BuildiumReviews of buildium.com

I'm still learning this program. There's parts of the program that I don't like. I am giving this a try for now.

Batch Reports - We send out the same reports every month but are unable to save these as a 'template' for repeat use. Yes, we can batch create, but I need to repeat the same process of batch creation EVERY month (or frequency of report). Report production is a process that should have full automation capability. In Yardi (competitor), one is able to save the report packet format and automate email delivery to the owner each month (or a frequency/day of month of your choosing). Originally on Quickbooks, and using their P&L YTD reports, this showed a 2 column report; Last Month & YTD. Buildium YTD report unable to provide same format: YTD report (on monthly basis) shows EVERY MONTH. In Yardi, one is able to amend order/remove individual columns to achieve the desired format. Again, could export the Buildium report to excel and then amend, but don't we choose SaaS to reduce workload? ePay - Signed up at $0.50 per incoming transaction then 2 weeks later was told the fee would be doubling to allow Buildium to establish in-house ePay customer service team. Was informed this was due to feedback that Forte (payment processor) customer service wasn't up to standard. I already pay Buildium for a service that includes customer service. Buildium management chose Forte as a partner, so why should Buildium customers have to foot the bill for bad management choice/inability to resolve Forte customer service standards? Forte remains the payment processor. Feels like Buildium is seeing the value in add-on services and exploiting these for revenue gain at the expense of their customers. Forte rent payments appear in bank account with NO information related to the original sender (tenant). Have to print out an ePay report and then cross-reference and amend bank account entries to reflect TRUE payee. Subscribing to ePay eliminated some workflows but created others. There is no net-positive for a costed service (which doubled in price) but it's now almost impossible to get our tenants to switch back to checks. Bulk payments - When receiving rent payments, we are able to complete these in bulk as page allows entry of associated information for each payment. These then appear as individual entries on the ledger/accounts. Great! When trying to pay bills in 'bulk', unable to enter individual line item information such as check number, memo, date, instead forced to select multiple bills with one associated memo, date. This then appears in the account statement with no breakdown of line items. Result is that we need to make payments against individual bills (tedious & time consuming). Possible to 'import' via excel spreadsheet but unable to attach copy bills via this method. Buildium is great for some things; ability to schedule future rents, and have these charges automatically reflect in the tenant ledger link to banking provider for automatic account reconciliation etc. Yardi is best for some features, Buildium for others. We need a solution that combines the best of both providers.

Used to always be 5 stars, but as they have added new features many of the old ones have broken or become much harder to use. The customer support has declined considerably as well unless you get lucky enough to catch a good rep. The new login authentication is terrible and has rendered the application practically useless in some of my properties because I can no longer login. I have begun shopping for new software for myself and all my clients/condo associations.

I’ve been using Buildium for a few years now and have for the most part found it functional and reliable. It’s not always been easy to reach someone on phone support when I have a question and there have been a few functionality issues that have been disappointing. The latest updates have made things more intuitive and user-friendly and the mobile app is simple and easy to use. I own and manage around 80 units both commercial and residential and although it’s very comprehensive on the residential side there is nothing specific for commercial, in fact you have to treat your commercial units as if they were residential. The payment option is one of the reasons I moved to a online management system however I’ve been disappointed that the latest word is they are going to double the fees for ACH payments. I’ve occasionally used the e-signature function and would use it more except that you have to pay every time you use it. I was also looking forward to being able to offer renters insurance to my teneants but I was disappointed that Buildium did not share any of the insurance premium with me the owner but rather used the platform that I am paying for to sell additional products to my tenants. With regards to technical support I am very unimpressed with the feature, bug or enhancement management system. There seems to be no clear or easy way to make an enhancement request. I will continue to use the program and will do so for the near term but I’m always keeping my eye out to alternatives due to the issues I’ve listed above. On the whole the program has been a big help to me as prior to this I only manage my properties on paper.

The platform is decent and they continue to add features. The customer service TAKES FOREVER. 30 minutes on the phone minimum at all times to get a response. Very frustrating when you have hiccups that need to be taken care of.

The great thing about Buildium is that they offer entry level/ala cart pricing that is great when you are just getting started. The ability to have an electronic payment processing system from day 1 has been huge. That being said, the system is not very intuitive and can be very frustrating. I’ve spent a lot of time with tech support trying to figure out the workflow of the system. They have teaching videos but they aren’t very helpful besides the absolute basics. Other features are frustrating, for example I cannot send my company an ETF for our management fees. I literally have to write myself a check every month. Another frustrating feature is the “company financials.” What seemed like a fantastic feature when I purchased the product is useless because it makes you manually enter every transaction separately from the rest of the software. For example, if I record collecting management fees it doesn’t show up on my company financials...I must manually enter it.

Your pricing is too high

The program is fairly straight forward in terms of use but it is a bit choppy to create a simple procedure for tasks. The app is tough to find the info you need and certainly does not give a full view of information. The accounting processes are not smooth. My recommendation to people would be: "I like the program and will continue to use it as it is economical for our company at this stage. However as we grow I will be looking to other software that I feel will better suit our needs. The customer service has been good in the sense that they are friendly and fairly prompt. However I have had a major issue with there affiliate for eft's and do not feel that this was handle well by the affiliate for sure and somewhat by Buildium."