Documents
Each project has a Documents tab for drawings, invoices, contracts, meeting minutes, schedules — any file that isn't a site photo.
Uploading
- Open the project's Documents tab and choose Upload.
- Pick the file — PDF, Word, Excel, or an image of a document all work.
Automatic filing
After upload, BuildFlow reads the document and suggests what it is — invoice, receipt, meeting minutes, log notes, site data, preliminary studies, contract, drawing, permit, schedule, payment certificate, bill of quantities, bill — with a one-line summary. Site data holds survey plans and deeds; preliminary studies holds feasibility studies and moodboards; log notes holds running site notes. Wrongly filed? Hover a document card and tap its category chip (a small tag showing what it's filed as) to pick a different one — on a phone or tablet the chip is always visible. Select several cards with their checkboxes to set a category on all of them at once — bulk changes keep running after you leave the page, and the bell tells you when they're finished. If a site photo ends up in Documents (or a document in Photos), BuildFlow notices and offers to move it. Each category groups its documents under a heading you can collapse or expand to focus on one at a time.
Tagging drawings
A document filed as Drawing also gets tags — what kind of drawing it is, in more detail than the category alone: Floor Plans, Structural Details, Electrical Layouts, and so on, grouped under 13 broader categories (General, Site, Layouts, Elevations, Sections, Details, Schedules, Structural, Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing, Fire Protection, Other). FlowBot applies tags automatically as part of filing the drawing — small icon chips appear on the card; hover (or tap) a chip to see its name.
Tags wrong or missing? Click the dashed + Tag chip on the card to open the tag picker. Tick or untick a broad category, or expand it to tick or untick one of its specifics — either level applies independently, so a drawing can carry a category, any of its specifics, or several of each. Changes save immediately.
Tags only apply to drawings — other document categories (invoices, contracts, schedules…) don't show tag chips.
Searching
The search bar above the document list matches by tag, filename, or the description FlowBot wrote together — start typing a tag's name and pick it from the list that appears to add it as a chip (picking a broad category also matches every drawing filed under one of its specifics), or just type part of a filename or description and press nothing further. Add several tag chips or mix chips with typed text — a document matching any one of them shows. The Media tab has its own search bar too, but photos and videos aren't tagged, so it matches filename and FlowBot's description only.
Viewing
- PDFs open in a new tab.
- Images open in a large viewer.
- Word/Excel files are download-to-open — BuildFlow doesn't edit them in the browser.
Renaming a file
A document is first named after the file you uploaded. To give it a clearer name, click its title on the document card and type a new one — press Enter to save, Esc to cancel. Leave it blank to go back to the original filename. Renaming only changes the display name; it doesn't affect the file itself or where it's filed.
Who can see a file
A newly uploaded document is open — everyone on the project can see it — unless your workspace has been set up to keep new files private until shared (an admin sets this up in Settings).
To change just one file, hover its card and tap Lock. That makes it Restricted: from then on, only the people you add can see or open it — and FlowBot won't bring it up to anyone else either. A restricted document always shows a Restricted badge on its card.
Add the people who should still see it, one at a time — either by name, or by a role like "the quantity surveyor" (a role pick isn't tied to whoever holds it today; it follows whoever takes on that role later) — and choose how much each one can do:
- Can view — open and download it.
- Can contribute — that, plus upload new revisions.
- Can manage — that, plus delete it and change who else can see it.
Whoever uploaded the document, and the workspace's admins, always keep full access — a file can never end up locked away from everyone.
Restricting a document doesn't shut out a task it's attached to: whoever's assigned to or watching that task can still see it, for as long as it stays attached.
People without access simply don't see a restricted document at all — it's left out of the list and search results, not greyed out. Following a direct link to one instead shows a plain page explaining the file is restricted.
Select several document cards with their checkboxes to bring up the selection bar, then use Set access to apply the same choices to all of them at once — this replaces whatever each one had before.
Files with money in them
Some documents follow the Ledger access settings instead of the rules above, because the figures inside them are the same figures the ledger shows. That covers bills, receipts and certificates attached to a ledger entry, invoices BuildFlow generates for you, the fee proposal document behind a fee agreement, the priced bill of quantities you imported into the construction ledger, and any file added to a payment task on the board.
For those, only people set to View amounts or Edit on that ledger can open the file. Someone set to Description only, no amounts can't — handing them the document would show them the very numbers that setting hides. The person who uploaded it, the workspace's admins and the director always keep access, and a director or admin can still add a specific person, or unlock the file entirely, from the file's own access panel.
Each file follows its own ledger: a fee proposal follows the fees ledger, a bill of quantities follows the construction one, and a payment task's own files follow that payment's ledger too — if someone can't see the amounts, they can't open the files either.
Delete the fee proposal it was attached to and the document itself stays in Documents — but it stops being limited to people with ledger access and goes back to the ordinary rules above. BuildFlow warns you about this before you delete.
A receipt on a team member's expense claim works a little differently: it's visible to whoever filed the claim, and to anyone with access to the workspace's general expenses book — not the per-project Ledger access above.
Importing a schedule (gantt chart)
Got a programme of works as a PDF or a photo of a gantt chart? BuildFlow can read it and set up your board:
- Upload the schedule to Documents and file it as a Schedule document — that's what gets you the Add to timeline button on its card.
- BuildFlow reads the rows and suggests what to do with each one: update the dates of a stage or task you already have, create a new task (under the right stage), create a new stage, or ignore the row.
- Review the list. Everything is pre-filled but nothing happens until you approve. Tick the rows you want — one at a time or a whole group — and set the action, parent stage, or assignee for all of them at once from the bar at the bottom. You can also fix an individual row's dates or assignee right there in the list.
- Press Apply. Dates update, new tasks and stages appear on the board.
Uploading a revised programme
Got a newer version of a schedule you already imported? Don't upload it as a brand-new document — open the existing Schedule document's card and press Upload revision, then pick the updated file. BuildFlow files it as a new revision of the same document (the original upload is R0; the first revision is R1, then R2, and so on — click the version chip on the card to see and open every version back to the original) and, since it's a schedule, re-matches it against what you already have on the board — so mostly you just review and press Apply.
Upload revision also appears on any document that already has an earlier revision, even one that isn't filed as Schedule. Already uploaded a newer version as its own separate document by mistake? Use Mark as revision of… on its card and pick the original — BuildFlow links the two so they stack as one document's history instead of two.
Spotting versions
Sometimes you upload a document as a normal, brand-new file — but BuildFlow notices it looks a lot like a newer version of one you already have. When that happens, a small chip appears on the new card offering to file it together as a revision of the original. Tap the chip, then Move in as a revision, and it's linked in one step — or tap Dismiss to leave it as its own separate document. Nothing ever moves on its own; it's always your call.
It works the other way too. If you use Upload revision on a document but the file you picked doesn't actually look related, BuildFlow will say so and offer to keep it as a separate document instead — handy if the wrong file was picked by mistake.
Importing a priced BOQ
A bill of quantities works much the same way as a schedule. Upload the priced BOQ spreadsheet and file it as Bills of quantities — its card then shows an Add to ledger (Import BOQ) action, right where a schedule shows Add to timeline. BuildFlow reads the spreadsheet, pulls out the priced sections and every line item, and opens a review before anything is applied to the Construction ledger.
This only works on a real spreadsheet (.xlsx): a BOQ uploaded as a PDF or image shows a hint to re-upload it as a spreadsheet instead. See Ledger → Bills of quantities for the full walkthrough.