Overview
Fieldwire is now offering Project Management solutions to Business Plus level customers. These solutions include entirely new RFIs and Submittals modules. If you're interested in seeing these new modules in action, please request a demo with our Sales Team!
Table of Contents
Enabling Project Management
Once you have purchased PM through our Sales Team or upgraded to Business Plus, you'll need to enable PM on your projects.
Note: This step can only be facilitated by an Account Manager.
Any project with PM enabled will have a delineation in the left sidebar between the ‘Field Management’ and ‘Project Management’ modules.
In the project Settings tab, you'll see the option to "Enable Project Management". Once you click that button, that option will no longer be there, and you'll see 'RFIs’, 'Submittals', 'Change Orders', and 'Budget' nested under the ‘Project Management’ section of the sidebar.
Here is the result of clicking the "Enable Project Management" button:
Onboarding for Project Management
Once Project Management has been enabled on your account, if you are accessing the RFIs, Submittals, or Change Orders tabs on your projects for the first time, you will see a pop-up to help get you started with Project Management in Fieldwire and setting up your “Company” on the project. First, you’ll need to add your company name and click the "Next" button. This will be the same company name for all PM modules on the project. However, it is not automatically filled by the “Company” information you put into your profile settings.
Next, you’ll be asked to enter your company code, which will help you and your team stay organized throughout the project.
And, that’s it! In the example shown in these screenshots, we used the company name, ABC, as well as the company code, ABC.
Companies
Once PM is enabled on your project, you can organize users by ‘Companies’ under the project ‘People’ option.
Note: The "Companies" you set up on each project for PM are not the "Company" that you are associated with in your Profile Settings. Changing one has no effect on the other.
How to Set Up Companies
Any Project Admin can create a new company from the project ‘People’ tab. To do so:
- Click on + New company
- Enter the Company name
- Enter a Company code
- Enter the Company address (optional)
Note: The Company Code indicates the original company that created the RFI, Submittal, or Change Order.
Project Admins can move users into companies. To do so, either individually, or en masse:
- Select the checkbox to the left of the respective user(s)
- Click the Actions dropdown
- Select Move to company
- Choose the company you want to move those users to (or click + New company to create a new one)
- Click Move
Similarly, you can add a user to a company after clicking on the three vertical dots to the right of a user’s name:
Once you have created the relevant companies for your project, they will be displayed in alpha-numeric order unless you have a Lead Company set on the project in which case that company will be displayed first. We'll discuss Lead companies in more detail in the next section.
How to set a Lead Company
To make sure that all RFIs, Submittals, and Change Orders go through your "company" in Fieldwire, you can now set a Lead Company. To get started, you'll first want to go to the project People tab and then click on "Set lead company" for the company that you want to be considered the "lead".
Note on Lead Companies: Only Admins in the Lead company will have access to the Budget Module
After clicking on "Set lead company", you'll get a pop-up that indicates what the users in the Lead company can do vs users in the "Other companies" that were not designated to be the lead. For example, users in the Lead company can send RFIs to any company, but users in the "Other companies" on that project can only send RFIs to the lead company.
In addition, users in the Lead company can send submittals to or request submittals from any company, whereas users in the "Other companies" can only send submittals to the lead company. Lastly, users in the Lead company can send change orders to or request them from any company, whereas users in the "Other companies" can only send change orders to the lead company.
Once you've decided that you do want to set a lead company, you'll need to click on the blue "Set lead company" button. After you click the blue button, you'll see the lead company indicated with a crown icon and "Lead company" next to it.
Managing Companies
Project Admins can select the three dots shown in the short video below to adjust the name of the company as well as the company code.
Note: When making changes to the Company Code, as it states in the blue highlighted text, please be aware that "this will change the code for all Project Management documents created by this company."
Field Access
The ‘Field Access’ drop-down determines the level of access for the ‘Field Management’ tabs - Users can be ‘Admins’, ‘Members’, or ‘Followers’. Any users that have ‘Admin’ Field Permissions are able to invite users to a company and adjust a user’s Field and PM access level:
PM Permissions Tables & Available Actions
Outside of ‘Field Access’, Project Admins have the option to adjust the ‘PM Access’ level of users. A user’s PM access level will determine how they can interact with RFIs, Submittals, and Change Orders. When inviting users to your project, you'll be able to choose whether you want them to be a Manager or a Contributor. If you need to adjust the ‘PM Access’ level of a user, choose the drop-down menu under the ‘PM Access’ column:
RFI Permissions Table
Key items to note:
- All permissions assume the user is in the same company as the current assignee unless noted.
- The “*Asker company” is the company which created the RFI and submitted the question.
- Admins can create new RFIs when not in a company (neither manager nor contributor), and then move themselves to a company upon assigning an RFI (and will be automatically made a Manager).
- Lead company permissions (only applies when there is a lead company set):
- Only lead company users may Answer on behalf
- The asker company may only reassign RFIs in Open status if they are the Lead company
Submittal Permissions Table
Key items to note:
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All permissions assume the user is in the same company as the current assignee unless noted.
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The “*Submitter company” is the company that requests the submittal, receives it in pending review, and takes the “Submit for approval” action.
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Admins can create new submittals when not in a company (neither manager nor contributor), and then move themselves to a company upon assigning a submittal (and will be automatically made manager).
- When a Lead company is set on the project, users in the non-Lead company cannot Respond on behalf, even if they are the ones to submit the Submittal to the Lead company user
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Lead company permissions (only applies when there is a lead company set):
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Submittals that are created and submitted directly for review to the lead company are not visible to users in the lead company other than the assignee after it moves to Pending approval unless they are added as a watcher. e.g.
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User in sub company creates a submittal and submits it for review to user X in the lead company
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User X submits that submittal for approval to user Y in the architect company
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Now, all other users in the lead company will not be able to view the submittal except for user X unless they are explicitly made a watcher.
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Change Order Permissions Table
Key items to note:
- All permissions assume the user is in the same company as the current assignee unless noted.
- When a Lead company is set on the project, users in the non-Lead company cannot Respond on behalf, even if they are the ones to submit the Change Order to the Lead company user
How to Invite Users
When inviting users from the "People" tab of a project with PM enabled you will have the option to set Field and PM access and select or create a new company while inviting the new users. Additionally, when selecting the company for the new user, the companies will be listed alpha-numerically.
Note: If inviting users to a project with PM permissions enabled, the account level "People" tab will not display Company selection or the PM Access option.
More Information:
- Get Started with RFIs in Fieldwire
- The Submittals Workflow in Fieldwire
- Sign up for the The Fieldwire Research Program
PM Tutorial