See the how BuildBook is continuing to simplify construction software with our latest features, product improvements, and bug fixes.
April 30, 2021
Sample project template, inline video playback, and improvements
New Feature
Feature Enhancement
New
Sample Project for new users - see what a fully-finished project looks like and copy it as your own with a Sample Project.
Inline video playback - watch uploaded videos inline with a video player instead of having to download the video.
Improvements and fixes
Lots of bug fixes in the Budget where adding and editing certain items wasn’t autosaving
Selection items that are deleted weren’t updating - this has been fixed
Base Costs description in Budget now auto-expands to fit text
Resolved error on Android when downloading a PDF or image
Resolved an issue in Chat where typing @ and then hitting enter would send the message instead of inserting the person’s name. This has been fixed so that if the @mention menu is open, pressing enter will select the person, not send the message.
Improvements to activity feed, chat messages, logs, and more
Feature Enhancement
Improvements and fixes
Project Activity Feed - the auto-generated Project Activity Feed now shows all activity in the project back to day one.
Chat - BuildBook chat now allows you to delete messages. Just click the three dots next to the time on any message and click Delete. After sending a message, the keyboard now stays up so that another message can be sent right away. Also, the bottom project nav now reappears after sending a message.
Page titles - Added page titles for the main pages within a project so you can easily see and bookmark pages.
Improved Photos Only view in Logs -Photos view in your Daily Logs got a big upgrade with two columns and a cleaner look.
Improved Project List Sorting - sort your project list in alphabetical ascending or descending order by Name, Type, and Last Updated.
Default Sorting -the default sort has been updated to alphanumeric for everything except Tasks, which still sort by date created.
File names on mobile - fixed an issue where long file names weren't wrapping properly on mobile
Bug fix - edited names of certain selection items weren't saving
Mobile PDF multi page preview - updated file previewer on mobile to allow multi-page view of files with more than one page.
Project Templates! This has been by far the number one feature request and we are so thrilled to get it into your hands. Now you can create new projects from templates, saving hours and ensuring consistency from project to project. Even better - any existing project can serve as the basis for a template, so the work you’ve already put in will be well worth it.
Improvements and fixes
Chat - chat box wasn't auto-expanding with longer text. This is now fixed
Chat - keyboard stays visible after sending messages on mobile
Bug fix - selection Item and Selection Category names weren't saving in some instances
Comments - text box now auto-expands with longer text. Added a dedicated "send" button that appears when the field is focused. Hitting enter will insert a line break.
Image thumbnails - created compressed image variants to optimize download time
New UI, chat upgrades, login updates for mobile, and more
New Feature
Feature Enhancement
New
New user interface -BuildBook now has a much cleaner look and feel to be consistent with the new projects interface.
"Send" icon in chat - added a “send” icon in the chat on mobile and web that functions just like when you’re texting.
Multiple image and document uploads - you can now attach multiple images or documents at once - both on the web and on the mobile app. Plus, we implemented a series of performance optimizations to make images load faster within the app after they’ve been added.
Improvements and fixes
Schedule - improvements to how the schedule is displayed when it is loaded and also cleaned up some small bugs when making drag/drop edits to schedule items.
Login updates for mobile - for some users, there was a small bug that was forcing them to login every time they opened the app. This has been fixed in the latest version of our mobile app for iOS and Android (v1.2).
Newly released features for budget tracking and selections management are now live!
The Budget has 5 key sections:
Base Costs: Fixed costs associated with the job that you can set up based on how you prefer to structure your client-facing budget
Selection Categories: Within the budget, you can track both the original allowance as well as the actual amounts once selections have been made
Change Orders: Change orders can be created as "draft" and then marked as "approved" once the client agrees - only approved change orders have an impact on the budget
Credits: Document any discounts, write-offs, or any other items that you need to reverse out of your budget
Payments: Log any payments that the client has made, or will be making, so that the client always sees an accurate view of their projected outstanding balance
Selections are made up of Categories and Items
Categories are containers to organize related items (e.g. - Cabinets, Paint, Tile, etc). You set allowances here.
Items belong to a category and are a place to capture the details of each individual decision (e.g. - Kitchen cabinets, master bath shower tile, etc). You track actual costs here.
