Software

Co-construct Software

Remodeler Abe Degnan sells, designs, and estimates projects using Co-construct software, which lets him better manage selections, budgets, and schedules, as well as communication between staff, clients, and trade contractors.

“Co-construct is set up to help home builders and remodelers who need to have their customers make selections,” Degnan says. Products can be predefined and you can set up a template if you routinely use the same products. Degnan has some templates but likes that he can also customize the software for each project, if needed. Everyone in the office has access to the system and can look at job logs to see what phase a project is in. “Vendors are able to have access where they need to have it,” Degnan says, “and the same goes for customers, who only see what you want them to see. But everything is controlled by you.”

Degnan pares down the number of product options for clients, which helps him manage the process; he gives clients the ability to see pricing differences and allowances. He is able to create change orders and remind people of due dates. Through the system he can email or text message the information, and he likes the conversation view, which Degnan describes as “a Facebook chat,” where all the conversations are collected. “Instead of going through a string of 18 different email messages you can find what you’re looking for and have all that information at hand.”

Before using Co-construct, he says, he would have a string of emails held in random places on his computer. Now, with the software, “I can lock in selection as they happen and have an ongoing total rather than having it strung out without a full resolution.”

Abe Degnan, president
Degnan Design Builders
DeForest, Wis.

ACT Contact Relationship Management Software

“We use it to keep track of everything,” Joan Stephens says of the contract relationship management (CRM) program she has used since 1995. “Most CRMs are set up for B-to-B, but ACT lets you customize the software so it can work well for remodelers.”

Stephens uses the scheduling section called Smart Task to automatically remind her of client birthdays or the anniversary of a project. “You can have an email or card already set up to respond, and ACT will send it out,” she says. “If you haven’t heard back from someone in two weeks, the software will send out an email. You can set up templates to personalize the way email messages look. At the end of a project we do a whole series of things with final bills and put together a binder of the client’s selections and maintenance information. You can set everything up, and with just one click ACT! will schedule a mail date for everything from whatever your anchor date is.”

Prior to using ACT Stephens used spreadsheets. “ACT has saved me time and money,” she says, “and so much can be gleaned from it for marketing.” For example, she has used the CRM software to find out how people heard about her company and then compiled that information to see which of her company’s marketing efforts have been most cost-effective.

Joan Stephens, owner
Stronghold Remodeling
Boise, Idaho

Chief Architect

Why does Andrew Haste like Chief Architect design software? Because his clients love it. The color 3-D renderings he shares with clients on a big-screen TV in his selections center are like photographs, he says. “They look like a dream to clients. A lot of times they don’t know this is really possible.”

Clients look at the design options and pick a direction they’d like to go in. Haste and his designer take notes and do the work behind the scenes.

To initiate the design process, Haste’s crew takes photos of the existing space, measures it, and enters those dimensions in the software before beginning to design.

The software offers libraries of furniture and cabinets and can be used as an interior design program if clients want to keep certain furniture in the space. “You can resize furniture from the library. It helps clients visualize,” Haste says. “Furniture is a huge part of redesigning. You want to make sure it will fit.”

Andrew Haste , president
Riverside Construction
West Lafayette, Ind.

FastTrack Schedule

At the time that remodeler Jeff King was looking for scheduling software, Microsoft Project, which is free, wouldn’t work on the Mac system—and King has always had a Mac-based office. Then he discovered AEC Software’s FastTrack Schedule software, which he says offers a lot of diversity. King likes that information can be filtered so that viewers can look at it in different formats. “Most of our clients don’t like to look at Gantt charts,” he says, “but if they want to know what’s going on this week, I can click into a calendar view or a milestone view and they’ll see line items without all the sequencing or critical paths.” And he can share the information in a PDF.

User-friendly, with a simple interface, FastTrack has the ability to be simplified for your clients or be extremely sophisticated for micro-scheduling or resource scheduling, King says. Clients like that he can attach dollars to milestones so “they can do cash flow management,” which can also show King what his cash flow opportunities are. King built a template unique to his company’s projects with a column for milestones such as tile selection, cabinet drawings, shop drawings, etc., completed by “x” date. Another column shows who is responsible—plumber, electrician, client. It’s easy for homeowners to see what they’re responsible for doing and by when.

Anybody in the company who is managing a project—site supervisor, lead carpenter, or project manager—uses the system. King pays a one-time licensing fee for each user. FastTrack periodically offers live webinar training as well as live in-office training sessions.

Jeff King, president
Jeff King & Co.
San Francisco

HomeTech Estimating Program

HomeTech, now in its 46th year of business, is cost estimating software that offers access to current prices of local and regional building materials and labor costs in more than 250 markets in the U.S. and Canada.

“It’s simple; it doesn’t have lots of bells and whistles,” says Tom Barber, who looked at many other programs but felt they had “too much going on” and would take up a lot of his time. “For a guy who owns a smaller company and wears a lot of hats, there’s not a huge learning curve,” says Barber, who has been using HomeTech for 20 years. “I was on it when it was just a book,” he says.

Barber creates assemblies in the software and saves them. He likes that HomeTech is customizable enough “to make it your own,” adding, “I create a bathroom package, and I can reuse that bathroom over and over and add in the things I need to and delete the things that don’t apply. I don’t have to reinvent the estimate.”

Tom Barber, owner
Barber Construction
Roscommon, Mich.