Settings

Personal preferences live in Settings (sidebar). Settings for a specific project — its name, code, owner, role access and approval chain — live in that project's own Settings tab.

Language

Switch the app between English and Sinhala.

Instant edits

With Instant edits on (the default), changes on the board and in task panels appear immediately and save in the background — a small "Syncing…" dot shows while saving, and a brief message appears if something couldn't be saved (the change is then undone). Turn it off if you'd rather the app finish saving before it shows each change on screen.

Two-factor sign-in

What it is: a second step when you sign in. After your password, BuildFlow asks for a short 6-digit code that changes every 30 seconds and only exists on your own phone. So even if someone learns your password, they still can't get into your account without your phone. It's the single best thing you can do to keep your account safe, and it takes about two minutes to set up.

New to this? You'll need an "authenticator app" on your phone. That's a free app that shows the rotating codes. If you don't have one, open your phone's app store and install any of these: Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator, or Authy. If you already use a password manager (like 1Password or your browser's), it can usually show these codes too — no separate app needed.

Setting it up

On your computer, open Settings and find Two-factor authentication. Click Enable two-factor.
A square barcode (a "QR code") appears. Open your authenticator app on your phone and tap its + / Add / Scan button, then point your phone's camera at the square. (Can't scan? Under the square is a manual entry key you can type into the app instead.)
The app now shows a 6-digit code for BuildFlow. Type that code back on your computer and click Confirm & enable. That's it — it's on.
BuildFlow then shows ten backup codes. Save them (Copy or Download, then keep them somewhere safe — printed, or in your password manager). These are your way back in if you ever lose your phone. Tick I've saved these and click Done.

From then on, signing in asks for your password and then a code from your app (or a one-time backup code). Each backup code works only once; you can generate a fresh set of ten any time from Settings. Lost both your phone and your backup codes? Ask an admin on your team to turn two-factor off for your account, and you can set it up again.

Your devices

In Settings, next to Two-factor sign-in, you can see every device currently signed in to your account. Don't recognise one? Sign it out — or use Log out everywhere else to end every other sign-in at once and keep only the one you're using right now.

When you enter a code at sign-in, you can also tick Remember this device so it skips asking for a code next time you sign in from it, for about a month. A particularly sensitive action may still ask for a fresh code even on a remembered device.

If BuildFlow notices a sign-in from a device or place it doesn't recognise, you'll get a notification about it. If that wasn't you, sign that device out here and change your password.

Firm security level (admins)

Admins can choose how strict sign-in security is for the whole firm, using a single slider in Settings with four steps. Higher steps are safer but ask people to do a little more:

Basic — Two-factor is optional. Each person decides for themselves.
Standard — Admins must use two-factor. Everyone else is optional.
Strong — Everyone must use two-factor to sign in.
Strict — Everyone must use two-factor, and a few sensitive actions (like deleting a project or changing who can see files) ask for a fresh code first.

When you raise the level, anyone who now needs two-factor is guided to set it up the next time they sign in — nobody is locked out. To change the level you'll need your own two-factor set up first, and a fresh code, so the setting can't be weakened by someone who isn't really you. Once people are using two-factor, they can't turn it off while the firm still requires it.

Workspaces (admins)

Admins can create workspaces here and see how many projects each one holds.

New file access (admins)

Look for New file access next to each workspace in the Workspaces list above. It sets how newly uploaded photos and documents start out: open to everyone on the project, or private to the uploader and admins until shared. This only decides the starting point — anyone can still open up or restrict any individual file afterwards. See Documents → Who can see a file for how that works file by file.

FlowBot email (directors and admins)

When people on a project loop flowbot@buildflow.lk into their email conversations (see FlowBot assistant → Adding FlowBot to an email thread), a workspace's owner decides how she handles what she finds there. These choices apply to every project in the workspace:

Attachments from email — Add them automatically (the default) files a real attachment straight into the project, the same as any other upload. Hold for approval stages it and asks the project's owner to approve it first, for firms that want a person to see every incoming file before it lands. Don't add them skips attachments altogether — useful for a workspace that only wants FlowBot tracking decisions and tasks from email, not files.
Who can loop her in — Anyone on the project (the default) lets any team member add her to a thread about that project. Only the project's owner narrows this to the project's owner, the workspace's director, or an admin — so a workspace can keep who's directing FlowBot's attention limited to the people already responsible for that project. Everyone else simply won't be offered that project when FlowBot asks which one a thread belongs to.
Keep a written summary — on by default: FlowBot keeps a running, searchable note of each conversation as a document in the project, so anyone can catch up without reading the whole email thread. Turn it off if you'd rather she only surface suggestions and filed attachments, with no separate summary document.

You'll find these choices on the Settings page, in the FlowBot email card for each workspace you manage — changes save as you pick them. If you don't manage the workspace, ask its owner or an admin.

Approval chain — office default (admins)

Admins set the office-wide default payment approval chain here. Any project can still set its own version in its Settings tab.

Ledger access (directors and admins)

Open a project's Settings tab and look for Ledger access. There, a director or admin chooses what each person on the project can see in its two ledgers — fees and construction — one choice for each person, for each ledger.

Four choices, from least to most:

No access — that ledger doesn't show up for them at all.
Description only, no amounts — they see what's listed (titles, dates, status) but never a figure.
View amounts — they see everything, but can't add or change anything.
Edit — full access: add agreements and certificates, approve, and record payments.

A director or admin always has full edit access to both ledgers and can't be locked out of their own project's money.

These choices also decide who can open the documents that carry those figures — bills and receipts attached to an entry, generated invoices, a fee proposal, an imported priced bill of quantities, and any file added to a payment task on the board. Only View amounts and Edit reach them. See Documents → Files with money in them.

Giving someone Edit access to a workspace's general expenses book also lets that person approve team members' expense claims and mark them reimbursed.

Hints in the app

Small grey guide-lines appear around the app — a one-line note about what each page is for, and suggestions for the next step (those disappear on their own once you've done the step). Many link to a section of this guide.

Experimental features

Some things in BuildFlow work, but haven't had enough real-world use for us to call them finished. Rather than surprise you with them, they sit behind one switch — off unless you turn it on.

An admin turns it on under Settings → Experimental features. It applies to your whole firm, not just you.

What's in it right now

Recording a meeting — recording a meeting from a task's Minutes pad and having BuildFlow write up the transcript, including meetings held in Sinhala or Tamil. It works well in our testing, but it hasn't yet been through enough real site meetings — noisy rooms, several people talking over each other, phones on the table — for us to promise it.

What happens when it's off

Nothing you rely on disappears. With the switch off, meeting and site-visit tasks keep the Minutes pad exactly as it is: type your notes, tap Wrap up, check the decisions and follow-ups, turn them into tasks, and generate the minutes document. Only the Record button is hidden.

Why we do it this way

An early feature that quietly does the wrong thing is worse than one you chose to switch on. Keeping these behind a switch means you decide when to try something, and you can turn it back off just as easily — nothing you've already created is affected either way. Recordings and transcripts you've already made stay where they are.

Usage

The Usage panel shows what your firm is using across BuildFlow — people, workspaces, projects, files and the space they take, and how often the assistant has acted for you. Everything is currently unlimited, so the numbers are just a picture of your activity; if plans with limits ever arrive, this is where you'll see where you stand.