. the value it creates is a huge selling point for the software. For the price per user, I've found nothing that even comes close!

Incentivized