Migration · From Databuild
Moving off Databuild,
without a white-knuckle weekend.
A how-to, not a shortlist. What to bring across, what VIABUILD’s import tools actually read, the checklist, and how to run both systems until a live job agrees. If you are still choosing a replacement, start with the Databuild alternatives roundup.
01 / What this page is
The how-to after you have decided to leave
Databuild is a long-established Australian estimating-and-accounting system, and builders who have run it for years are not leaving a toy. The software is replaceable. The cost database, the assemblies, the cost codes and a decade of closed job history are not, at least not easily. This page is the mechanical work of that move onto VIABUILD. It is not a ranking of alternatives and it is not a head-to-head.
If you are still deciding whether to leave, or which category of product to shortlist, that work lives on Databuild alternatives. The dimension-by-dimension pairing is on VIABUILD vs Databuild. Come back here when the question has become “how do we bring the rates across”, not “should we”.
One thing we will not do on this page. We will not promise a Databuild export, or name a file format that Databuild will give you. That is their product and it changes. Confirm with them what you can take out while you are still a customer. Then bring across whatever you can already hold as a spreadsheet or a CSV, through the import tools VIABUILD actually has.
02 / The process
How the move runs
- 01
Gather what you can already pull out
List the files you can already get from your current setup: spreadsheets, CSVs, price lists, cost code lists and any reports you already run. Do not wait on a promised export format. Work with what you can hold in your own hands today.
- 02
Decide what is live and what is archive
Rates you still price against, suppliers you still buy from, and cost codes that still appear on jobs are live. Finished jobs, old claim packs and correspondence you may need in a defects period are archive. Archive stays readable where it is. Live data is what you bring across.
- 03
Tidy before you import
Delete rates nobody has priced against in two years, merge duplicate suppliers, and settle one unit for each item. Mapping dead rows costs the same as mapping live ones, and every dead row slows the next search.
- 04
Import in order: codes, then pricing, then assemblies
Cost codes come in from a CSV template first, so the spine of the job is in place. Price lists then upload as CSV or Excel and match row by row to products. A bulk product CSV upload creates the supplier contacts as it goes. Assemblies and estimate parameters have their own import after the items exist.
- 05
Connect Xero and import contacts
Link your Xero organisation and bring contacts across, so clients and suppliers are not keyed twice. Xero stays the ledger. VIABUILD runs the jobs and sends approved numbers to it.
- 06
Price a job you have already built, then run one live job in both
The first test has a known answer. Estimate a finished job in VIABUILD and compare it with what that job actually cost. Then run the next live job in both systems. When a claim, a variation and a month end agree, the old system becomes a read-only archive.
03 / The import tools
What VIABUILD actually reads
These are VIABUILD’s own imports, not a converter for another product’s file. Work with spreadsheets and CSVs you can already produce.
What does not come in as a file
There is no Databuild importer. A Buildertrend XLSX catalogue importer exists, but it does not read Databuild files. The work is mapping your structure onto VIABUILD’s catalogue, not pressing an import button labelled Databuild.
The catalogue is the rates database under every estimate: items with a code, a unit, a cost, a cost code and a default supplier. The price book is a different module, a library of whole priced builds you reuse. Products in this market use “price book” for both, which is worth settling before you map anything. What you are moving first is the catalogue.
Supplier price lists upload as CSV or Excel. The matcher reads construction rather than strings: dimensions, grades, treatments and units are canonicalised, and a row only applies itself on a decisive signal. A price that has moved by more than half, or a unit that disagrees, is handed back to you. That discipline matters more on a migration than on a quarterly update, because a wrong match at this scale corrupts the rates you will price from for years.
04 / The checklist
Import checklist
Print this, or copy it into a job note. The order is the point. Items before recipes, a known job before a live one, and the old system still running until the new one has survived a month end.
Before you start
Write down every file you can already export or download. Mark each one live or archive. Name the person who owns the price book after the move. Pick one finished job whose real cost you still trust, because that job is the test.
Files to have ready
A cost code list, a supplier and product price sheet, and the assemblies or recipes you still use. Spreadsheets and CSVs are what VIABUILD’s import tools read. If a file is a report summary rather than the underlying rows, it is not enough.
Import order
Cost codes first, from the CSV template. Then price lists and the bulk product CSV upload. Then assemblies and estimate parameters. Then Xero contacts. Items have to exist before a recipe that refers to them can land.
After the first import
Price the finished job you picked and compare it with actual cost. Connect Xero and push one real bill and one real claim. Run the next live job in both systems. Keep reaching the old records for defects and disputes. Do not switch the old system off until those checks hold.
05 / What to leave
The archive is not a failure. It is the plan.
The usual mistake is trying to bring everything. Closed jobs are the only honest source of the rates you should use next year, but they do not have to live in the new system to do that job. A summary report of finished jobs is useful. Rebuilding every closed job as a live record is weeks of work for a number you already have on paper.
Keep reaching past claims, approvals, variations and correspondence for as long as defects liability and any dispute after it might need them. Agree how you keep that access before anything is switched off. The moment you need those records is usually the moment the old login has lapsed.
Assemblies are the other place optimism goes to die. A square metre of a wall type that carries its studs, plates, sheeting and fixings is years of judgement encoded as a recipe. Those recipes are structured differently in every product. Expect to rebuild the ones you still use, from the items you have just imported, rather than hoping a file lands intact. Count how many you genuinely still price against before you budget the time.
06 / Who does the work
What you do, what we do
Start on your own data. Yearly plans include the mapping.
On the monthly plan you bring the files across with the import tools and our support. On yearly plans we sit with you on the mapping from your old structure to the catalogue, because that mapping is the real work. Either way the old system stays up. There is no big-bang weekend.
Larger builders and groups migrate a pilot set of live jobs first, with roles set before anyone logs in, then bring the rest of the team across once the pilot reconciles. That path is on enterprise and the training sits on implementation. Coming from spreadsheets rather than a system? Use moving from spreadsheets instead. The generic process for any platform is on migration.
- 7 days free, then $555/month including GST
- Self-migrate with the import tools on the monthly plan
- On yearly plans we do the mapping with you
- Cost codes, price lists, products, assemblies and templates
- Xero stays the ledger
- Run both systems until you trust a live job
07 / FAQ
Common questions.
No. There is no Databuild importer. A Buildertrend XLSX catalogue importer exists, but it does not read Databuild files. You bring across the spreadsheets and CSVs you can already produce, through VIABUILD’s cost code, price list, product and assemblies imports, and through Xero contacts. The mapping between the two structures is the work. On yearly plans we do that mapping with you.
Ask them what you can take out while you are still a customer, and actually run it, rather than trusting that an export exists. We will not name a Databuild format or promise one. VIABUILD’s import tools read spreadsheets and CSVs: a cost code template, a price list as CSV or Excel, a bulk product CSV upload, an assemblies import, and contacts from Xero. If what you can pull out is already in that shape, it can come in. If it is a summary report, it cannot.
Usually not. Finished jobs are the archive that proves your rates, and they do that job sitting where they already are. Bring across cost codes, rates, suppliers and the assemblies you still use, plus any live jobs you want to run in VIABUILD from here. Keep a way to reach old claims and correspondence through the defects period.
They are the hardest part and they deserve planning rather than optimism. A recipe is structured differently in every product, so what you should expect is a rebuild of the ones you still use, from the items you have imported, not a clean landing. Load a representative slice, including the awkward ones, and validate by pricing a job you have already built.
Yes. VIABUILD connects to your Xero organisation and imports your contacts. Xero stays your accounting system. Databuild’s heritage is an estimating-and-accounting system that is the ledger. That is an architectural difference, not a missing feature, and it is worth being sure which shape you want before you move.
VIABUILD is 7 days free, then $555/month including GST. On the monthly plan you self-migrate with the import tools and our support. On yearly plans we do the mapping with you. We will not quote Databuild’s pricing. Confirm that with them, for your users and your configuration, including any charge to get your data out.
08 / Keep reading
Related
The alternatives roundup if you are still shortlisting, the head-to-head, the generic migration path, and the catalogue the files land in.
Bring one price list across and price a job you have already built.
It is the only test with a known answer. Start with 7 days free on your real data. Then $555/month including GST. Keep the old system running until a live job agrees.