Start a project

The project list, a project and its tabs, the Project menu, duplicating and templates, the brief, areas and rooms, the finish schedule and takeoff.

The project list

Every project, its icon and its job number — and where a new one starts.

Watch the video · 1:10Create and edit a project

Where Projects → Projects

The list opens on active projects, sixty at a time, with the page and the count at the foot (Page 2 of 3 · 142 projects).

It is sorted by Recently issued. You can sort instead by Most specifications, Job number, Name, Client, Newest (the most recently created first) and, for those who see project money, Value.

All brings the completed and inactive ones back — with Archived and Templates chips (and any other status the firm uses) whenever there are some.
A search or Yours looks across everything. Search by name, job number or client.
Each project has an icon tile: its picture, or its initials in a color of its own until one is set.

The list of projects with an icon, a job number and a client on each row — The project list: icon tiles, job numbers and clients, sorted by Recently issued.

Starting a new project

Press + New project.
Fill in the job number, name, client, status and budget (in the firm's currency). The job number offered is the next after the firm's latest, skipping any in use — the same number Duplicate and a template offer.
Save. Whoever creates it becomes its manager, so the alerts about it have someone to reach from day one.

The new project opens on its Brief, at What they sent — the one place there is anything to do yet. Where the Brief is switched off, it opens on the Overview.

More managers are added on the project's Overview: Managed by, + add (or search for managers).

My projects at a glance

The morning page for whoever runs the jobs.

Where Projects → My projects at a glance — for managers of projects, and administrators

The projects you manage on one page, with what is open, overdue and unassigned on each, and every open task under them. Administrators can widen it to all active projects.

A project with nobody holding open work or hours this week shows just its figures.
Everyone this week or Due in the next 7 days is left out when it has nothing in it. Both empty: one line saying so.

A page listing managed projects with counts of open and overdue tasks — My projects at a glance: each managed project with its open, overdue and unassigned work.

The project page

A project's address, its header, its Overview and the tab strip.

Where Click a project on the project list

Its address

A project's address is its job number and name — avenue.portspace.io/projects/24-107-00-fremont-street-hotel — so a link pasted into an email or a chat says which job it is.

The job number is what finds it: rename the project and the old address still works. If the job number itself changes, links with the old one keep working too.
Each item has an address of its own the same way, by its number under the project — …/projects/24-107-00-fremont-street-hotel/items/l-101. Renumbering an item keeps its old address working.
Older links with a long string of letters and numbers still work and open the same page.
Links for clients, trades and payments are private links of their own and don't change.

The header

Opening a project lands on its Overview. Every page of the project — each tab, and the pages under them such as one invoice, order, item or meeting — starts with the same one-line header at the same height, so the tabs never move.

The header holds the icon tile and the name (a link back to the Overview), the job number, the status, the client and who manages it, Star, and the Project menu for what is done to the whole project: Edit project, See it as the client sees it, Duplicate, Save as template, Archive, Delete.

A project overview page with a picture of the hotel, a budget bar and lists of what needs attention — The example hotel's Overview: the property's picture, Needs attention, Where the job stands, Next up and Lately.

The Overview

The Overview carries the whole picture. Its figures are the same ones the tabs count, so the two always agree.

At the top left is the property's picture. Those who set up projects press Add a picture of the property (or Change picture), upload one or choose one of the project's photos, and see it before Save picture.

Check Use it as the project's icon too to make its center square the project's icon as well — checked already when the project has no icon, unchecked when it has one.
The client sees it on their Overview is checked unless you uncheck it.

Beside it: the client and their contact, the location, and Managed by — changed right there by those who set up projects with + add, or × to take one off. Someone archived shows as (archived) until replaced.

Under it, People on this project: the firm's people who work on it without managing it (see Team & tasks). Then what is specified against the budget, with a bar, Edit project, and Ask the project AI beside it (for those who may ask; @ works there too).

What the Overview lists

Needs attention — late orders, decisions waiting on you or the client, overdue invoices and unpaid deposits, open claims, past-due visits and overdue tasks, answered price requests, and what the client sent that is not read yet. Each is a link to the exact place: what is past its date first in red, what is coming up next in amber (Amber before red).
Where the job stands — one line per stage (Brief, Specify, Propose, Order, Invoice) with its figures and a link: amounts for those who may see prices, counts for everyone else.
Next up — the next tasks and meeting.
Lately — the last eight things that have happened (nothing still to come; that is under Next up), with All activity for the rest.

Needs attention and Next up are left out when they have nothing in them. With both empty, one quiet line stands in their place (Nothing needs you on this project right now.). Where the job stands, Hours and Lately are always there.

Then the Project details: the detail fields, the tax that applies and why, the project's email-in address, Outside contacts and pinned links, and the Notes anyone on the team can add, for things everyone should know.

Outside contacts — the client's contacts, the architect, the owner's rep, each with their company and role and a link to their card when there is one; added and changed on the Team page (see Outside contacts). Staff only.
Pinned links — a client sees only the ones marked Visible to the client on Files.

Editing the project

Edit project (on the Overview, or the header's Project menu on any page) edits the who and where: name, job number, client and contact, location, billing address, ship-to and notes. Those who may see prices also edit the budget, tax rate, tax name and currency.

The project's structure — areas, room types, categories, icon and color — is the Areas and rooms tab under Specify (see Areas and rooms). Each points at the other, since the split is the portal's own, not an industry one.

The tab strip

Under the header, on every tab of the project and on one invoice, proposal or purchase order, sits the tab strip, in the order the work happens. The pages of one item, board, file, meeting, price request or change order carry the header alone, with the project's name leading back.

The row of project tabs with Overview, Brief, Specify, Propose, Order and Invoice — The tab strip: the groups on top, the open group's sections under the line with their counts.

Overview: the project at a glance, where it opens.
Brief: What they sent · Areas · Whole project · Concept.
Specify, its row in two labeled parts: Specs — Specifications · Finish schedule · Takeoff (when the project has room types) · Issue sets · Areas and rooms (for those who can edit) — then, past a divider, Design — Swatch boards · Layouts · Renderings (with Visualizations on, once there is a layout or a picture) · Presentations. Design shows when the project has any of them or you may make them; without, the row is the specs alone. On a phone each part has its own line.
Propose: Proposals · Change orders · Approvals. Someone who does not see prices has the tab as Approvals.
Order: Price requests (RFQs) · Purchase orders · Expediting · Receiving · Installation.
Invoice: Invoices · Statement · Budget and margin.
Then, past a thin rule, the two groups that run alongside every phase: Team (team & tasks, meetings, time, activity) and Files (files, photos, transmittals, communications).

The open group's sections sit in a quieter row under the line, each count saying what it counts: 7 orders, 8 items · 1 late, 2 waiting on you.

A group on the top row shows a number only when something in it needs you — late orders, overdue tasks, a decision waiting on you (in red), a vendor's prices come back — so a quiet tab means nothing is waiting.

Clients and contractors see a short strip of their own, in plain words. On a phone the groups wrap onto two lines, all in sight; the row of sections under them scrolls sideways, with a fade at its edge when there is more.

What is done to the whole project: edit, see it as the client, template, duplicate, archive, delete.

Where The Project menu in the header, on every page of the project

What is done to the whole project is under the header's Project menu: Edit project…, See it as the client sees it, Save as template…, and:

Duplicate project….
Archive project… when the job is finished — see Archiving a project.
Delete project… (owners and administrators).

Deleting

Prospects

Potential projects a few people pursue before the rest of the firm sees them, and making one a project when it is won.

Watch the video · 1:43Prospects

Where Projects → Prospects, or Projects · Prospects at the top of the project list

A prospect is work the firm is pursuing but has not won: a hotel group that wrote in, a referral, a repeat client's next job. It holds the name, the client company and contact (from the address book), the location, the type, a rough size and budget, the expected start, where the lead came from, and notes; a brief the AI reader works on as on any project; and files. It has no specifications, orders, invoices, time or client approvals until it is made a project.

Who sees a prospect

Everyone with Pursues new work: owners always, administrators unless it is untoggled, and any role given it under Firm → People and roles → Roles.
A colleague added to one prospect (a senior designer asked to weigh in), on its People tab: they see that one and no other.
Nobody else learns that it exists: it is not in the project lists, search, Home, the calendar, reports and exports, alerts and digests, Slack or Teams channels, the AI's answers or the counts. Its address answers "not found" to them.
Clients, contractors and vendors never see a prospect, and get no client access to it until it is a project.

The pipeline

Prospects shows them as a Board — a column for each stage, New → Meeting → Proposal out → Won, with its count and rough value — or as a List, a table you sort by any column; click a card or a row to open it. The switch remembers your choice. Show picks Open, Lost or Archived. Example prospects carry an Example badge and are not counted in the totals; Remove the examples takes them away. Home shows a short Prospects list of what needs attention — proposals out the longest, starts within 30 days, prospects untouched for two weeks, new ones — to those who see prospects.

The Prospects page as a board of four stages — The pipeline: each stage with its rough value, the soonest start first.

For an existing client

Often a new job is for a client you know. On New prospect, For an existing client? searches your address book and the clients of past projects; pick one and their company, contact and address come along, and the source is set to Repeat client when they have past projects. Pasting their email matches it by company or the email's domain ("Matched to … · 3 past projects"); Unlink if it is wrong. A client is never added twice. The prospect's Client and people card says "Existing client · 3 past projects · last: …", and the client's card in the address book lists their Open prospects to those who may see prospects.

Paste to fill

Press + New prospect.
Paste the client's email into the big box, or drop a document: a PDF, a Word document or a forwarded email (.eml).
Press Read it into the form. One AI action reads it: the name, the client company and contact (matched to your address book, or offered as a new card), the location, type, size, budget if one is stated, expected start, source and a short summary, and the brief's first areas and questions.
Check the form. Each filled field says from the email: with the line it came from. Nothing is filled that the email does not say: no stated budget, no budget.
Press Save the prospect. What you pasted is kept as its first note and as the brief's material; a dropped file is on its Files tab.

The New prospect screen with its paste box — New prospect: the big box for the client's email or a document, and the other two ways in.

The filled prospect form with from-the-email lines under each field — The form after the reading: each filled field says which line of the email it came from.

Start from a past project or prospect

Start from a past project or prospect lists the projects and prospects you may see, the similar ones first with why ("Same type · similar size"): the same type, a similar size or budget, the same client, nearby. Prospects are labeled with their stage. Check what the new prospect takes: the areas with their brief structure, the client and contacts, and a rough budget — from a past project, what it actually came to in total, by area and by category, and per key or square foot when those are known, shown on the prospect as Based on …. Money only for those who may see it. From a prospect, its notes and files only when checked.

Never carried: orders, invoices, approvals, client access, time, private files, a prospect's stage history or lost reason. The prospect says Started from …, to anyone who may see both.

On a prospect, the header's Prospect menu → Use as a template… opens New prospect started from it.

Lost, archived or deleted

Mark as lost (the Outcome card) asks why, and keeps the reason with the prospect; Undo takes it back for a few seconds. A lost prospect stays private, is listed under Show → Lost on the Prospects page, and can be brought back to New with Bring it back to New.
Archive (the Prospect menu) sets a prospect aside when the client pauses — not a loss. Everything is kept, its stage too; it leaves the pipeline and Home and is listed under Show → Archived on the Prospects page. Bring back (on the prospect, or the Prospect menu) puts it back at the stage it had, as it was. It stays private, and can still be used as a template.
Delete prospect… (the Prospect menu) removes it for good, with its brief, files and notes. Owners, administrators and whoever started it may; you type its name to confirm, and are offered Archive instead. A prospect made a project is deleted like any project.

A prospect page with its stage, details, next step and Outcome card — A prospect: its stage and details, the Next step, and the Outcome card with Won? Make it a project.

Make it a project

On the prospect, press Won? Make it a project in the Outcome card (or the Prospect menu → Make it a project…); it opens in a dialog.
Give the project number (the firm's next is offered), who manages it, and its team.
If it was started from a past project, check Bring in the specifications from … to start from that list: quantities kept, statuses back to Added, no order, billing or approval history.
Press Make it a project.

It becomes a project where it stands: the brief, files, contacts and notes stay, Activity says it was won, and from then on the normal project rules decide who sees it. It stays on the pipeline's Won column for a year.

Working a prospect

A prospect's page: telling it what happened, moving it along, and what it keeps in view.

Watch the video · 1:43Prospects

The left column holds the stage, the prospect's own details in a compact grid you edit, and its brief and files; each fact appears once on the page. The right column, beside it, holds the Next step (with days at this stage), the Outcome (Won? Make it a project, or Mark as lost), Client and people (an existing client's past projects, other contacts, colleagues), Similar past projects and History: the latest five, then Show all.

What's happened? One box for updates

At the top of a prospect, type or dictate what happened in your own words — "Met Dana at the site Tuesday, they want to open in March, budget's closer to 2M, send the proposal by Friday." Press Enter or Send. Use your computer's or phone's own dictation if you like.

One AI action reads it against the prospect as it stands and lists the changes it found — a stage, an expected start, a rough budget, a new task, a new contact — each with the words it came from. Uncheck any you do not want and press Apply.
Nothing is guessed: a day that could mean two dates, or a figure that might be a total or a part, comes back as one question. Answer it in the same box (one AI action per reply, four replies at most).
Your words are always kept as a dated note, even when nothing changes, and every change applied is a line in the prospect's history. Out of AI actions, the note is still kept and the box says why nothing was proposed.
Earlier updates stay under the box, folded, so the story of the pursuit reads later.

The update box at the top of a prospect — What's happened? on a prospect: type or dictate an update; the changes it finds come back to check and apply.

Moving it along

On a prospect, Stage: says where it stands, with a track of New, Meeting and Proposal out: the steps behind it filled, the current one marked. The track only shows; changing the stage is on purpose: Move to … for the next step, or Change stage… for any other. Each change says what it did, with Undo for a few seconds, and is a line in the prospect's history; an Undo takes its line back out rather than adding one. Won and lost are in the Outcome card in the other column, apart from the track.

Duplicating a project

Start the next phase, tower or floor from this one.

Where The project header's Project menu → Duplicate project…

Duplicate project… makes a new project with a new job number and name. The job number offered is the firm's next.

Always copied: the details and areas.
Copied if you choose: the specifications (linked to the same library products, reset to Added with no revisions, or with statuses kept), the room types with the quantity takeoff, and the links.
Never copied — they stay with the original: tasks, meetings, files, photos, boards, money, approvals and history.

The copy's Activity says what it was duplicated from.

Project templates

Save a project as a template and start the next job from it.

Where Library → Project templates

On the project, the header's Project menu → Save as template… parks a copy of it under Library → Project templates (status Template, out of the active lists).
To start a job from it, press New project from this template on its row.
Give the new job number, name and client.

Each template is one row: its name (click it to look inside), its counts of areas, room types and specifications, and one button.

New project from this template makes a fresh active project with the template's areas, room types, specifications and links. The template itself never changes.

The project templates list — Project templates: each with its counts and New project from this template.

The brief

Where a project begins: everything the client sent, read into areas and rules.

Watch the video · 1:24Start a project from a brief

Where A project → Brief

Brief, the first tab on a project, is where it begins, before anything is specified. It comes in two layers: the project's brief — the pile of everything the client sent, and what holds for the whole project — and a brief for each area: the Lobby, the Guestrooms, the Restaurant.

It has four tabs, in the order the work happens:

What they sent — what the client said and sent, and the read.
Areas — each area and its brief. You land here once there is something to land on; a project with nothing read opens on What they sent.
Whole project — what the read found for every area.
Concept — the presentation the client chose. It closes the brief: see Concept.

It is the firm's side of the table — the designer's notes, the questions to ask, priced drafts — so only people who can edit specifications work in it. Clients see it only where the firm chooses to share it; see What the client sees of the brief.

The brief's What they sent tab with pasted notes, product links and pictures — What they sent: the client's words, links and pictures, with meetings already held under the notes.

What goes in

Paste what the client said and sent as it came — emails, meeting notes, a wish list, a transcript.
Add the product links they pasted, with what they said about each.
Drop in pictures — several at once onto the Pictures card, or paste a screenshot — inspiration and photos of the existing space alike.

Pointing at what the firm already has

Type @ in the notes to point at a meeting that was held, a library item, a specification on another project, or a project. The pick is kept beside the text — a Pointed at chip under the notes, with a link to the record — and goes to the assistant as material:

a library item or a specification in full;
a project only as its areas, room types and the direction of its own brief, never its item list;
a meeting as its takeaway, summary, decisions and open questions — never its transcript.

So a mention costs a few lines and not the AI allowance.

Meetings in the brief

Under the notes, Meetings on this project lists what has been held with its takeaway and what it settled. Add to the brief on any of them writes the same @ mention a designer would have typed.

What was decided in a meeting is read as a requirement with that meeting as its source. A later meeting overrides an earlier one. A question the meeting left open stays under the questions to ask unless the rest of the material answers it.

Reading the brief

Read the brief sends it to the assistant, which sorts the pile by area and answers in the portal's own vocabulary.

For the whole project: a summary, the rules every area inherits ("no brass anywhere", the opening date), what the client does not want anywhere, a palette and materials, and the questions about the project as a whole.
For each area: what it is and must do, its own requirements with their sources ("client notes", "image 2", a link), its dislikes, palette, materials, share of the budget, its repeated rooms with counts, and the questions to ask about it.

It never invents a product, a price or a count.

Each product link becomes a draft entry in the library — the page's details and picture, a note saying which brief it came from and what the client said — reused if the firm already has that page. Each picture keeps a one-line description ("Existing space: …", "Inspiration: …") under it.

The brief's Whole project tab with rules, a color palette and questions — Whole project: the summary, the rules every area inherits, palette and materials, and the questions to ask.

Correcting the read

Edit the brief… (or Edit beside any one section: the whole project's rules, Not this, anywhere, Palette and materials, the questions) lets the designer fix what the assistant got wrong before anything is built on it — strike a rule, reword the summary, add a question. Save the brief keeps the edits as theirs (the reading says corrected … by …).

Palette and materials is always shown, with Add colors and materials while it is empty. A color is set by its swatch, by typing its code any way (#B8634A, B8634A, #abc) or a color name (navy), or with Pick from a picture: it opens the brief's pictures — click where the color is, and each click adds one.

Writing it by hand

Write the brief by hand is the other way in, for a firm that prefers to or has no AI key: the project's summary, its rules for every area, what the client does not want anywhere, palette and materials, and the questions to ask. Reading it with the assistant later replaces it, with a warning first.

Administrators switch the Brief section off under Settings → Work → Modules.

Areas

Each area of the project, with a brief of its own: the same list Specify files specifications under.

Watch the video · 1:24Start a project from a brief

Where A project → Brief → Areas

The brief's areas are the project's areas — the same list Specify files specifications under, in the same word, never a second one.

The Areas tab shows each area with where it stands (No brief yet, Briefed, Concepts drafted, Being specified), the start of its summary, its colors and its counts. An area with pictures leads with its first one, large on the left of its card, and any others as small tiles under it; the whole summary and every picture are on the area's own page.

A grid of area cards such as Lobby and Guestrooms, each with a picture on the left and a stage label — The Areas tab: each area with its first picture, its stage, the start of its summary and its counts.

Adding areas

Add an area by name and it is on the project at once: Specify has it, empty and waiting, before the first item exists.
An area made first in Specify — an imported job, a firm that skips the brief — simply has an empty brief here.
When a read names an area the project does not have yet, it waits on the Areas tab as a proposal with Add this area (or Add all). Adding it makes the area and gives its brief what the read found — its requirements, its repeated rooms (which become the project's room types, for the takeoff) and its pictures.
Areas the project already has take what the read says about them straight away.

An area's own brief

An area's brief opens from its card, with three tabs of its own: Brief, Concepts and Sent for the area.

Brief shows the project's rules grayed, as From the whole project — the area inherits them, and they are changed on the Whole project tab. Then what the area asks for, its repeated rooms, what it rules out, its palette, materials and budget, and To ask about it.

Read an area reads just that area, inside the project's rules — one AI action and one per new link, instead of the whole pile again.
Or Write it by hand / Edit the brief… (or Edit beside a section). The palette's Pick from a picture offers the area's own pictures, or the project's when it has none.

Concepts holds the area's directions (see Concepts). Sent for holds notes, links and pictures that arrived for this area alone — the restaurant package in month three — with the project's pictures to borrow from.

Internal requirements

A requirement can be marked internal, to keep it off what a client sees. A read marks the firm's own logistics internal by itself — ordering, lead times, delivery and install phasing, vendors, prices and budget ("the lobby package is ordered first") — because they are how the studio will do it, not what the client asked for. Uncheck the mark where one really is the client's wish.

Renaming and removing

Rename or Remove an area from its brief exactly as in Specify: a rename carries its specifications with it, and an area holding specifications cannot be removed until they are moved.

Each area's heading on the project page carries a Brief link back to what the client asked of it.

Concepts

Two or three directions for an area, drafted from its brief and the firm's library.

Where A project → Brief → an area → Concepts

Concepts are drafted for one area at a time, on its brief. Draft two or three concepts (one AI action) gives directions that genuinely differ inside the project's rules: a name, a paragraph, a palette, materials, and ten to twenty items, each saying why it answers the area's brief.

A project whose concepts were drafted across every area at once, before areas had briefs of their own, keeps them under Concepts across the project.

Where the items come from

Items come library-first: what the client's links became (From the client's link), what the firm has specified on past projects (Specified before, with which projects), then the rest of the library.

Prices are the firm's own — the product's sell price, or cost through the markup rules, or list price marked as such — never the assistant's.

Taking one into the project

Trim a draft: change a quantity, drop an item.
Press Take this into the project. Every item becomes a specification under that area, with an item number in the area's habit, its product, quantity and price. Repeated-room items get their takeoff rows; the pictured ones become a swatch board for the area, named for the concept.
The other drafts stay for reference.

Proposing it

The taken concept's card then offers Propose these items to the client…. It opens a draft of the same priced, illustrated proposal the project page makes from checked specifications, drafted from the concept's items for the client to sign online — the step from a direction to an order book.

From there the project runs as any other: approvals, orders, invoices.

Concept

The presentation you send the client, and the one they choose.

Where A project → Brief → Concept

Concept is the last page of the Brief: the presentation you send the client once you have heard them, and the one they choose — Brief, then Concept, then Specify.

The Concept page listing presentation decks with their status — Concept: the decks sent, filed for the whole project or one area, with the client's answer on each.

Filing and deciding

File each deck you send under The presentation, for the whole project or one area (For).
The client is told when a deck shown to them is filed, and accepts it or asks for changes on the deck's own page. You are told either way.
Or record what they said yourself: The client accepted this, or Sent back… with what they asked to change.

A client can choose one direction for the lobby and another for the restaurant: one accepted concept stands per area.

Accepting one asks first when it would replace another accepted for the same area. A replaced deck keeps Back to sent and The client accepted this, so nothing is lost by a wrong click.
A new version of the accepted deck stays accepted. A new version of one sent back carries the client's note as what it answers.

The deck is an ordinary project file, so it is also on Files. The client sees it there unless you uncheck The client sees it in their portal, and a new version is filed from its page like any other file (Files).

Where the accepted concept shows

The accepted concept shows at the top of Specify ("Working to…"), on the Overview's Where the job stands, and on the Brief's row of tabs as Concept accepted. Ask the project AI reads it, words and all, as the direction.

What the client sees of the brief

Nothing, unless the firm chooses — and never the firm's own workings.

Where Settings → Work → Modules → Clients see the brief

Clients see the brief under Settings → Work → Modules is off to begin with.

Switched on, a client gets a What we heard tab on their project, once something has been written: the project's summary and rules, then each area's summary, requirements with their sources, palette, materials and the questions still to settle. It is read-only, so they can say "yes, that" or "not that" before anything is specified.

Makers

Beside it, Clients see makers (on to begin with) decides whether a client sees each item's maker and model on their item list, item pages, proposals and spec book. Off, they read the description, size and finish, and an owner's rep cannot ring the maker for list price.

The example project

Fremont Street Hotel (job 0000): an invented job to try things on.

Every portal starts with an example: Fremont Street Hotel (job 0000), with a brief sorted into areas, specifications, a proposal, orders, invoices, meetings and pictures — all invented.

It carries an Example badge wherever its name appears.
Its item pictures are catalog-style photographs of invented products, and its lobby comes with a swatch board shown to the client, a traced room with two cameras and two concept pictures, and a presentation shared with the example client.
It is on everyone's list of their own projects from their first day — a Restricted colleague sees it too; clients and contractors do not — so a new person always has something to open and try things on.

Removing it

When the firm is ready, Remove it for the whole firm on its page (for anyone who can manage projects) takes it away in one step, for everyone in the portal: its items and papers, its brief and areas, its pictures and files, and the library entries and address-book contacts that were made for it.

Only in this portal — no other firm's copy, and not the shared demo, is touched. Nothing of the firm's own is touched, and the firm's numbers are its own from then on.

Its clock

The example hotel (job 0000) is seeded as a job going well, with dates around the day it was made: its invoices paid or not yet due, the rug on the truck and landing in two days (the one thing in amber), a site visit and a client meeting later that week, and one small task a day late (the only red). Then it waits.

Nobody is alerted about it until the first person from the firm signs in for real (by emailed link or code, Google or Microsoft, a welcome link or an invitation). At that moment every date on it moves forward by the days that have passed, so the project looks exactly as it did the day it was seeded, and the calendar and the bell start from that morning. The shared developer password does not start it.

Once the firm has seen everything, the checklist's Retire the example project archives or deletes it.

Areas and rooms

The project's structure: areas, codes, printed numbers, room types, its icon and categories.

Watch the video · 1:10Create and edit a project

Where A project → Specify → Areas and rooms (for those who can edit specifications)

Specify → Areas and rooms holds the project's structure, and also its icon and its color: the tile color everyone sees for the project in lists and on their home page. Pick a preset or any color; unset, the portal chooses one from the job number so tiles stay distinct.

Its lead links to Edit project, the managers and the project's own markup, so the project's own settings are reachable from one place.

Areas

Areas are the parts of the building specifications are grouped by (Lobby, Guestrooms, Pool…). Add, rename (every specification follows), reorder, remove when empty.

A new area can also be typed straight onto a specification, made with + New area beside + New specification on the specifications list (it opens the new area's page with the form ready), or created from the brief's reading.

Area codes and headings

Code… on an area gives it a short code (GR, LB), a heading it is grouped under (Public spaces, Guest floors) and Public / Guest — the project-first layout's area fields, in every style.

The code prints in front of the area's item numbers where the firm's rule says so.
The heading groups the areas in the spec book's index, and the code leads each area there.
Public / Guest is a filter on the list (Public / Guest → Public or Guest), which the spec book and an issue set made from the list carry.

Printed item numbers

The number an item prints with is the firm's choice under Settings → Specification fields, and a project can keep its own under Printed item numbers here:

as typed (the default);
area code + item number (GR-101);
item type + item number (WC-01, the category's leading code);
the project-first way (furnishings by area code, finishes and OFCI items by item type).

With a rule, the list gains a Printed # column (Full Item # in the Project-first layout, last). The item page shows the printed number by its title; the typed one stays what you edit. The spec book, issue sets, and purchase orders, proposals, invoices and pick lists made from items carry it.

A number already written with its code (GR-101 typed in GR) is not doubled. Clients and contractors read the printed number as the item number.

Room types

Room types (King, Double Queen, Suite…) with how many rooms of each. These drive the quantity takeoff.

Room numbers… lists a type's rooms, typed as ranges (1201-1240, 1301). A number already under another type is refused, and the line says how many are numbered of the count. The takeoff's column headings name each type's rooms.

Project icon

Project icon is the tile shown beside the project in lists. Set the letters (e.g. VAI instead of the initials; up to eight, and they shrink to fit the tile), or choose a picture (or drop one on the card) and crop it square right on the page — drag to place, slide to zoom.

Use the whole picture on the Overview too makes the uncropped picture the Overview's picture as well (checked already when the project has none). The icon and the Overview's picture are kept apart afterwards: changing or removing one leaves the other.

Categories on this project

Categories on this project can be renamed here, merging into an existing one if you pick it. The category list itself lives under Library → Categories.

The finish schedule

Rooms down, surfaces across, each cell the finish used there — plus OFCI quantities and LEED.

Watch the video · 1:28Finish schedule

Where A project → Specify → Finish schedule

The finish schedule lists the project's rooms, one row each, with every surface stacked inside the row — Floor, Base, Walls, Ceiling, Millwork, Doors to start with. Surfaces changes them (Wall N, Wall S…). It fits the page at any width (on a phone, a card per room); each finish shows as its code, with its name on hover or tap and in the Finish legend below.

Rows of rooms, each listing surfaces such as floor and walls with a finish code or note under each — The finish schedule: a row per room, its surfaces inside, each naming its finish by code.

Add a room by number and name — or Add the areas (each of the project's areas a row, its code as the number) or Add the room numbers (every room number under the room types).
Click a cell to name the finish item used there (finishes first in the list), a note, or both. The item's printed number shows in the cell; the legend gives its name and leads to it.
PDF and Excel print it grouped by area with a finish legend — each finish once, with the rooms it is in.

Shared with the client lets the project's client and contractors open it, read only, from their project tabs. Until then it is the firm's.

Quantity by area

Quantity by area (OFCI quantities): an item can carry how many are budgeted and how many installed in each area. It is offered on the item's page for OFCI items and shown on any item that has them (in the Quantities tab; under Distribution in the tabbed layout's tabs).

The list's OFCI view (Categ / F/I → OFCI) adds a Budgeted / installed column. Columns offers it, the takeoff's Room qty and the day an item was first Ordered (Rm Qty and Purch Subm in the project-first layout, on by default there).

LEED

LEED (the LEED Certified or Green Product checkbox), in every style:

Check LEED on the item's On the spec sheet card.
If you like, add a LEED note (the credit it counts toward, the certificate).

A checked item shows a green LEED mark by its title (a LEED box on the project-first form's band, beside the Flag).
Columns → LEED adds a ☑ column to the list.
The spec sheet prints a LEED line with the note.
A change to it is logged as a revision and shaded on the next sheet.

Takeoff

Per-room quantities against the room types, multiplied out.

Watch the video · 1:33Takeoff and room quantities

Where A project → Specify → Takeoff (shown once the project has room types)

Per-room quantities for each specification against the room types, multiplied out by the room counts.

The takeoff reads the quantities; each item's are set on its Quantity by room type card in the item's Quantities tab (Distribute by room type) by anyone who can edit specifications, and the total writes back to the specification's quantity.

A table of specifications against room types with per-room quantities and totals — The takeoff: each specification's quantity per room, multiplied by the room counts.