Buildertrend Advanced Plan: $799/Month
The most popular tier - estimating, change orders, and financial management in one platform
What Advanced Adds Over Essential
Advanced includes everything in Essential plus these key capabilities:
Full Estimating Module
Build proposals and estimates from a library of cost codes and assemblies. Apply markup rules, generate professional PDF proposals, and collect client signatures digitally. Approved estimates convert directly into project budgets and schedules - no re-entering data.
Change Orders
Create, price, and track change orders inside Buildertrend. The homeowner receives a digital change order request, can review it, and approves with a signature. Every change order is permanently tied to the project with a full audit trail - your best defence against 'I never approved that' disputes.
Takeoff Tools
Measure plans digitally for quantity takeoffs. Upload PDFs of architectural drawings, scale them, and measure areas, lengths, and counts. Takeoff quantities feed directly into your estimate line items, reducing manual data entry and measurement errors.
Bid Requests to Subs
Create formal bid packages and send them to multiple subcontractors simultaneously. Subs submit bids through the Sub Center portal. You compare bids side-by-side and award the job from within Buildertrend. Replaces email bid rounds with a structured, auditable process.
Purchase Orders
Generate purchase orders for materials and subcontractors. POs are attached to specific projects and cost codes. When the invoice arrives, you match it against the PO and approve payment. Creates accountability in your supply chain and prevents duplicate orders.
Cost Codes
Set up a company-wide cost code structure (CSI codes or your own system). Every expense, PO, and change order is tagged to a cost code. This gives you job costing data - the ability to compare actual costs against budget at a granular level and identify where you're bleeding margin.
Enhanced Financial Reporting
Advanced reporting beyond the basic budget tracker in Essential. Job profitability reports, cost-to-complete analysis, budget variance reports. These reports give you the financial intelligence to improve bidding accuracy over time.
Surveys and Questionnaires
Create custom forms for pre-construction client interviews, punch list walkthroughs, and post-project satisfaction surveys. Responses are stored in the project file. Reduces the administrative work of collecting and organizing client feedback.
Who Should Use Advanced
Advanced is right for you if:
- + Mid-size GC with 5-20 staff
- + $1M-$10M annual revenue
- + Running 5-15 active projects concurrently
- + Change orders are a regular part of your workflow
- + You want estimating and project management in one system
- + You coordinate multiple subs on each project
Consider Complete instead if:
- ! Clients need to choose finishes and fixtures online (selections portal is Complete-only)
- ! You manage warranty claims after project completion
- ! You have 20+ staff and need time clock + advanced dashboards
- ! You're a custom home builder with active selections workflows
ROI Case for the Advanced Plan
The clearest ROI argument for Advanced comes from three sources:
At $799/mo ($9,588/year on monthly billing, or $5,988 on annual), the Advanced plan can pay for itself several times over for a mid-size residential GC. The break-even point for most 5-10 person firms is typically 3-6 months after full adoption.