This article is a quick guide on how to create a new project in BuildTools.

BuildTools walks you through this process in a number of simple steps. We'll outline those steps and add some detail and examples below.

Click on the project selector in the upper menu bar.  At the bottom of the category list, select the button on the right - New Project.

On this first step fill in the project information and click SAVE to create without a client. Or click Add Client Info to create a client for your new project.

If a new client is being created you can choose to choose an existing client or create a brand new client.

Now enter project details, notes, project description, etc...  This info can be entered and changed at any time.  Tags, the center field, allows you to enter search terms that will help you search for or filter projects later.  Examples of Tags would be: 2 story, rambler, remodel, new construction, small home, 4 bedroom, etc...

Document upload.  If you have photos, blueprints, surveys, or other project related documents at this point, you are able to upload them to the project during setup.

Budget setup.  This step allows you to build a preliminary budget for the project.  Here you are able to copy a budget from a previous project or template.  You can decide to also include the Resources, the subcontractors and vendors that were used in the budget that is being copied. 

You can also decide to build the budget line by line be selecting cost codes from your master list.  Most commonly, you'll build the budget at a later point and skip this process at this time.  

Budget configuration allows you to determine how you will structure your fee on this project.  BuildTools has great flexibility in how fees are calculated and allows you to change the method on a project-by-project basis.  

The first question here is, is the project a fixed bid or cost plus project?  Fixed bid will limit the amount of information that the client will see throughout the system.  The client will be limited to the bottom line of the budget, and will not see line by line detail.  The same will apply to change orders and financial statements - the client will only see the total amount, not the detail.  In a cost plus project, the client will see line item detail of the budget, change orders, and financial statements.  

Next, if your fee is a calculated percentage of the total cost, is it a markup of the costs, or figured as a margin.  The difference between  margin and  markup is that  margin is total sale amount minus the cost of work, while  markup is the the amount by which the cost of work is increased in order to derive the selling price.

Finally, if you have more than one calculated fee in the budget how do you want to calculate your fees?  (You will be able to determine the order in which the fees are calculated in a later step)At this point, do you want to have your fee compound on each previous fee (Cumulative), have the fees figured individually against the initial cost of work (without adding in the fees), or a combination.  When setting up calculated amounts (fees) you are able to categorize them as Profit, or Cost.  Selecting this 3rd option allows you to apply your profit "Fees" on top of calculated items that you consider to be a cost of the work 

Fees setup allows you to setup the fees described in the previous step.  
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Fees can be setup as Separate, or Blended.  Separate fees are calculated as a budget line item and will appear as such in the budget.  Blended fees are applied to the line item cost of work, and are added to every line in the budget, increasing the budget line item.  
Name column is the budget line item that the feel will be applied to, if designated separate.  Amount can be set to a $ amount, or a percentage.Apply To.  
Fees can be setup to apply to the budget, Change orders, or both.  
An example of how you might use this is - you may charge 10% on the base budget for your management fee, but want to charge 20% on change orders.  
Amount type.  this allows you to designate if the fee is to be considered Profit or cost, as described in step 8.
Note: You can elect to setup your fees for the project later in the budget module.

Schedule setup allows you to copy the schedule from a previous project or template in BuildTools.  You can choose to copy the resources, the subcontractors and vendors, and can choose to copy the working or published schedule from the selected project.  

This step allows you to copy the selections form a past project or template.

Locations setup.  In this step you are able to create a blank worksheet for material selections.  

Step 1 is to click the blue + sign toward the top of the screen.  This will create a level of the home - main level, upper level, basement, etc...

Step 2 is to drag rooms from the master list on the right to the levels you have created.  These are room types, and the names can be changed after you drag them to the appropriate level.  As an example, you can drag "Bedroom" to the upper level 3 times, then change the name to Bedroom1, 2, 3 or name them with a child's name - Harriet's bedroom...  

With this last step you are done with new project setup.  All of the previous information can be changed at any time after you create the project within the various modules.