Dear Sher March 2025

Dear Sher,

I attended the Managing Participants and the Group Labor Agreement session at the National Self-Help Conference and folks were talking about an online construction management tool they use for their Self-Help builds called BuilderTrend. They said it could help track construction scheduling and tasks, manage subs, streamline bidding and budgeting, and track labor hours using a QR code in their job trailer for volunteers. It sounded like it might be a good tool, do grantees use this?

Sincerely,
New Technology

Dear New Technology,

Yes, BuilderTrend is really popular in the program, RCAC conducted a survey a couple of years ago of all the grantees for what technology/software they use in the program and BuilderTrend was the overwhelming response and highly recommended. Grantees who use it say they are able to integrate it with QuickBooks Desktop and it handles scheduling, bidding, purchase orders, invoicing and job costing reports. It’s a very robust system.

And a little added bonus, one grantee who isn’t using BuilderTrend highly recommended BusyBusy to track self-help participant hours on the jobsite, this is a time tracking app that also uses GPS where they can specify a “work site.”

Sincerely,
Dear Sher

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