Airtable vs. Contractor Foreman

Airtable is well suited for cross-functional teams who all have an interest in data site - it's democratizing who owns data. Especially if there will be a need to add input on a cell-level basis view comment functionality with the expectation of @mentioned parties respond. Airtable is less suited for teams who need to run functions, jobs, and macros across a data set; they're best suited for Excel.

Incentivized

Contractor Foreman works well for subcontractors and GC’s who don’t have the budget for higher-priced platforms (like Procore) but still need estimating, scheduling, daily logs, change orders, and job costing in one system.
For example, a 10–25 person construction company can replace separate tools (Excel, QuickBooks, text messaging, and whiteboard schedules) with Contractor Foreman and immediately improve organization and accountability.

• I can create tables, create and customize fields
• Airtable has capabilities commonly found in spreadsheet applications, but also has some of the features found in databases.
• The ability to filter fields. I set up a filter on the status field, so when a project is marked, complete, on hold, or canceled, that record is hidden from my current projects table view. If it is marked complete, the record is moved to the completed projects table view. In this way I can easily access a record of past projects
• Being able to duplicate tables and create alternate views
• Collapse and expand records. When I collapse the rows, I can easily scan current projects, next steps, project status, and due dates. When I expand the row, or field, I can see more detailed information about that field or record very easily. I can also expand or open the entire record. This is is helpful, when I am entering a lot of information to multiple fields in that record.

Incentivized

• The service is top notch. You would be hard pressed to find other options with this kind of service.
• The ability to have your project flow through the modules makes it a breeze to use.
• Being able to track time as well is a key feature.

Incentivized

• Airtable does not integrate with collaboration services with which it is possible to review live changes within each spreadsheet (in the case of keeping them closed).
• Does not automate analysis traffic.
• It does not include any section where it is possible to communicate with the other editors.

Incentivized

• We already heard from CF that they might implement this, but a Gantt chart available while in the estimating tab, before you submit the project
• If you don't do things juuuusssst so, sometimes the system doesn't update or rejects what you're doing. It can be picky.
• You have to constantly refresh using their provided button. Fixes a lot of issues and becomes second nature, but a little annoying at first.

Incentivized

We love Airtable for how we use it and we know there are probably tons of other ways we can implement it for other departments. We just haven't gotten there yet (due to bandwith) Customer Support is also super helpful and overall ease of use is fantastic

Incentivized

Eliminated the need for our team to log into multiple systems to do their jobs which aligns to our Lean approach

Incentivized

Airtable is a simple and intuitive tool. However, when you first set it up, you need someone who is curious and able to design a system that works for your organisation's use case. This takes some time, but it can be intuitive once it's set up.

Incentivized

Mostly great, especially for the price. The features appear to have definitely been designed by a team with a depth of construction specific experience. I also highly rate the usability because of the vast vast amount of customizability inherent in the system. It appears that almost all forms and features are customabizable on the company level and even specific to different individual users.

Incentivized

I have rarely experience downtime, compared to other tools, and given how much time we spend on the tool. Even if there were to be, their updates on it are very timely, and our support team are able to provide any questions regarding

Incentivized

Availability was good, FUNCTIONAL availability was more spotty

Incentivized

I never had any issues with load time, even with the integrations that we use today (google sheets) However, I'm curious if adding additional layers of integrations would slow down performance. We do carry quite a bit of data in Airtable, but, again, no impact on overall performance

Incentivized

Many times we had issues that turned out to be errors and bugs. At first, we would be told forcefully that there were no bugs, then we would document them, and we would get an acknowledgement but no apology for essentially either gaslighting us or being ignorant of their system

Incentivized

Airtable has great support. They have a variety of support features to answer any questions. They have great self teaching instructions for templates and product tours. They also have support for teams and project management. They also have a fantastic customer help line. They are able and willing to answer customer questions and never have customers waiting long

Incentivized

Absolutely top notch! They were always there to help and immediately. Very happy with the communication they provided and the knowledge they had of their product. I would venture to say that they are one of the best in terms of support in their space.

Incentivized

This training was done in-house, but the Airtable team provided resources and how to guides to ensure that we covered all components of the system

Incentivized

Recorded trainings were provided by the Airtable team. Great as an evergreen resources to new team members and for anyone that wants to refresh their Airtable knowledge

Incentivized

Training all users was an important part of the implementation, which did take considerable time and effort. At first glance without training, the content calendar can be overwhelming because of the amount of data. The features within Airtable seem to be endless but our team was able to identify the most important to be successful.

Implementation was moderately difficult, it's the functionality and execution that are seriously lacking

Incentivized

Airtable is the most user-friendly and adaptive. It's UX/UI is the most aesthetically pleasing (which matters a lot if its what you're staring at every day), and the customizability of having different views and perspectives of the same record is extremely helpful. It's also a great cloud-based storage place for marketing materials, as it goes beyond simple storage - you can group together, make notes, connect, and comment on assets.

Incentivized

I used Projul and Buildium when I was primarily managing rental properties rather than full home builds. Projul was great for estimating and invoicing, while Buildium served its purpose well at the time. Now, as a small construction company, Contractor Foreman provides everything we need in one platform, making project management much more efficient.

Incentivized

There are TONS of opportunity to scale, but I think it's a matter if you have the time and resources to do so because the initial setup can be fairly time consuming and prioritized dedication

Incentivized

We had just 2 users

Incentivized

• It gives us a real-time experience of working.
• Through this platform, I always have the idea bout which of my team member is working on which particular part of the project, I can easily track their progress, and also I can easily correct them where it is required by adding sticky notes, by sending the attachments and URLs.
• Quality services.

Incentivized

• Cost Savings. Integration with QuickBooks and Bills improved financial control. 0-15% cost savings per project.
• Time Savings: Streamlined project management led to a 20-30% reduction in administrative time, boosting on-site productivity, and with project tracking a 15-20% reduction in project delays.
• Enhanced Collaboration: Centralized documentation and real-time updates improved team communication, increasing collaboration by 5-10%.
• Overall, CF has provided a 10-15% return on investment annually through increased efficiency and cost control.

Incentivized