To start a Project
1. Go to the pink projects tab and click on NEW.
2. To start the project, you need to fill out the project name and type, its always best to complete the project address portion along with any other details to ensure that information is available when generating a cover page or custom header/footer.
Project Overview
Here you can setup your project details and review recent project information such as specs that have been added or revised in the project within the activity’s column, newly added issue/revision dates and project contacts.
Project Details: all the project details such as project address, type of project, project number, currency (if different than default) can be accessed and edited by clicking on EDIT. For Pro Tier accounts, if you have multiple offices set up, make sure to assign an office to each project.
Activity Column: This is a great reference to see who has been adding or revising specifications within the project. You can click on the specification link to go directly into the spec from here.
Contacts: This window shows contacts that are specific to this project, these can be set up on the contacts tab to the left.
Recent Project Revisions: This window shows client portal submissions and their status along with the date the package was last updated.
Advanced Spec Coding Feature: Within the project details window, you can select a default coding scheme that is specific for this project. It’s encouraged to set the coding scheme before you start adding specifications.
Contacts: you can set up Company or in Individual contacts that are specific to this project. If you are not seeing the contact type needed, let us know and we can add that to your account.
Procurement Feature: If you are using the procurement module, these contacts are available to autofill your ‘ship to’ and ‘bill to’ information on the purchase order.
Revisions & Submissions: This is a great opportunity to track specification issuances and revisions based on your client/contractor/stakeholder spec package submittals.
The first date you add to the column will be the issuance date for any current specs within the project, it will also be the Project Issuance Date.
If the blue toggle is turning on, any dates added here will automatically be assigned to new specs as an issue date and a revision date to specs that have had updates.
You can choose to show specification revisions with highlighting on your reports, there is a filter under settings within the reports, to turn off the highlighting if needed.
On your reports you can show the newly issued specs highlighted with the issuance date, code, and description in red.
If you have added an issuance date to your specs, generate a report to submit to your client, and then you go back into the project and make changes to certain specifications. The following date you add to the revision column, will automatically be assigned to the specifications that have had revisions since the issuance date was added.
When adding a date to the issue/revision column, you can specify if you want the date to be assigned to specs within an area of the project or a specific classification.
You can also turn off the blue toggle and manually assign an issue/revision date to specifications on the specs tab.
To remove or add a date to the specification: you can go to the spec details page and add or remove a check mark beside a specific date.
Revisions For: drop down menu will allow you to select a revision date and if there is a box checked, that is the change associated with that revision date for the specification.
View Revisions: If you would like to see all the revision changes to the specification, you can visit the history tab. This will allow you to see the information update along with who made the change and when they updated the spec.
Client Portal: Send a spec package to your client for a quick turnaround time to get approvals or feedback. The specs can be selected by stage or revision date within the submissions window, or individually selected on the specs tab.
Make sure to set up the stages on the pink Approvals tab for your specs stages to update based on the review of the spec package. You watch a tutorial on the Client Portal here.
Project Files: Upload any project documents to the project files tab to keep important information accessible. You can copy a file link or preview the file within this tab. Any file type is supported and stored here.
Areas
On this tab is where you will setup the area template for your project, any area you are addressing for the project will need to be added on this tab, so that you can assign the area name to the specification.
To start setting up this tab, its best to setup the floors first, then create your area names and assign them to your floor. There are two types of areas you can create on this tab:
1. Top Level Area – This will be an area that you assign your specifications to, this area can also have a quantity higher than one, you can specify the area quantity per floor are you are creating the area name. i.e., Café, Hallway and Lounge are top level areas.
2. Area Grouping with Subareas – This is a great way to breakdown area types i.e., Guestrooms with guest room types, King Room, Queen Room etc. This is also an opportunity to breakdown a large area, into smaller subareas i.e., Basement – entertainment area, Bar, Guest Bathroom etc.
Subarea setup – When setting up an area grouping, you will only need to fill out the area name, type, and code (if required). The subareas will be created by clicking on the red square.
All subareas will have specs assigned to them and they will be assigned to the floors, NOT the area grouping.
You will not be able to add a subarea to an area if,
1. There are specs assigned to the area
2. if the area has been assigned to a floor or has a quantity of higher than one.
You will need to setup your areas before you can generate an Area Spec Matrix or a Room Matrix Report.
There is the option to copy an area template or specific areas from one project to another, once the areas have been copied you will need to go into the new project and update the area quantity and reassign it to a floor.
Specs
This is where you will go to add specifications into your projects, quick updates to your items can also be done from the top menu bar without having to go into the spec. Columns of spec information can be dragged and dropped into a specific order.
Filters: There are filter on the left side of the page, you can use these to filter on spec type, area, to access a list of specifications within a certain area of the project, multiple filters can be selected at the same time. I.e., Tables in the Restaurant or Lighting in the All bedrooms.
Quick Update Options:
1. Three dots beside specification image, this will allow you to go into any of the specification tabs to add or update item specific information.
2. Menu at the top of the page above the spec information, you can select the specifications by checking the box and update those items by these options
Bulk edit: update custom attributes, codes, vendor, and description for multiple items at the same time.
Copy specs: into a new project or the same project, if there is a linked spec assigned to the spec being copied, you will have the option to copy that spec at the same time or not.
Delete: Once a spec has been deleted, we are only able to recover certain spec information, and not images, uploaded documents, and linked specs. We recommend ‘hiding’ specs with a spec stage instead of deleting.
Issue/Revision: Manually assign an issue/revision date to items by selecting a date from the drop-down menu. Date needs to be created on the issue/revision column within the overview tab first.
Stage: Assign a stage to the specification, depending on where it is within the project workflow. The workflow stages can be setup on the pink Stages tab. There are customizable by name and color. All stages have a status assigned to them: Active (shows the specs everywhere), Hidden (hides the specs from the budget and reports) and Removed (removes the specs from the budget and shows then as crossed out in reports).
Category/Classification: Quick updates if you haven’t yet assigned a category or classification to the spec type template or if you are making changes.
Areas: This is a great option to assign an area to your specification, you can also assign multiple areas (one at a time) to specifications to setup the quantity by area, without having to go into the specification.
Change Type: If you have created a specification using the wrong template, you can quickly update the template for the specification. You will not loose any information filled out for the spec even if the custom attributes do not match, all information will be transferred to the updated spec template.
Vendor/Manufacturer: This will allow you to bulk assign a vendor, manufacturer or vendor rep to multiple specifications at the same time, instead of going into the spec details page.
Creating a Specification
There are several options to adding a specification to your project,
1. Copy the spec into the same project or into another project.
2. Import the spec from the specification library.
3. Create the spec directly from the vendor website using the web clipper.
4. Create the specification from scratch by clicking on +NEW directly on the specs tab.
5. Bring in a product from DS Collection to set up a spec in your project.
When creating a specification from +NEW, you will be prompted to select the spec type template, then you will be brought to the details page where you can start filling out information for the specification.
Setting up details for a specification:
Code: This will be provided to you by default, depending on the default coding scheme selected on the overview tab.
Furnished & Installed: see next section. Usually, the defaults are set on the spec type template, but you can select the option that best suites this specification as needed.
Vendor/Manufacturer: Assign the company in which the item is being sourced. If you have a vendor rep assigned to the vendor (on the vendors tab), they will automatically fill the vendor rep area.
Quantity and Quantity by Area: We always recommend setting up the quantity for each item, with the Quantity by Area option, always check the box and fill in the quantity here. This will allow you to assign an area to a specification and group your specs by area on reports.
Notes: The notes tab is great for lengthy or multiple sets of notes for an item. The Summary notes are meant for notes with higher importance, they will show up below the images on the full page spec report and will show up highlighted with a revision if an update is made.
Custom Attributes: These have all been added to the spec type template, only the labels with descriptions filled out for each item will show on the report.
Furnished & Installed: You can indicate who will be providing (furnishing) and installing a product (specification). This can later be used to filter specification reports for particular audiences, such as CFCI and CFOI for specifications to deliver to contractors.
OFCI: owner furnished, contractor installed (e.g., lighting)
OFOI: owner furnished, owner installed (e.g., chairs)
CFCI: contractor furnished, contractor installed (e.g., plumbing fixtures)
CFOI: contractor furnished, owner installed.
Designer Approval: Some specification types have items that may require designer approval, such as material samples. You can check off the items that require designer approval and uncheck those that don't, and these will show up on the Full Page Spec report by default.
Image tab: Upload multiple images for each item, the image with the highlighted star will be the main image on the full page spec report, but also the image that shows on reports only allowing one image. Supported formats are listed notes
Pricing tab: Enter your unit cost here or on the Budget tab. If you enter the cost here, and update it on the budget tab, that change will reflect here as well.
Documents tab: You can upload multiple pdf documents for each specification here, tear sheets, floor plans, drawings. The document will print in the same size format as uploaded, i.e., if an 11 x 17 drawing was uploaded, it will print with the report as an 11x17 page size. Please take note of the file size and page number limitation as well as the note about documents with additional markups, this also refers to documents being exported blank.
Linked Specs tab – This is where you Link a specification to another specification i.e. A fabric to a chair or a light bulb to a light. If you are linking a fabric to a pillow, and you know how much yardage you need for one pillow, you can enter the fabric quantity here while you are linking the specs. The software will then take the fabric quantity entered here, and multiple it by the pillow quantity and calculate how much yardage is needed for all pillows. When you go to the fabric specification, you will then see how much yardage you need for all pillows. If you enter the fabric quantity on the linked spec tab, do not enter it on the fabric specification, or you will duplicate your fabric quantities.
Instructions tab: Here you will find standardized instructions that have either been assigned to the spec type template or are relevant to the spec type of the specification you are creating. If the instructions are showing on this tab with a lock, that means they are required to show on for all the same specs using the same spec type template, i.e. All seating specifications will have the same standard instructions because the instructions were tagged as required to the Seating spec template.
History tab: This tab shows all the revisions made to a specification, you can see the day and time of the update, and who made the change.
Budget
Create a comprehensive budget for your project, by adding all project costs markups and taxes, then turn the information into a Quote, Proposal or Invoice and send it to your client.
When you start the budget, you will see quantity, unit cost and ext. cost. If you are seeing quantity with a lock beside it, that means you have specified the quantity by area.
To quickly update the spec quantity, click on the blue spec code/description and you will be taken directly to the spec details page where you can update the quantity.
Filters: To create a budget for a specific Area, Spec Type, Category or Vendor you can utilize the filters. You can select multiple filters if you are looking for items.
Additional costs: ADD menu
Item Level Costs: This will show up as a column within the budget, allowing you to add a different dollar or percentage amount to each specification for that cost. i.e., Shipping can be an item level cost where each item might have a different shipping cost. You can specify if an item level cost is taxable, and if it’s based off the unit cost or sell price.
Budget Level Cost: If added to the budget as a percentage, the percentage will be based off the ‘Total Cost’ (of all items). If added to the budget as a dollar amount, it will be a lump sum added to the ‘Totals’ column.
Allowances: This will allow you to add an estimated amount to allocate for a category of items which have not yet been individually specified, such as accessories or art.
Deposit: An amount deducted from the overall budget, this can be as a percentage or a dollar amount.
Tax: These are calculated last, on any items or costs that are marked as taxable.
Markup
Item Level Markup: This will show as a column in the budget, you can add a markup percentage to each item individually. If you do not know the markup percentage, you can add the sell price and the markup will be calculated for you.
Budget Level Markup: A percentage that will be based off the ‘Total Cost’.
Bulk Edit: This will allow you to apply the same item level cost or markup to multiple items at the same time.
Export: You can export the budget or a filtered budget to an excel document or an Estimate to QuickBooks.
Vendors
Although this is a tab within the project specific workspace, it is a global tab.
On this tab you can setup vendor, manufacturer and vendor Rep contact information. Once the contact information has been setup, you can link contacts together, so that they auto populate on a spec when one company name is selected.
Labels can be setup within the labels tab on the left. Multiple labels can be assigned to a vendor or manufacturer, there is a labels filter at the top of the page and in the spec library, so that you can filter vendor/manufacturer contacts.
If you deal with an inside company contact, you can add their contact information within the vendor’s contact information. If the vendor has an outside representative or multiple representatives that you deal with, you can add them to the representative’s tab, then link the vendor to the representative.
If you add a vendor and vendor rep to the specification on the details tab, you will see the vendor address and vendor rep information on the full page spec report.
When only adding a vendor to the specification, the vendor contact will be shown on the full page spec report.
Reports Tab
On this tab there are several different reports available to you, below is a brief description about each report.
Specification Reports
Full Page Spec: This report will provide the most information for each specification including uploaded documents. This report also has several filters available on the ‘Settings’ tab, these filters will allow you to add or remove information from your report, i.e., vendor contact information can be removed. The sort order can be updated on the back end of the report to Category (then spec code), Spec Type (then spec code), Spec Code, Hierarchy (group linked specs together)
Spec Index: This report is a fixed template; all the column information is not customizable. A ‘Location’ custom attribute needs to be added to the spec template with a description on the details tab, to map into information into this column. One thing to note is that the issue/revision date that shows on a header added to this report, will show the project issuance and revision dates.
Spec Schedule: This report will show more information than a spec index and less than the full page spec. This is a great report to group your specs by area, category, or spec type.
Matrix Reports
Area Spec Matrix: This is going to show a breakdown of specification quantities per area.
Room Matrix: This is a high level breakdown of area quantities per floor.
Budget Reports: Cost and quantity information must be added for items to generate this report. We also recommend that you add your quantities by area, which will allow you to create a budget for each area of the project.
Internal Budget: This report shows all specification unit costs, additional costs, markups etc. that were added to the budget.
Quote Report: This is your client facing report, any markups added to the budget will not be shown here, you will only see the item sell price, along with additional costs, tax, and deposit amounts. The report can be renamed and used as an Invoice or Proposal; a client signature can be added along with terms to the end of the report, from the pink Budget Setup tab.