Forward vs e-Builder
e-Builder is owner-side capital-program management. Forward is field-side texting. They sit at opposite ends of the project tech stack — owners run e-Builder; GCs and their field crews run Procore / Autodesk; Forward sits in front of the GC stack.
The roles each one serves
e-Builder is the owner’s view of a capital program. Multi-project budget tracking, contract + change-order workflow, document management, cost-management, capital planning. The buyer is the program-management office at an owner organization (university system, hospital network, large government agency).
Forward is a texting layer for the field crew on a given project. The buyer is the GC + the field team. The data lives in the GC’s Procore / Autodesk / OneDrive; Forward reads it on text.
Side-by-side
| Capability | e-Builder | Forward |
|---|---|---|
| Owner capital-program planning | Yes (core) | No |
| Multi-project budget rollups for the owner | Yes | No |
| Field-foreman text → cited answer | No | Yes |
| Sheet pulls + RFI status over SMS | No | Yes |
| Approval queue for field-drafted records | No | Yes |
| Integrates with Procore + Autodesk + OneDrive | Limited | Yes (native) |
When you'd use both
Owners running capital programs against multiple GCs:
- e-Builder for the owner-side capital program (budget, contracts, owner-side workflows).
- Forward for the field-side communication on each project under the program. Read-only OR access (see /for-owners-reps) gives the owner’s rep instant text-based status across every active project without learning each GC’s Procore.
How to try Forward
Drop your email above; we’ll scope a pilot starting with one of your owned projects + the GC’s Procore (the GC wires Forward in ~30 minutes of OAuth).
Or text +1 (682) 300-6750 to see the demo right now.
Try Forward right now
Drop your email above for early access — or skip the form and text +1 (682) 300-6750 from your phone. The live demo answers anything you can ask a project manager in plain English — no signup needed.