At Buildertrend, we understand that keeping clients informed takes time—sometimes, a lot of time. However, it's one of the most valuable services a builder can provide.

Client Updates streamlines this process, allowing your team to deliver consistent, high-quality updates in an efficient manner. Each weekly update provides clients with a summary of completed tasks, ongoing work, upcoming items for the next week, and any action items they need to complete to keep the project on track.

First, select the job you'd like to see the Client Update populate for.  

Next, navigate to the Project Management header and select the Client Updates tab.

 

Updates offer a one-week look back at completed and ongoing work, along with a one-week look ahead at upcoming tasks.

Each week, a Client Update is automatically generated with a Ready for Review status. Click into the update to review or make edits. The update pulls in relevant information, including photos, schedule items, released change orders, selections, and invoices. 

On the right, the Select related items panel organizes relevant information into Action items, In progress, and Completed sections. Select the checkboxes next to the items you'd like to include in your Client Update, or deselect any you'd prefer to leave out. You can also use the Select all to include all available items. 

Client Updates also offers a rich text editor, allowing you to format your notes with headers, bullet points, and numbered lists.

 

Saved updates display as a Draft status and appear in chronological order alongside published updates  

At this time, Full Admins are the only users who can preview and publish Client Updates.

You can set any photo as the cover photo by either dragging the desired photo to the front or clicking “Set Cover Photo” as you hover over the photo. We know the first photo gathered in the Client Update isn’t always the best, so this update gives you more flexibility in how you present the update to your client.

You can also rearrange and reorder your photos by dragging and dropping them into the desired order.

Once you've finalized your edits, select Preview to save your Client Update and ensure all relevant information is included. 

After previewing and ensuring all relevant data is included, click Publish to send it to your client.

Navigate to the Company Settings tab located under the User Profile Icon.

Then, select the Client Updates tab within the Project Management section to select which day you would like to send your Client Updates out.

The Update will generate data from the previous 7 days, starting with the weekday you select.

Clients can like the update to quickly show their appreciation for the Update.

Easily see when your clients have viewed the Update with Read Receipts.

Client Updates has the standard set of View, Add, Update and Delete permissions. They can be found under the Project Management section when viewing roles or editing custom roles within the user's profile.

Users with the following Roles will automatically have the Client Updates permissions enabled:

• Full Admin

• Project Manager

When you grant a user View access, they will automatically receive View access to the following related items:

• Tasks

• Daily Logs

• Change Orders

• Selections

• Schedules

• Invoices

At a minimum, View permissions are required for each related item. However, granting full permissions ensures the most effective use of Client Updates. Since related items can be accessed directly from the Client Update, they can be easily edited during its creation.