Enterprise DNA

Instead of Buildxact

Stop renting Buildxact. Own your job costing system.

We build your version around how you quote, cost and claim, bring your Buildxact data across, and run it for you. No plan tiers, and the system is yours.

Buildxact's own pricing runs US$199 to $599 a month, up to US$7,188 a year billed monthly.

Get your version built See it working
  • check_circleYour data in a database you own
  • check_circleOpen source, no lock-in
  • check_circleBuilt and run by Enterprise DNA

What you are paying for

Construction software is priced by the plan. Underneath, it is eleven kinds of record

Buildxact's own pricing page runs US$199 to $599 a month, $2,388 to $7,188 a year, and the family climbs from there: Buildertrend no longer publishes a price at all, and quotes each builder on a sales call by annual construction volume. What a residential builder holds is ordinary: clients, jobs, budget lines, costs, purchase orders, variations, claims, subbies, a schedule and a diary.

paid

A subscription that climbs plan by plan

Foundation, Pro, Master: US$199, $399, $599 a month, and the features you actually need sit in the upper tiers. The family is worse: Buildertrend hides its price behind a sales call and quotes by your annual construction volume, for the same handful of records.

lock

Job costing sold as the top shelf

Budget vs actual, work-in-progress reports, cost tracking: the reason a builder buys the software at all, gated behind the bigger plans. Here it is one database query, it counts committed purchase orders, and it names the line doing the damage.

extension

A whole suite to keep reading your own record

The takeoff tool earns its keep at quote time, but you pay for the full suite twelve months a year just to keep looking at your own jobs, claims and costs. Estimate wherever you like; the record is the part that runs the business.

dashboard

Dashboards that answer the vendor's questions

Lead boards, job screens, report menus: what the vendor decided to chart. The Tuesday question (which claim is overdue, which line is over, which subbie's insurance lapsed) is a sentence here, not a report hunt.

schedule

The compliance you carry alone

Section 362F written contracts, variations in writing, payment claims under the Construction Contracts Act, LBP records, retention trust money: the rules a New Zealand builder actually lives under. The incumbent stores documents; here nine rules run against your records with their sources cited, and the sharpest are enforced at the gate.

layers

Your history behind their login

Years of jobs, claims, variations and cost history live inside the vendor's system, reachable through their exports. Here it is a plain database you own: back it up, query it from anything, leave nothing behind when you change tools. A builder's liability tail is ten years; your record should outlive any subscription.

What you get instead

The same building business, over a database you own, with the gates kept sharp

The money in

Progress claims with the Construction Contracts Act built in

A claim is served with an amount and a due date, the ceiling is checked at the door, and an unpaid claim past due gets loud on its own.

  • check A claim never passes the contract plus APPROVED variations, and there is no force flag: the over-ceiling claim is the payment schedule dispute you lose
  • check Overdue claims sit at the top of the attention list with the days counting, and the chaser letter drafts itself, firm and factual
  • check The claim paperwork renders in your brand with the position to date and the approved variations listed: context that makes it hard to argue with
  • check An active job with costs mounting and nothing claimed for 30 days surfaces by itself: unclaimed work is an interest-free loan to the client

The money out

Budget vs actual that counts the money you have already promised

The estimate becomes the budget line by line. Costs land on lines, purchase orders commit money before the invoice arrives, and the report never flatters you.

  • check Committed purchase orders count against the line from the day they are issued, so a line does not look healthy for a month while the invoice is in the post
  • check A line going over is announced the moment the cost lands, with the overrun in dollars, and the three causes to pick from: scope creep, a rate rise, or waste
  • check Margin by job, worst first: contract plus approved variations, less actuals and committed, at today's numbers
  • check The job cost report renders per job in your brand: the bank's and the client's question answered in advance

The paper

The gates that keep a builder out of disputes

The system refuses the shortcuts that end in adjudication. Every refusal explains itself, and every one has a paper trail instead of a force flag.

  • check A quote at $30,000 or more does not become an active job without a signed written contract date: section 362F of the Building Act, enforced at the door
  • check No variation work, and no claiming it, until the variation is approved in writing, with the name of who said yes on the record
  • check A subbie with expired public liability does not get assigned, and restricted building work is refused without an LBP number on record
  • check The site diary is one command, and in a dispute it is the defence: instructions, delays, promises, weather, all dated

Your data

A database you own, any agent, and an import that audits as it lands

Runs on a laptop with no database to set up, or on your own database for the whole company. Works with Claude Code and other AI assistants: the database is what matters, the assistant is just the way in.

  • check Import clients, jobs and cost history from Buildxact's own Excel exports in one command, dry run first
  • check The import is the first audit: $30,000+ jobs with no contract signed date and cost categories with no budget behind them are loud the moment it finishes
  • check Nine compliance rules with their sources in a file you can read and change, from s362F to retention trust money
  • check MIT licence, plain records in your own database, and a whole-database export in one command: the ten-year record outlives any vendor

Make it yours

Design your own Buildxact replacement

Everything starts from the open-source base. Then it gets your name, the parts you run, your rules and your data from Buildxact. Try it here, and we build the real one.

2. What it runs

3. Make it fit

4. Your colour

Your business · your Buildxact replacement Your version
YB Your business

auto_awesome

Answered from your own database

Build my version

We build it from the open-source base, bring your Buildxact data across and run it for you.

What it looks like

Ask it like you would ask a colleague

Real answers from the demo data that ships with Builders for Claude Code. It runs in Claude Code inside the Claude app, so it feels like any chat you already use.

forum

Builders for Claude Code

Connected to your own database

What jobs need my attention or a decision right now?

Needs a decision (11)

Claim overdue

Record
PC-405
Who
Sarah and Mike Donovan
Where
Donovan New Build
Days
10
Detail
88,000 claimed 2026-08-31, due 2026-09-14: 10 days overdue. The Act gives you...

Variation unapproved

Record
VAR-204
Who
Sarah and Mike Donovan
Where
Donovan New Build
Days
9
Detail
proposed 2026-09-15 at 12,600: no variation work, and no claiming it, until i...

Insurance expired

Record
Brightlin...
Where
JOB-102 Ngata Kitchen...
Days
15
Detail
electrical with public liability expired 2026-09-09, assigned to an active jo...

Budget over

Record
JOB-101
Who
Sarah and Mike Donovan
Where
Framing
Detail
111,400 actual + committed against 96,000 budgeted (15,400 over): the margin ...

Retention due

Record
JOB-100
Who
Redwood Lane Ltd
Where
Redwood Lane Townhouse
Days
75
Detail
13,800 retention held, job complete 2026-07-11: release it or account for it,...

Quote stale

Record
JOB-104
Who
Bayview Property Trust
Where
Bayview Duplex
Days
21
Detail
quoted 2026-09-03 at 1,240,000 with no decision for 21 days: ring them or los...

Claim gap

Record
JOB-103
Who
Tom and Priya Shaw
Where
Shaw Extension
Days
38
Detail
no progress claim for 38 days while costs run at 58,600: work done and unclai...

PO aged

Record
PO-301
Who
Carters Tauranga
Where
JOB-101 Donovan New B...
Days
34
Detail
open 34 days at 22,000: bill it, chase it, or cancel it, committed money shou...

Task late

Record
JOB-101
Who
Harbour City Roofing
Where
Roof cladding complete
Days
3
Detail
should have finished 2026-09-21 (3 days ago): every late task pushes the clai...

Job quiet

Record
JOB-103
Who
Tom and Priya Shaw
Where
Shaw Extension
Days
18
Detail
no site diary entry for 18 days: in a dispute, the diary is the defence, and ...

Insurance expiring

Record
Pacific P...
Where
JOB-101 Donovan New B...
Days
21
Detail
plumbing public liability expires 2026-10-15: chase the renewal certificate now

Ask it anything

Questions Buildxact cannot answer

Every one of these is a real question the demo answers today. Yours will be different, and that is the point.

chat_bubble Which claims are past their due date right now, how many days, and what did the client last promise?
chat_bubble What is the total value of variation work we are exposed on because nobody has approved it in writing?
chat_bubble Which subbie on which active site has expired public liability insurance today?
chat_bubble Which budget line on which job is doing the most margin damage, and is it scope creep, a rate rise, or waste?
chat_bubble Which active job has gone longest without a progress claim while costs kept landing?
chat_bubble How much retention are we holding past the defects period, job by job, and when should each have been released?
chat_bubble Which quotes are going cold, what is each worth, and what did the diary say the client was waiting on?
chat_bubble What is our real forecast margin per job type: new builds against renovations against extensions?
chat_bubble Which restricted building work on our sites has no LBP number recorded against it?
chat_bubble If this job ends in a dispute, what does the site diary actually say happened, week by week?

Switching

How to switch from Buildxact

Moving off Buildxact is mostly an export, an import and a short period of checking the numbers match before you cancel the subscription.

  1. 1

    Export your records from Buildxact

    In Buildxact, export what your account allows, usually the leads, estimates, jobs, contacts and clients screens plus your estimate costings, to Excel or CSV. Check with Buildxact on exactly which screens export in your plan. This is your clients, your jobs from quote to handover, and the cost history behind each budget, the same record the new system expects.

  2. 2

    Run the import as a dry run

    Import your Buildxact clients, jobs and costs files, doing a test run first. It shows what would load without writing anything, so you can catch a bad file or a missing column before it touches your records. Once it looks right, run the import again to load the data for real.

  3. 3

    Check what the import flags

    The import is the first audit, not just a copy. It will call out a job worth $30,000 or more with no signed contract date on record, and a cost category with no budget line behind it. Go through these before you trust the numbers. This is usually the point where a builder finds out what Buildxact was quietly letting through.

  4. 4

    Run both side by side briefly

    Keep Buildxact live for a short stretch while you work from the new record day to day. Check a claim, a budget line and a variation against what Buildxact shows for the same job. Once the numbers agree and your team is comfortable using the attention, jobs and budget views instead of the old dashboard, you are ready to stop.

  5. 5

    Switch off Buildxact

    Cancel the Buildxact subscription once you have confirmed the data checks out and your team is working from the new system. Your job record now sits in a database you own, readable by any tool, with no export request and no access ending when a subscription does.

construction

Where the real effort goes

The real work is not the export or the import, it is deciding how your own fields and rules should carry across, and how much job history you actually want to bring in versus leave behind in an archive. That decision is specific to how you run contracts, variations and claims today. Enterprise DNA does this mapping and the migration itself when you have them install and run it for you.

Not ready for a call?

Get your Buildxact switch plan by email

We will send you the step-by-step plan for moving your business off Buildxact, what the move really involves, and how we would do it for you.

One email with your plan. No spam, and you can unsubscribe any time.

Two ways to run it

Run it yourself, or have it run for you

Open source

Run it yourself

Free

  1. 1 Clone the repo
  2. 2 npm run demo, then open the folder in Claude Code
  3. 3 Type /attention
  4. 4 Import your Buildxact exports and point it at your own database
Get it on GitHub

Omni by Enterprise DNA

Have Enterprise DNA install it

One setup fee, then a monthly retainer

  • check We migrate your clients, jobs, contract values and cost history from Buildxact
  • check We enter your live position: unpaid claims, open variations, the crew with their insurance dates
  • check We tune the gates to your contracts: your claim terms, your retention percentages, your standard form's variation rules
  • check It runs inside Omni, our managed Command Center, with the rest of your business
Book a discovery call

Questions

Instead of Buildxact, answered

Is it really free? expand_more

Yes. MIT licence. Run it anywhere, change anything, no account with us.

How do estimates get in without the takeoff tool? expand_more

Keep estimating with whatever you use today, including Buildxact's estimator if you keep a cheap seat for it, or a spreadsheet. The estimate's line totals are entered once per job, and from that moment the system runs the part the incumbent charges the most for: budget vs actual with committed money counted, claims under the ceiling, margin by job. The free version doesn't import line-item takeoffs from your estimator's export today. When Enterprise DNA builds your version, that import can be added.

Can it really handle progress claims? expand_more

The Construction Contracts Act machinery is built in: a claim is served with an amount and a due date, the total never passes the contract plus approved variations (the system won't let it through, no way to override that), overdue claims surface by themselves with the days counting, and the claim paperwork renders with the contract position and the approved variations listed. What it does not do is send anything or give legal advice: a person sends the claim, and whether a specific claim meets the Act is your call and your lawyer's.

What about Xero? expand_more

Xero stays your ledger. This is the job record: which job, which budget line, which claim. The export hands your accountant a full export of every record, and costs can be keyed from the invoice in seconds. The free version doesn't sync live with Xero today. When Enterprise DNA builds your version, that sync can be added.

What does the installed version add? expand_more

Migration from Buildxact, your live claims and variations entered, the gates tuned to your standard-form contract, your paperwork in your brand, your team shown the five commands that matter, and someone to call in week one. It runs alongside everything else Enterprise DNA runs for you.

Stop renting screens over your own jobs

30 minutes with Sam. We look at what your construction software costs a year, what your job record actually holds, and what the installed version would look like for your company. If it is a fit, we install it. If it is not, take the free version and run it yourself.

Book a discovery call Get the free version

Builders for Claude Code is free and open source, published by Enterprise DNA.

Done paying for Buildxact?

Get your version built