Welcome to Billy! If you missed the training session or want a guide on the most FAQs for new Billy users, this article is for you!
How to Setup a New Project (Only Admin + Standard Users can do this.)
PRO TIP for Managed Plan Partners: This is the "Checklist" the Billy Team will ask you to confirm before we flip a project to Active for you.
Our complete collection of support articles can be found here.
How to Set Up a New Project
PRO TIPS
Only Admin and Standard Users can set up new projects.
Managed Plan Partners: This is the "Checklist" the Billy Team will ask you to confirm before we flip a project to Active for you.
New Project - If you need to set up a Standard project not integrated with Procore/Autodesk, Select New Project.
Import Procore Project / Import Audotdesk Project - To set up a project connected to Procore or Autodesk, the project must first be set up in Procore/Autodesk, then you can import it to Billy using the below steps
ℹ️ These steps are reviewed in detail in this support article.
Consider the Requirement Group You'll Need
VERY IMPORTANT FIRST STEP: Compare the project's requirements against existing Requirement Groups (Settings) to decide whether this project will use an existing Requirement Group or if a Project-Specific Requirement Group needs to be created.
Watch this 4-minute video to learn why this is important:
Contracts inherit the project requirement group. Changing a project's requirement group after you create the project will not automatically change existing contract requirement groups. Contract requirement groups will need to be manually changed to reflect the project requirement group change.
Changing contract requirement groups after documents have been reviewed will delete existing reviews. Exisitng documents will need to be re-reviewed against the new requirement groups.
Important to Note: Only Admin Billy users can create new Requirement Groups
Import the Project
Select the Requirement Group that contains the requirements for this project from Step 1.
Verify Legal Entity and edit as needed. For Procore projects, this can be adjusted in the 3 dots > Edit Project Details after the project imports
Check the Procore Sync Log (Review 2-minute video on this here) to ensure all contracts have synced correctly. This is a historic log that must be regularly monitored throughout the duration of the project.
Add Sample Documents and/or Additional Insureds
Set Up and Verify the Contract List
Apply a contract requirement group if needed (ie Pollution or Professional requirement group). See how here (step 4).
Verify email addresses. Change the email contact on file with these steps.
IMPORTANT for Managed Plan Procore Partners: When the status of a commitment is marked Approved in Procore, the commitment will automatically sync to Billy (as long as a user is listed in the project directory) and will inherit the project requirement group. Considering the Billy Team is in your account every 24-48 hours, if the commitment requires a requirement group change (ie vendor is required to have pollution), you need to make this requirement group change in Billy ASAP to ensure Billy sends the correct requirements to the vendor.
Flip Project to Active.
Non-Managed Plan Partners: Change the project status from Draft to Active.
Managed Plan Partners, IMPORTANT: DO NOT flip a project to active yourself. Use the in-app chat to let Billy's Compliance Team know this project is ready to flip to active so we can verify the project is setup correctly before the project goes live. We will send you these 7 steps and ask you to confirm each one was completed.
Bulk Send Initial Document Requests. This step only applies to Non-Managed Plan partners. Managed Plan Partners should use the in-app chat and speak with the support team if any document requests are needed.
An initial request must be sent for all new contracts. Then Billy sends automated weekly reminder emails for a month.
ℹ️ These steps (including screenshots) are reviewed in detail in this support article.
Syncing Procore Vendors and the Procore Sync Log
Procore projects must be set up in Procore first, then they can be imported to Billy. The following are established when setting up a Procore project in Billy, and both dictate how and when vendors sync to Billy:
Procore Import Method - tells billy which vendors to sync
Commitment Statuses - tells Billy when to sync the vendors per the import method
If there are missing contracts (vendors) on a project, the first place to go is the Procore Sync Log.
Here is how the Procore Sync Log works:
This historical log tells contains 3 things:
Import Method (learn about them here) - Established when the project was set up in Billy, this is how Billy imports vendors from Procore. Import methods are either by the Project Directory, Subcontracts, Purchase Orders, or Subcontracts and Purchase Orders. Reach out to the Partner Success Team if this needs to be changed.
Commitment Statuses (learn about them here) - Established when the project was set up in Billy, these are the statuses that will sync to Billy, giving control over what commitments sync to Billy.
Error Reason: The date, time, commitment information and reason the contract did not sync. If a change is made in Procore, Billy attempts to sync the commitment again, and if we still aren't able to, you will see a new error in the Log.
Click "View in Procore" to resolve the error in Procore.
Edit Email Contact for a Contract (Vendor)
It's important to note that only Admin/Standard users can edit contact information in Billy. If you are a Read Only user, please reach out to your Admin.
Use the 3 dots next to the contract name in the contracts tab on a project, or click the contact name and click the 3 dots to edit an email contact.
Understanding the Vendor Submission Portal
When an initial request, rejection email, or automated expiration email is sent to vendors, they get an email with a link to the Vendor Submission Portal.
No account needs to be created.
No password is required, only the email that contains the link to submit documents.
The portal also contains visibility into the compliance status of that project, as well as access to the portal + compliance status of all other projects that contact has been assigned to.
You have access to the vendor's submission portal for each project via the 3 dots > Copy Request Link > Paste link into a new browser tab/window > Enter.
Why is a Contract (Vendor) Not Compliant?
The why behind a non-compliant contract can be found in the Contract Coverages tab.
Active = Compliance, non-expired requirement.
Inactive = Expired or Rejected Requirement
Click the arrow to discover what was reviewed and what notes were sent to the vendor (the rejection reason).
Billy's Emails: When They Are Sent and What They Look Like
Every time an email is sent from Billy, whether that's an initial request, rejection, or automated expiration reminder, Billy saves you time by automatically sending reminder emails. Three (3) reminder emails are sent once a week, meaning your vendors will receive 4 emails in total, then they are considered non-responsive. Reminder emails end when a document is uploaded.
PRO TIP:
During implementation, we connected Billy to your company's existing inbox. This helps increase vendor adoption because it appears these emails are coming from your company's domain. Please reach out to your Admin to find out what email is being used as your Sender Signature, which can be found in Settings > Team.
>>> Your Sender Signature is the email vendors should search for in their inbox when they say they can't find a Billy email.
Non-Responsive Contracts (Vendors)
Any time an initial request for documents, rejection email, or expiration email is triggered, Billy sends 3 reminder emails once a week, for a total of 4 emails in 1 month. After the last reminder email is sent, if the vendor still hasn't uploaded a document, they land in the non-responsive filter. Once you reach out to the vendor to encourage them to respond to Billy's emails (highly recommended) and confirm the correct email is on file, this 3-minute video shows you how to re-trigger emails to put the ball back in the vendor's court.
This article shows you what these emails look like and goes into this topic in more detail.
Requirement Groups
Requirement Groups are the set of requirements (established in Settings) that can be applied to a project or contract (vendor).
We highly recommend you watch this 4-minute video on how Requirement Groups work in Billy.
The first step when setting up a new project in Billy is to compare the project's requirements against the existing Requirement Groups (Settings) to decide whether this project will use an existing Requirement Group or if a Project-Specific Requirement Group needs to be created. A few notes on why this is important:
Changing the requirement group assigned to the project:
Changing a project's requirement group will not automatically change existing contract requirement groups.
Contract requirement groups will need to be manually changed to reflect the project requirement group change.
Only new contracts (added or synced) will reflect the requirement group change.
Changing a contract requirement group after documents have been reviewed:
Changing contract requirement groups after documents have been reviewed will delete existing reviews. Exisitng documents will need to be re-reviewed against the new requirement groups. The requirement group assigned when setting up a project is automatically inherited when a new contract is added or a contract syncs (for Procore projects) to a project.
The Approval Process
The Notes tab within a contract (vendor) centralizes approval communication in Billy. This feature allows users to log contract-specific notes and send email notifications to other Billy users on the account, facilitating an in-app approval process.
Non-Managed Plan Partners: Leave notes and send email notifications to other Billy users, keeping overrides/approvals in a central place in Billy. Learn More Here.
Managed Plan Partners:
Override requests must be approved by the designated person on your team. Ask the Admin of your account who this person is. If you send the Billy Team a request for an override, we will log the request in Contract Notes to be approved by this designated person on your team.
If you are the designated approver for your company, learn more about the approval process here.
If you have any questions, please use the in-app chat to reach out to our team!