S6 Ep. 4: Preparing your schedule before go live

Welcome to “The Better Way: A podcast by Buildertrend.” Here you’ll learn to simplify and establish processes that will make meaningful changes to your company and help you achieve your goals. Because there’s a better way. The Buildertrend way. Tune in this season as Marge Haley, senior manager of customer success, chats with Buildertrend experts on how to master takeoff and ace pre-project planning.

 

On today’s episode, Marge Haley and Tim Curran, onsite consultant at Buildertrend, discuss how mapping out your project schedule sets you up for success – even before day one of the build. Listen in to learn how to start using the Schedule, build good habits and use templates with the feature.

 

What are some items that builders should put in their schedule to start off with good habits right away?

 

Tim: Anything that requires a sub or your internal laborers onsite. Things that require days to put together. I see a lot of builders put items like “Order Windows” or “Bob, can you get my coffee please?” Maybe not that one so much, but anything that's more individual task-related, that's kind of a one-off doesn't necessarily need to be a schedule item. That could be a To-Do instead. So, things like framing and those longer kind of schedule items that require either subs onsite or your internal team, that's what you're going to want to as a schedule item, not necessarily the little nitty gritty, do this, do that. That's much better suited for To-Do’s.

 

 

Is there a way to see a high-level view of the Schedule in Buildertrend?

 

Tim: We do have phases in Buildertrend, and a lot of times they're broken down into the phase of the job. So maybe you have a prep and preliminary type phase. Maybe there's an excavation and foundation phase. You can also create your own custom phases. You don't necessarily have to break it down to that level, but phases are a great way to kind of lump together individual schedule items under a broader phase. And then when you actually share the schedule, let's say with your homeowner, you can give them the phase level breakdown as opposed to the individual schedule item view.

 

 

LINKS AND MORE

 

Related content:

 

Read this blog post to learn how to make project scheduling less tedious.

 

Read this case study to learn how this builder can take on more projects with an organized schedule.

 

Listen to “The Building Code,” Buildertrend’s biweekly podcast exploring people, technology and innovation across the construction industry.

 

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