You have signed the repair proposal from Anchor and are excited for us to get started on your home. You want to know things like: When are they coming to get started? How long will it take? How do I make payments? Will there be a way for me to follow along?
You might have had these thoughts or similar ones, and I’m here to give you answers!
At Anchor Foundation Repair, communication and meeting your high expectations has been important to us for our 35+ years in business. We use BuildTrend every day and find it to be an excellent tool to keep homeowners 100% informed about their home repair projects.
This article will help you see how BuilderTrend (an easy-to-navigate app) can help us to communicate and stay updated on *all the things* about your job. We will give you guidance on the features you will probably care the most about and how to navigate the app.
How Does BuilderTrend Help Homeowners?
Great question! BuilderTrend helps you keep track of everything related to the work on your home. The main things you might want to use BuilderTrend for are to see the work schedule and daily updates; view documents, photos, and videos; check your messages; and make payments.
BuilderTrend allows you to access all of these things in one place, making life a little easier. We’ll go over all these in more depth so you can understand why you might want to know about these features and get familiar with the app.
First, let’s get started by logging in to BuilderTrend. If you have signed a proposal with Anchor and are on our jobs list, then you should have received an email from BuilderTrend already inviting you to join. Please check your junk or spam folders if it isn’t in your inbox.
It took me 20 seconds to log in, so I assure you that it’s quick and easy!
Now that you have had a chance to log in, let’s go over the main places you might want to go to find the information and actions most helpful to you.
Start From The Summary Page in BuilderTrend
The summary page is basically your homepage on the app and it is so helpful. It will look something like this:
On this page, you can take a quick glance to see the latest photos and video, see if any invoices are due, look at the schedule and even check the weather forecast! This is basically a homepage for you. Here you can navigate to all the other parts of the app you might be interested in. It’s a pretty great one-stop shop.
Stay Updated with Project Management in BuilderTrend
The Project Management portion of BuilderTrend keeps track of Schedules (shows the work schedule and timeline for your project) and Daily Logs (documents what happens daily at your job site). I’ll show you how to use it below.
Keeping Track of the Work Schedule in BuilderTrend
Most people are very eager to know when we will get started on your home. You want to plan ahead and make sure you are there so that you can see all the action. Or maybe you want to make sure you aren’t there because you don’t want to see any action at all! Whatever the case may be for you, we’ve got you covered.
1. Once you are logged in to BuilderTrend and are on the Summary Page (home page), hover over Project Management and click on Schedule.
2. Now you can scroll down and see the schedule. See the green lines on the calendar? Those are the days that work will be done on your home. Yours might be a different color, but it’s the same concept.
Keeping Track of Daily Logs in Project Management
Daily logs are a great way for you to get an update on what happened at your house on specific workdays. Maybe you weren’t around one day to see what was going on and you are bummed you missed out on all the action. You’ll get a detailed list of everything that happened right here!
1. First, hover over Project Management and click on Daily Logs this time.
2. Once there, your screen will look something like this (pictured). You can get a detailed list of what the crew accomplished that day in case you weren’t around to see. Cool huh?
View Your Docs, Photos, and Videos in the Files Section
The Files section of BuilderTrend keeps track of Documents, Photos, and Videos that pertain to the work being done on your home. Some people really like seeing the progress photos and videos, and you can find these here! We know some people don’t really care and that’s okay too.
Either way, we’ll show you how to find those and important documents like proposals and pier placement diagrams, and (most importantly) your warranty certificate. Other documents are located there as well so be sure to check it out!
Looking at Documents on BuilderTrend
Your documents are organized into a few different folders based on what the files are and when during the process they were created or used.
1. To look at any documents on file, hover over Files and click on Documents.
2. Your page will look something like this below, showing the different folders that you can click on.
3. Choose the folder you want to open. For this example, we will open the Pre-Sale Documents by clicking on it once.
4. Click on the document you want to see. Let’s say you want to open the Pier Design document. Click on it once and you will see the option to either open it in a new tab or download it.
5. Choose your preference and the document will open or be transferred to your downloads folder on your computer.
Looking at Photos and Videos on BuilderTrend
Any photos or videos that are taken of your home during the time we are working on it will be stored right here. It’s nice to be able to see the *before and afters* and progress shots. The process is the same for both photos and videos, so I’ll just demonstrate with photos here.
1. Hover over Files and click on either Photos or Videos.
2. You will get to a screen that looks something like this where you can see thumbnails of photos or videos.
3. If you want to see any of the photos or videos on a larger scale just click on it and a new window will pop up. Feel free to look around at all your photos and watch videos whenever you want! You can even download the photos if you like.
Use the Messages Section of BuilderTrend for Communication
The Messages section of BuilderTrend will house all of your communication. Here you can see and respond to comments and messages in one place.
You might be good just using your normal email to communicate with us, and that’s great too!
The advantage of using this inbox is that there aren’t any other random emails in the mix, so your Anchor emails won’t get buried. It can also be helpful in holding Anchor accountable to you, and vice versa.
It’s always nice to be able to go back and refer to earlier communication that was sent, check on what was said or promised, and this way you know where to find everything easily.
How to View Your Messages on BuilderTrend
View, ask questions, and respond to messages between you and Anchor in the Messaging area of the BuilderTrend app.
1. To see your communications on BuilderTrend, hover over Messaging and click on Messages.
2. You’ll be taken to a little inbox of all your emails with the Anchor Team. It looks and functions just like a normal email app. It’s pretty self-explanatory and likely familiar to most, but let me know if you have any questions on how to use the messaging area.
Don’t want to use messages on here? That’s okay! These messages will also go directly to your email inbox, so if it’s easier for you to just message from your email that’s great too. There are also some settings (under the gear icon on the top right) you can tweak to change the messaging options if you want. You’ll see the option to customize if you’d like to get emails, texts, or push notifications. Just be sure to hit Save when you are done!
Pay Your Invoices Under the Financial Section of BuilderTrend
Help! I need to know how much I owe to Anchor for the fine work they have been doing at my house. And I need to make a payment!
We can help with that! The Financial tab is where you can see your invoices and conveniently pay online anytime. No need to write a check, hunt for a stamp or envelope, or make sure to drop it in the mail.
1. First, hover over the Financial tab and then click Invoices.
2. You’ll be taken to a page where you will see your invoices and whether or not they have been paid. For this example, you can see that invoice 0001 has been paid, and invoices 0002 and 0003 have not.
3. To pay an invoice, click the one you want to pay. You’ll need to click the blue invoice (ID#) numbers, such as 0002.
4. A new window will pop up, and you can scroll down and click Pay Online.
5. At this point simply follow the prompts and enter your credit card information. If you are having trouble with that or don’t want to do it online, we can also take payments over the phone or you can even write a check and drop it in the mail.
Explore BuilderTrend on Your Own and Get Ready to Start
I hope this has been helpful to see all the ways that you can stay updated on your project in BuilderTrend! Here at Anchor, we are all about helping our clients, and communication is so important to us.
We have been serving the Brazos Valley for more than 35 years, and we are here for you! We want to make this process easy and smooth, and we have found BuilderTrend to be user-friendly and incredibly helpful. That’s why we wanted to share this information with you so that you can feel empowered and in control of your repair project.
Do you still have questions? Hey, I know! Try logging in to BuilderTrend on your own and sending us your question in the app!
As an easy-to-read refresher to get ready for your start date, you can also check out this article on our basic Terms and Conditions in case you missed it earlier.