Migrating from Buildertrend to Cornerstone PM: Step-by-Step Guide
Most production home builders can complete a full migration from Buildertrend to Cornerstone PM in 3–5 business days — with no data loss, no IT contractor, and no interruption to active builds. Here's exactly how to do it.
If you've been evaluating your options, you've probably already read our full Buildertrend alternative breakdown. This post is the operational follow-through: a practical, step-by-step migration guide for the builder who's made the decision and wants to move fast without breaking anything.
Before you start: what actually needs to migrate?
Most Buildertrend migrations are simpler than builders expect. The data that matters:
- Vendor and subcontractor list — names, contact info, trade assignments
- Schedule templates — your master task sequences and predecessor logic
- Active lots and communities — which builds are in progress
- Purchase orders in flight — save PDFs; Cornerstone will issue new POs going forward
What you do notneed to migrate: Buildertrend's historical photos, old warranty tickets, or archived messages. Start clean on those. The operational data is what drives the transition.
The 7-step migration
Step 1
Export your Buildertrend data
In Buildertrend, export your contacts and vendor list as CSV files (Settings → Contacts → Export). For schedule templates, export via the Schedule section — you'll use this as a reference when rebuilding in Cornerstone, not a direct import. Save PDFs of any active POs for your records. This takes about 30 minutes.
Step 2
Set up communities in Cornerstone PM
Create one Community per subdivision, development phase, or project type. This is the foundation of how Cornerstone organizes your work — floor plans, vendor assignments, and schedule templates all live under a community. The key advantage over Buildertrend: you can assign different subcontractors per community. Your framer in Meadowbrook can be different from your framer in Ridgeview, and Cornerstone tracks them separately without any manual override gymnastics.
Step 3
Build your schedule templates
Using your exported Buildertrend schedule as a reference, rebuild your master schedule template inside Cornerstone's schedule builder. Set up predecessor relationships — Cornerstone automatically calculates projected start dates across the entire sequence and pushes notifications to subcontractors when their predecessor task is marked complete. Most production schedules (30–50 tasks) take under two hours to configure. Build one template per floor plan model, then clone and adjust for community-specific variations.
Step 4
Migrate vendors and contacts
Import your subcontractor list via CSV, then assign each vendor to their trade scope and community. Cornerstone's vendor portal is token-protected — no login required for your subs. Once a vendor is assigned to a community scope, they automatically receive bid requests and portal invites when relevant. The platform supports multiple accepted bids per scope across different communities, so your real-world vendor relationships map directly to the data model.
Step 5
Configure floor plans and purchasing
Upload your floor plan PDFs and run Blueprint AI to extract material scopes automatically — typically 130+ line items in under 60 seconds. Review the extracted data, link vendor pricing, and configure option classes for your design center. This replaces the manual catalog maintenance you were doing in Buildertrend — usually saving several days of initial setup work.
Step 6
Onboard your team
Invite your superintendent, sales rep, and purchasing manager. Cornerstone uses role-based permissions — supers see the schedule and field tasks, sales see the pipeline and buyer portal, purchasing sees POs and vendor bids. Nobody gets dropped into a platform with 40 modules they'll never use. Most teams are comfortable navigating independently within a day.
Step 7
Go live on your next active build
Don't try to migrate every active build simultaneously. Start one new lot in Cornerstone — create it from your imported schedule template, assign vendors from the community defaults, send the buyer their portal link. Run it in parallel with Buildertrend for one build cycle if you need the confidence. Most teams are fully off Buildertrend within 30 days of going live on their first Cornerstone lot.
What about active builds in Buildertrend?
For homes that are already under construction in Buildertrend, finish them there. There's no value in mid-stream migration on a build that's 60% complete. Use the overlap period — typically 2–6 weeks depending on your pipeline — to run new starts in Cornerstone and let active builds close naturally in Buildertrend. By the time your last Buildertrend lot closes, your team will be fully fluent in Cornerstone.
How is this different from the Buildertrend onboarding process?
Buildertrend's onboarding typically runs 4–8 weeks and requires working through their structured implementation program. Cornerstone PM has no mandatory onboarding queue — you set up your account, build your first template, and start a lot. No waiting for a customer success manager to schedule your next call.
The biggest practical difference: Cornerstone is built for production builders specifically. The community model, vendor bid workflow, and design center are designed around how production builders actually operate — not adapted from a general-contractor tool. For a detailed feature comparison, see the full Buildertrend vs Cornerstone PM breakdown.
Ready to make the switch?
Cornerstone PM is currently in free beta for early adopters. There's no implementation fee, no IT setup, and no 90-day onboarding queue. If you're a production home builder who's been paying Buildertrend $499+/month for a tool that wasn't designed for your workflow, the migration is worth the 3–5 days of setup time.
Switch from Buildertrend — no implementation fee, no waiting
Beta access is open now. Early adopters get two years free. Full platform: scheduling, design center, purchasing, AI agents, buyer portal, and more.
Request Beta Access