What do you need the software to answer?
Start with questions, not features. For a developer or a general contractor the useful questions are: where are we against the plan, what will the project look like in a month, and where is money going out faster than the work moves. A tool that cannot answer them is a document store, however good its features are.
Write down the three decisions you want to make a week sooner, then test every product against them on one real project. A demo on a polished sample project proves little about your data.
Which criteria matter most?
The table gives the criteria that decide most purchases, what to check for each one, and what the vendor should be able to show you before you sign.
| Criterion | What to check | Ask the vendor to show |
|---|---|---|
| Scope | Does it cover the decisions you named, or a wide platform of which you would use a third? | A live or realistic project answering one of your questions |
| Price model | Is the price published? Is it per user, per project, or based on volume? | The yearly total for your projects, with every option you need included |
| Users | Do site staff, subcontractors and investors need paid seats? | The cost of adding a subcontractor and a bank viewer |
| Forecasts | How is an end date or a final cost calculated, and from which facts? | The formula, and what the product does when a fact is missing |
| Audit trail | Can a figure be changed or deleted without a trace? | The activity log, and a corrected entry in it |
| Site reporting | How do site facts reach the office, and how are they checked? | A site entry with a photo, and a flagged entry |
| Currencies | Can costs and bids be in more than one currency, converted by date? | A foreign currency invoice converted into the project currency |
| Start time | How long until a project runs, and who has to do the set up? | A test project set up by you during the trial, with the time noted |
| Data export | Can you take all your data out at any time, in a usable form? | A full export of a test project, opened in a spreadsheet |
| Integrations | Which systems must it work with, and is the link live or a manual import? | A customer you can call who uses that link |
What questions should you ask vendors?
Ask the questions in writing, and keep the answers. A good vendor answers them without a slide deck.
- Which decisions does your product make earlier, and how do you know?
- How is every forecast calculated? Show me the formula and the facts it needs.
- When someone changes a figure, is the old value kept, and who can see the history?
- Who can see which project? Does the database enforce this, or only the screens?
- What will I pay in a year for my projects, including users, support and every option I need?
- Which of my data can I export, and does the export still work after a trial ends?
- Which parts of the product are not built yet?
- Can it run next to the tools I already use, or does it need to replace them?
What are the red flags?
Some signs should end the conversation early, or at least slow it down:
- No published price, and no way to see one without a sales call.
- Forecasts with no stated method, or a percent complete that nobody can trace to a dated fact.
- Figures that can be overwritten with no history kept.
- AI that writes to the records directly, with no person approving the change.
- Every hard question answered with "on the roadmap", and no demo on realistic data.
- Per user pricing that rises as the team grows, when the team is mostly site staff and subcontractors.
- A trial that needs a card and a sales call before you can start.
- Claims of being the best, with no customer you can ask.
How do the main options compare?
The main options fall into five groups. The facts about other products below come from the comparison page on the Reperline site, which takes them from each vendor's own website. Terms change, so confirm them with the vendor.
- Procore: a broad platform for documents, drawings, RFIs and submittals, sold as separate products, with an annual fee per product based on your annual construction volume and unlimited users.
- Buildertrend: an all in one system built mainly for home builders and remodelers, also used by commercial and trade contractors, with a custom quote.
- Autodesk Forma Build: a construction management platform for project, cost, quality and safety, connected to Autodesk design tools, with a published starting price and several pricing options.
- Spreadsheets and chats: free and flexible, with no control over who changes what.
- ERP and accounting systems: the books, recording what has happened after it is paid.
How does Reperline compare, and where is it the wrong choice?
Reperline is a thin control layer over schedule, budget, tenders, sales contracts and signals. It is priced at €39 a month per project, or €199 for Project Pro, with Enterprise on request and unlimited users on every plan. It is not a document platform and not an accounting system. Procore is the better choice when you need one system for documents and field workflows across many large projects. Buildertrend fits a business that sells directly to homeowners.
Terms such as forecast spend and signal are defined in the glossary, so the vendors you talk to can be held to the same words.
The full comparison sets Reperline against each alternative, with a section on where each one is stronger. It also lists what Reperline does not do: drawings, models, RFIs, submittals, estimating, quality and safety inspections, accounting, payroll and a time clock.
How does Reperline handle the questions above?
The answers to the questions above can be checked in the product itself. Forecasts are shown with their method: spend is invoiced plus committed, and a milestone end is its start plus the time elapsed, divided by the share of work done. Missing data is shown as missing. Every change is kept in an activity log that cannot be edited, and the owner can export every table as CSV in one ZIP file, including after a trial ends.
Reperline has gaps, and you should weigh them before you buy. There is no direct integration with Procore, Autodesk or accounting systems today, so the schedule comes in as a PDF and the budget is entered by hand or moved in for you on Project Pro. A budget cannot be imported from Excel yet, and two factor authentication is not available. The budget module, the schedule module and the signals module describe what is built.
The best test is the free trial. It runs for 14 days, needs no card, and the project runs the same day it is set up. Put one real project through the three questions you wrote down at the start, and see whether the answer is clear. Prices are on the pricing page. For the method behind the budget figures, read construction cost control: plan, actual and forecast.