Google Drive. Subdivide in to the pieces you need. You can set permissions at each or top levels.

OR look at the pay app Builder Trend.

Regarding decisions. A single point to collect initialed changes or decisions, and track by date/number. Boil down lengthy email discussions into simple tasks.

It would help to incorporate a set of construction plans for notations and location references. Back in the olden days that’s where ( on paper bluelines) these types of issues would have been jotted down.

Also, include digital photos obviously.

Thanks all. Our builder sort of uses BuilderTrend but it does not have a good issues tracker. I sort of because though they've been setting it up for each project they've found it not very useful except for posting photos of project status.

We are currently using shared Excel. Several problems with this. I had to make myself the only person who can write to it because it is too easy for others to accidentally modify/delete stuff. It requires a bit of manual time and effort on my part to resort and reformat when updates are made. It is very poor with relational tasks (e.g., a single task line might then have multiple comments over a period of time.)

I believe all of these problems would be the same w/ OneNote.

Building a simple shared database would be a good solution but I do not have the time to do that right now.

Good idea about photos. Many issues are better understood via photo.

With OneNote, and I'm pretty sure Excel-online, you can share read-only. Log in with your Live account, and go to: https://office.live.com/start/Excel.aspx

You can make your spreadsheet in there (or paste in from your local copy). Then click the "Share" button in the upper-right and invite people. The default is to share with Edit permissions, but you can change that to View-only.

Google Docs spreadsheet has the same functionality if you're a Google-type of person. :-)

Thanks Brad. That's what we're doing now. Everyone has read access, I have read/modify/write.

And there is one of the issues.... control. Volume of materials is another.

I used BT in both the mid 2000s and tried again 2018+6 months. Nicely organized BUT to really take advantage of it one needs a dedicated employee (both my observations and another builder who uses still). If I'm going to do that, not a lot of reason to pay for the subscription.

From the builder's perspective, the builder must have the edit control for the stuff on their side. Contract, allowances, decisions, changes, etc. One source of approved (signed) construction documents.

The rest, whether you or the builder controls it, is correspondence (wish lists, requests, etc).

I think you hit on one of the core bits - ease of use. Value/Benefit vs effort. BT does need to look at making it easier for people to use and for there to be value in it. If it makes a project managers or customers life easier or less stressful.

Control. Yes. Whoever creates an issue (I think the list I'm thinking of is not limited to tasks but includes tasks to be done, ideas to be discussed, decisions to be made, things to be checked, etc.) should be the only person who can modify the issue itself. Others can add comments.

It seems to me that you're looking for a project management tool. Your builder should have that, should be using it to manage the project, and to keep you informed.

Nope, this is totally different than project management. Project mgmt manages known defined tasks and dependencies. This is more of a combo to-do list, decision tree, discussion forum.

As i understand you monitor and track your issues in a spreadsheets. Fizure is web-based budget tracking and job cost tracking software. Central dashboard allows you to keep an eye on project profitability, along with project cost estimates and how they change over time. And it suits with Apple devices ;)

You can upload your spreadsheet to Fizure and you’ll have a clear overview of the costs of the job stages and how costs are progressing in comparison with your plans, including how project end costs and profitability are changing.

@opaone, you can purchase project management software that is schedule focused e.g., Microsoft Project. You can purchase software that is more punchlist focused, e.g., FinishLine or you can (my recommendation) purchase software that fully integrates scheduling, communication, to-do lists, photos, checklists, etc. such as Builder Trend which was suggested by another poster.

Your builder--unless they've been under a rock for the past couple of years--should be using one of these programs to manage your project, keep things organized, and keep you informed. If you need to take on the project manager's role, I suspect you've got a problem that software won't fix.