Buildertrend to Power BI, done for you
Every active job on one page: budget versus actual by cost code, allowance variance on selections, approved and pending change orders, and schedule slip against the baseline — modelled from your Buildertrend data by a senior US-based engineer instead of rebuilt in a spreadsheet every Monday.
Representative dashboard — sample data
Residential, not commercial
Residential construction loses margin in places a commercial job never sees: an allowance set at $9 a square foot against flooring the client picked at $14, a change order verbally agreed on site and written up three weeks later, a trade partner idle because the schedule moved and nobody re-sequenced. Buildertrend records all of it. Getting it out job by job, then adding it up across twenty active builds, is where the reporting stops.
So the work is the same shape every time. Pull the job, budget, selection, change order, purchase order, schedule and daily log records once. Conform them to one job key and one date table. Then write the measures that turn them into gross margin per job, allowance variance by category, pending change order exposure and days of schedule slip — numbers a builder can act on before the job closes rather than after.
What we build from Buildertrend
Buy a block of prepaid Flex hours and, if you're unhappy within the first 4 hours, we refund you in full — no questions asked. Hours are deducted only for work you've reviewed and approved, there's no project minimum, and your banked hours never expire.
What the build covers
Each one sits upstream of the report page, and each one is where a builder's own attempt tends to stall.
Budget lines, purchase orders, bills and time entries have to land on the same cost code before budget versus actual means anything. Where the estimate template drifted between jobs, we map the variants once instead of every month.
Allowance against chosen price, per selection, rolled to category and job. The pattern across jobs is the point: allowances that are chronically low are a pricing problem, not a client problem.
Approved change orders belong in contract value; pending ones are exposure. Kept apart and aged by days outstanding, so a job that only looks on budget stops passing for one that is.
Task dates move constantly, so the current schedule always looks fine. We keep the baseline and measure drift, per job and per trade, which is where the pattern of the same trade slipping every time shows up.
Committed cost in the project system and paid cost in the books are different numbers. Joining them is what turns a budget report into gross margin per job a controller will sign.
Scheduled refresh, documented transformations, and breakages fixed by us out of your banked hours rather than landing on the office manager who built the original export.
Honestly, and without pretending a native connection exists. Buildertrend does not appear in Microsoft's list of built-in Power Query connectors (opens in new tab), so the realistic routes are scheduled exports from Buildertrend's own reports, an API integration where your plan and account team provide access, or modelling the financial side from the accounting system your Buildertrend jobs already sync to. We confirm which route your account supports in the scope estimate, before a single hour is spent.
In practice most residential builds run on a combination. Job, budget, selection, change order and schedule detail comes across from the project system; the paid-cost and billing side comes from the ledger. Builders keeping their books in QuickBooks usually pair this with a QuickBooks Power BI dashboard, and firms on Xero with a Xero Power BI dashboard — same model, second source. Whatever the route, credentials and exports belong to your account, so nothing about the connection depends on us still being around next year.
Fewer than most builders expect. Nearly every question an owner asks — are we on budget, where did the margin go, which trade is slipping, what is still unsigned — resolves to a handful of record types conformed to one job key. The table below maps each to the job it does once the data is modelled rather than exported.
| Record type | What it holds | Role in the model |
|---|---|---|
| Jobs | The build or remodel itself: contract value, address, plan or job type, status and key dates | The job dimension every other table conforms to |
| Estimates and budget lines | Budgeted cost and price by cost code or category, carried from the accepted proposal | The baseline half of budget versus actual |
| Selections and allowances | Client-choice items with an allowance and the option actually chosen | Fact table for allowance variance by category and by job |
| Change orders | Scope changes with value, status and the dates status moved | Approved value into contract; pending value into aged exposure |
| Purchase orders and bills | Committed and invoiced cost against trade partners by cost code | The actual half of budget versus actual, and committed-cost coverage |
| Schedule tasks | Task dates, durations, dependencies and assigned trade | Slip against baseline, per job and per trade partner |
| Daily logs | Dated field notes, weather, crew and site activity | Field coverage and context behind the days a schedule moved |
| Time clock entries | Hours by employee, job and cost code | Self-performed labor cost and hours against budgeted labor |
| Leads and proposals | Prospects, bid value, stage and outcome | Sales pipeline, close rate and backlog feeding production |
| Warranty claims | Post-completion issues, trade responsible and resolution dates | Warranty cost per job, traced back to the trade that caused it |
Two structural details cause most of the rework. First, cost codes: builders customise the estimate template, and a code that means framing labor on one job means framing labor and materials on another, so budget and actual will not tie until the variants are mapped. Second, the job key: the same build often exists in the project system and in the ledger under slightly different names, and that mapping has to be explicit. Both are scoping conversations, not surprises — and both are the same discipline described on our Power BI data modeling and DAX page.
The ones that answer a question before the job closes. A completed-job margin report is history; a builder needs cost-to-complete and unsigned exposure while there is still time to act. Each measure below is written explicitly in DAX and documented, so the definition is something you can argue with and change rather than something buried in a query step.
| Measure | How it is defined | Why it is written this way |
|---|---|---|
| Budget vs actual by cost code | Budgeted cost less committed and invoiced cost, per code, per job | Committed cost counts, so a signed PO shows up before the bill arrives |
| Allowance variance | Chosen selection price less the allowance, rolled to category and job | Category rollup exposes allowances that are set too low on every job |
| Change order exposure | Pending change order value, aged by days since it was raised | Kept out of contract value until approved, so margin is not flattered |
| Gross margin per job | Contract value plus approved changes, less committed and paid cost | Paid cost comes from the ledger, so margin reflects money, not budget |
| Cost to complete | Remaining budget by cost code against the current percent complete | Forward looking, so an overrun is visible while it can still be fixed |
| Schedule slip days | Current task finish dates less the baseline, per job and per trade | Against a stored baseline, because a re-sequenced schedule always looks on time |
| Over and under billing | Earned revenue at percent complete against amounts billed to date | The work-in-progress position a lender or surety asks to see |
| Warranty cost per job | Claim cost after completion, attributed to job type and trade partner | Attributed, so a cheap trade that generates callbacks stops looking cheap |
Allowance variance by category is usually the measure that changes a conversation. It is arithmetically trivial and commercially uncomfortable: it distinguishes the client who upgraded from the builder who priced the allowance a thousand dollars light on every job in the book. The wider industry metric set — WIP schedules, retainage, cost-to-complete across a contractor's whole portfolio — is covered on our Power BI for construction page, while this one stays with the specifics of extracting and modelling one residential system.
Buildertrend's own reports are built to run a job, and they do that well. The questions that bring builders to us are the ones that cross a boundary — across every active job at once, across several years of completed builds, or across into the accounting ledger where the cost was actually paid.
| What you are trying to do | Reporting inside the project system | Custom Power BI model |
|---|---|---|
| Run today's job | Its core strength — live, in context, already built | Possible, but not the reason to build a model |
| Every active job on one page | Reporting is oriented job by job | Portfolio view with drill-down into any single build |
| Margin after paid cost | Paid cost and retainage sit in the accounting system | Ledger joined to the job so margin reflects cash out |
| Allowance patterns across jobs | Selections are shown within a job | Variance trended by category across the whole book of work |
| Trend across completed builds | Closed jobs drop out of the working view | Full history retained and comparable by plan or job type |
| Where the logic lives | Inside the vendor's reporting layer | In a model file in your own tenant, which you own outright |
The practical answer is usually both: keep the project system for running the build, and use the model for the numbers that decide pricing, allowances and which trade partners to keep. Commercial general contractors have a different problem — owner-driven RFIs, submittal logs and multi-prime schedules — and that build is covered on our Procore Power BI dashboard page instead.
The model is published to your own Power BI workspace and refreshed on a schedule, following Microsoft's documented data refresh guidance (opens in new tab). Nightly usually fits residential work: purchase orders, bills and daily logs land during the day, and the review that matters happens at the production meeting rather than by the minute. Where the accounting side sits on a server in your office, the on-premises data gateway (opens in new tab) handles it.
Visibility is scoped with row-level security (opens in new tab) where you need it — a production manager seeing their own jobs, ownership seeing everything, and job-level cost kept away from anyone who should not see it. It is driven from a mapping table, so adding a manager is a data change rather than a rebuild. Access we use is read-only wherever the route allows: reporting has no business writing back into the system your field team depends on.
Prepaid Flex hours that never expire: Starter 20 hours at $125/hr ($2,500), Growth 40 hours at $115/hr ($4,600), Power 80 hours at $100/hr ($8,000), with hourly work from $100/hour on the largest block. A first build covering jobs, budget versus actual, selections and change orders from a single Buildertrend account usually fits a Starter block. Adding the accounting join for paid cost, WIP and over/under billing typically needs Growth, because agreeing how percent complete is calculated takes discussion as well as development.
Most tasks ship within 3–5 business days of scope approval. You get a scope and hours estimate before anything starts, and hours deduct only for work you approve — no project minimum, no retainer, and a full refund inside the first 4 hours if you are unhappy. Our guide to Power BI dashboard development cost covers what moves the number, and how prepaid Flex hours work explains the model in full.
Custom home builders, remodelers and residential specialty contractors running Buildertrend with enough completed jobs to trend and no in-house data person — usually the point where someone exports to Excel every month and two reports disagree at year end. Owners, production managers and controllers are the people who normally get in touch.
If your questions are broader than one system — WIP schedules, retainage, cost-to-complete across a whole contracting business — start with construction dashboards instead. Service divisions running maintenance calls alongside the build work should look at Power BI for HVAC and field service. Contact is form-only — send your request and we'll reply with a scope estimate.
business days, typical
hours, never expire
own everything
A first Buildertrend build usually fits inside one Flex block, and hours deduct only for work you approve. See Flex pricing →
How it works
We check which route your account supports — exports, API access, or the accounting sync — map your cost code structure, agree how percent complete is calculated, and reply with a scope and hours estimate before any work begins.
A senior US-based engineer conforms jobs, budgets, selections, change orders, purchase orders and schedule tasks to one job key and date table, then writes the DAX for margin, allowance variance and slip — validating totals against your own job reports.
Published to your workspace with scheduled refresh, row-level security where you need it, and documentation you keep. You own the model and the report, and we maintain them from your banked hours.
Representative perspective
Allowance variance by category was the uncomfortable one. Our tile allowance had been short on eleven jobs in a row and every one of us had been calling it a client upgrade.Owner, custom home builder
Representative perspective
We were rebuilding the same job cost workbook every Monday from exports. Having every active build on one page, with pending change orders separated out, gave the production meeting an hour back.Production manager, residential remodeling firm
Tell us how your cost codes are set up, what your accounting system holds, and the numbers your production meeting actually needs. We'll confirm the access route, scope the task, and tell you the hours before anything starts — no project minimums, no obligation.
FAQ
Buildertrend is not in Microsoft's built-in connector list, so we are direct about the routes: scheduled exports from Buildertrend's own reports, an API integration where your plan and account team provide access, or modelling the dollars from the accounting system Buildertrend already syncs to. We confirm which route fits your account in the scope estimate, before any hours are used.
Yes, and on most remodel and custom-build jobs it is the first thing owners ask for. Selection records carry an allowance and the price the client actually chose, so the variance is modelled per selection, rolled up by category and by job, and trended so you can see which allowances are set too low across the whole book of work.
By status and by date, not as one total. We separate approved change orders that belong in contract value from pending ones that are still exposure, then age the pending list by days outstanding. That splits a job that is genuinely on budget from one that is only on budget because nobody has signed the paperwork yet.
No. Keep Buildertrend for running the job day to day. A separate model earns its place when you need every active job on one page, multi-year trend across completed builds, or field and schedule data joined to the accounting ledger so gross margin per job reflects what was actually paid rather than what was budgeted.
No. We are an independent US-based Power BI consultancy and claim no Buildertrend partnership. We work from exports and access your own account provides, under credentials you own, and everything we build is published into your Power BI workspace and stays yours if we never speak again.
For the industry-wide picture rather than one source system, Power BI for construction covers job costing, WIP schedules and retainage across a whole contracting business. Commercial general contractors running owner-driven RFIs and submittal logs should read the Procore Power BI dashboard build, and contractors whose system of record is an accounting ERP have a different problem again, covered on our Viewpoint Vista Power BI dashboard page. The ledger join for paid cost, retainage and billing is on our QuickBooks and Xero pages, and the craft underneath is described in data modeling and DAX and dashboard development. Every task is scoped before work begins from your prepaid block of senior-led hours — no project minimums, no change-order surprises, and hours are deducted only for work you approve.
Book a free demo
Tell us the task. We scope it, you approve, and a senior consultant delivers — typically in 3–5 business days. Prepaid hours that never expire.
The fastest way to reach us is the form — tell us the task and we'll reply within one business day.