Planyard Reviews

A great construction costing solution

Comments: When I came across Planyard, I knew that this was the piece of software that I had been looking for, for some time. I use cloud accounting software Xero and Quickbooks but they don’t have specific construction-based costing tools. They have project management costing tools but they are quite basic and don't have the level of detail and functionality that construction companies need. Planyard solves this and its made a massive difference to the service I can provide for my clients. The great thing about Planyard is that it saves so much time through automation, it eliminates potential errors and it provides real time data, so no wasted time! Subcontract orders, purchase orders and other project documents are put through the system and emailed direct to the subcontractors and the suppliers. They then submit their applications and invoices via the portal so the data entry is already done for you! I'm all for an easy life :). There's so much functionality to the software and new bits are added all the time.

Pros:

Its automated so it significantly reduces data entry. It eliminates many potential errors, for example that you would get on Excel. The data is accessible real time to aid cost control and decision making. Expensive QS's/PM's can focus on value added activities rather than filling out spreadsheets. If a QS leaves, the data is there and it's easy for a new QS to take over. Eliminates estimating errors. Better & quicker cost control and sign off of variations from clients. It keeps being updated with new useful features.

Cons:

I didn't find it sooner! Some of the terminology was confusing but this has been updated now. And there is a detailed explanation attached to every box within the software. The support team are also very willing to help if you have any queries.

Ditch Excel and simplify your budget management and book-keeping for construction projects

Comments: Planyard has become and invaluable tool to keep on top of budgets, book-keeping and accounting. It also has the capacity to grow with us, having plenty of features that we do not use at the moment, but will clearly be beneficial as we increase the size and scale of our operations.

Pros:

Super helpful and responsive support staff who are the actual developers, not a call centre worker reading from a script. Planyard takes away a lot of the headaches from manual data entry and keeping spreadsheets up to date. Gives a clear and easy visual display of your construction budgets and links to xero so your bookkeeping is in sync with your spending and your budget.

Cons:

There have been a few niggles over time with functionality and usage, but the Planyard team have been quite remarkable at listening and improving the product almost in real-time in response to feedback from myself and others. As the product evolves it becomes better and better suited to the task in hand and is now an essential part of our workflow.

A good construction costing solution with a great customer support

Comments: With Planyard we found a good solution for submitting quotes, evaluating and comparing prices, placing orders and tracking progress on screen and through reports.
It is an excellent tool for cost control and now we can recognize the resources spent, assess the remaining resources and costs and identify the potential deviations.
Planyard has become an important tool to manage our projects and to provide information in time to our company's board.

Pros:

It´s an easy-to-use software and provides a clear control of your budget and linking to Xero will allow your accounting to be synchronized with the projects. With recent developments and improved features, it´s easy now to place purchase orders, valuations and manage subcontractors. The invoices upload and approval are accurate and intuitive and as soon as approved the documents are automatically sent to Xero. The Fizure team has been quite remarkable in listening to and improving the product in near real-time in response to feedback from myself and the entire team involved. Super helpful and qualified support team.

Cons:

The consolidation of information, namely the costs invoiced and incurred could be better, but it seems that improving this functionality is already on its roadmap.

Saves project managers a lot of time on data entry and reporting

Comments: Dealing with paper invoices and commitments seems like the stone age compared to Fizure.
Previously, when an error slipped into the budget, it was hard work tracking it down. No matter how small the error, it meant going through a tall stack of printed invoices one by one.
It also used to be hard to put together a budget review for the construction manager because the data was split between Excel and accounting software.
Now the entire budget is in Fizure and it's always up to date. I don't have to use Excel anymore which means less things to do. I can work on everything related to the budget in one place. I have literally saved several days per month using Fizure.
I didn't even need to look at the training videos, I pretty much got how the software works on my own. Even when I did have questions, the team at Fizure was quick to respond - no matter whether through in-app support chat or email.
The subcontractors have come along with the new software nicely as well

Pros:

I finally don’t have to work in Excel anymore or do duplicate data entry. The subcontractors do the work for me when they report progress through commitments or respond to RFQs. Fizure also does budget calculations for me. Everything is kept up to date and the forecasts work in real time. I don’t have to stay up all night to do the calculations manually when the month’s end approaches and everyone wants to get paid. Commitments and invoicing work great there. In addition I save around an hour per RFQ because Fizure automates this process and makes RFQs easily comparable. That adds up to several workdays per project.

Cons:

Processing consolidated invoices could be better but it seems fixing this is on their roadmap already.

Planyard is a great leap forward in my everyday work

Comments: For me personally, Planyard is an elementary tool, that provides a quick and operative overview and that visualizes the importance. I can not imagine, that I still had to manually track the invoices and enter them one by one on Excel to see my committed costs. That feels like the stone age. I would probably need to have a secretary who deals with the invoices if I was working via Excel.

Pros:

For those who are managing construction project budgets on Excel, Planyard is a great leap forward in terms of work comfort. You have automatically a real-time overview of the project costs. There is no need to sync invoices separately. Additionally, there is much less risk for human error. Information moves and saves automatically.

Planyard experience review

Comments: The software is fairly self explanatory and therefore easy to adapt so it has been a joy to use from the get go.

Pros:

The biggest advantage of Planyard is that it helped me move away from excel! Manually updating excel tables for project cost control is time consuming and also error prone. Using Planyard greatly simplifies the whole process saving time and energy that is best used elsewhere.

Cons:

As Planyard is a relatively new product it will take some time and effort to get the whole supply chain used to using it.

Great software with great customer support

Comments: My experience with this software has been great. The customer service is quick to answer and helpful. It is easy to use and still lets me save time, so what's not to like about that. A software I would recommend and will continue to use. I Enjoy the fact that it saves me so much time by comparing the prices by itself because before it took up so much of my time.

Pros:

What I like most is the logical and easy structure of the software. It is frankly quite easy to use and helps me save time by doing the mathematics for me. It is well organized and helps everybody involved to be on the same page. In addition you can slightly customize it to make sure you see information that is important to you but still keep you updated on what your colleges are up to. Without reading the manual it is easy to grasp what is going on and once you have done some command or task it is like you have worked on it for years.

Cons:

There really aren't any aspects of the software that I don't like. I really enjoy using it.

Planyard makes our projects financials easy

Comments: project financials

Pros:

We were looking a long time for a software that covers our complete workflow. With Planyard we found a good solution for making estimates, send bid requests, evaluate the prices, make orders and follow up progress reports. This makes our project financials easier and always up to date.

Cons:

We would like to have a better tool for specification sheets. Seems like they are going to start developing this part in the near future. So fingers crossed.

User experience

Comments: Fizure will help monitoring and handling the project better than any other software I have tried

Pros:

At Hitachi ABB Power Grids, my responsibility is building power grids and substations on time and budget. We use spreadsheets to manage everything from estimating through subcontractors' progress reporting and budget tracking. Updating spreadsheets is a dull task where a simple mistake could easily be very Expensive. I have been using Fizure for 6 months and managed the whole subcontractor billing process on the system, where the subcontractor submits the monthly progress reports along with the change orders for review. I don't have to do any data entry, I just review and approve, and the progress report is processed, and the budget is automatically updated. Fizure helps me to have a better overview of my project, and there is no delay in tracking the project's current status.

Cons:

The numbers in the budget didn't seem to be realistic. But with the help of a Fizure consultant, we were quickly able to find the approved invoice that was causing the trouble. This invoice was approved while testing the system, and with a simple Archive, we were able to fix the numbers.

No more excel files with Planyard !!

Comments: generally ok !

Pros:

Thanks to planyard , i used excel less frequently !!

Cons:

didnt understand some terminology however customer team helped me on this.

Review Hausers

Comments: Helps track and approve all budget with all costs and contracts. It´s easy to get involved with subcontractors and sendand approve commitments. This is good programm to use instead of Excel.

Pros:

Itś easy to use, saves time. Easy to track costs.

Cons:

It is new program and very often need to contact with developer to solve some issues.

Easy to use budget tracking

Comments: Very easy to use, user friendly & the team at Planyard are very approachable and friendly. They are quick to answer questions & implement new ideas and requests.

Pros:

The ability to see day-in and day-out your current spent, projected costs & committed costs on any given construction projects.

Cons:

The pricing structure is a little strange but the mid-tier pricing we went with for our project suits our needs perfectly.