Imagine if you had no easy way to access or manage your plans…

Rework would increase, productivity would flat-line, and profitability would ultimately suffer.

Thankfully, this isn’t the case for you!

As a Fieldwire user, you can easily locate plans, manage your markups, and update information — even when you’re working from the field.

But just in case that isn’t enough, we’ve got a few handy tips that’ll save you even more time, especially when you’re working on-the-go.

1. Use private markups to reduce noise on plans

You may already know that any markup you draw in purple will remain private to you. But did you know you can ‘Filter’ your markups to only display those that are purple? This is the best way to reduce the amount of noise on a plan and focus solely on your private markups.

As a project admin or member, you can also change the privacy nature of a markup by updating its color at any time. Just right-click on the markup (or long-press on mobile), and choose ‘Details’. Then choose purple to make the markup private or a different color to make it public.

2. Use keyboard shortcuts to add markups in seconds

Here are a few keyboard shortcuts that’ll save you time when adding markups to plans on the web:

• ‘shift+t’ = Add task
• ‘p’ = Draw with pen
• ‘a’ = Add arrow
• ‘c’ = Add cloud
• ‘t’ = Add text box
• ‘m’ = Add measurement

Want more keyboard shortcuts? Here’s a full list.

3. Change plan names to prevent automatic versioning

Have you ever wished you could change the name of a plan to a page number? Did you know that you can?

Once Fieldwire has finished scanning and naming your plans, you have the option to revert the names of those plans to chronological page numbers. Simply select the ‘Revert to Page Numbers’ button, then specify a naming convention. This is an extremely useful hack if you do not want your plans to automatically version.

Want to know more about version control? Watch this helpful video for a complete overview.

4. Adjust your plan version description

By default, Fieldwire names your plan versions after the date at which they were uploaded (e.g. “2019-11-15”). However, you have the option to rename these version names in bulk to match a particular drawing issuance package, such as “Bid set” or “Addendum 2”. Go to the ‘Version Control’ menu and click ‘Edit’ next to a particular upload to edit the version name for that upload.

Read this help article for more information.

Extra tip: On the web, you can filter your plans by version name from the ‘Filter plans’ menu.

5. Use hashtags to easily group and find plans

Many of you have hundreds, if not thousands, of plans stored in Fieldwire. Which is why we recommend using hashtags for finding plans with ease.

Hashtags are commonly used to group together plans across folders — e.g. plans associated with a particular level or trade.

Simply ‘Select’ the specific plans you want to group together, then click ‘Manage tags’ to add the hashtag you want to use. Now when you search for plans using that hashtag, only the selected plans will appear! This is a great tip for users who need to quickly and frequently access specific plans during the course of a project.

Want more tagging tips? Watch this video to learn how to batch edit plan hashtags.

If you have any questions or concerns, please email support@feldwire.com. And don’t forget we have plenty more guides available in our resource center.

If you’d prefer to have Fieldwire tips and tricks delivered straight to your inbox, please subscribe to our weekly newsletter, The Wire.

Fieldwire’s forms module gives Business and Premier users one place to consolidate all of their paper forms — daily reports, safety audit forms, QA/QC inspection checklists, request for information (RFI) forms, timesheet forms, and time and materials (T&M) forms.

Within this module, we offer pre-made form templates to save you time as well as the option to create your own custom forms from scratch!

So, how can we save you even more time when creating and managing forms? Follow these handy tips from Fieldwire’s product team:

1. Use custom lists to simplify reporting

Want to reduce the time it takes your team members to submit a form? Custom lists are the way to go! Instead of users having to type out work conditions or construction divisions, e.g. which CSI division they’re from, they’ll just need to select the right option (or item) from the custom list.

Project admins can create (and manage) all custom lists from the project settings tab where they’ll be prompted to name the list and input each item.

If you are the project admin and forget to add an item, just select ‘Import’ or ‘New item.’ We recommend using the ‘Import’ option if you need to add more than one entry, e.g. paste several entries from an existing list in a spreadsheet.

2. Add drop-downs to ensure privacy

If you feel you’re having trouble communicating to others what your list is about, we suggest using the ‘Hint’ drop-down to describe the purpose of your custom list. If not, just leave this field set to ‘N/A.’

Extra tip: You can set the drop-down menu to the right of each item as ‘Visible’ or ‘Hidden’ to hide certain items from non-admins. If you want to hide the entire list, go back to the project settings tab and set the whole list to ‘Hidden.’

3. Duplicate forms to reduce rework

Save your team even more time by duplicating the forms they commonly use on the same project. Once you duplicate a form template it will also become available on the mobile version of Fieldwire! This is the best workaround if you want to have multiple copies of a form available on your mobile app.

4. Clone forms to speed up project setup

Another time-saving hack is to clone form templates from one project to another. However, form templates can only be copied over to new projects, not existing ones. This help article explains the processes for both duplicating and cloning forms in more depth.

5. Link forms in tasks to minimize risk

Instead of having to jump back-and-forth between your tasks and forms tab, you can create a form within a task or link an existing form to an existing task. E.g. a task outlining an issue with a wall and an RFI.

6. Analyze data using CSV exports

Do you know that every type of user can export a form but only a project admin can delete or un-submit it?

If you are the project admin and need to export more than one form, e.g. a daily report and an inspection request, simply click on the white box to the left of the report title and select the form/s you wish to download.

If you select the white box to the left of the folder title (in bold), all of the forms in that folder will be downloaded.

Extra tip: You can export a form as a PDF first to preview it, and then email it to all of your colleagues using the email button.

Right now, the only way to export (or download) a form is from the forms tab on the web. But we plan to change that soon!

If you have any questions or concerns, please email support@feldwire.com. Don’t forget we have plenty more guides available in our resource center if you need them.

If you’d prefer to have Fieldwire tips and tricks delivered straight to your inbox, please subscribe to our weekly newsletter, The Wire.

This week’s Customer Spotlight: BEI Construction, a NorCal-based company specializing in electrical and data infrastructure as well as solar power design and installation. Administrative Support Manager Rachel Pomeroy (pictured above) and Project Engineer Danielle Lee both use Fieldwire to communicate with their project team in the field from their office in San Leandro.

Current projects

Medical center client: fiber optic network installation; on-site data center upgrade

Tech client: project management support; security installations; cabling and A/V for multiple offices

Why they chose Fieldwire

Danielle: “We do a lot of big projects with a lot of items that need to be completed. We chose Fieldwire because we could customize it to our processes to make the company run more efficiently.”

Rachel: “We looked at PlanGrid, Construction Viz, BuildingBlok — all the majors ones that we were seeing GCs using. One of our criteria was that it needed to solve for the gaps in our office-to-field communications — OSHA, change orders, problems that needed to be communicated to the PMs on other projects or in the office. Before Fieldwire, we were texting, making phone calls, and of course things would be forgotten.

“We also wanted it to be easy for our guys in the field to adopt, that we wouldn’t need to get into too much training. It needed to be something anyone can adapt to and be into even if they aren’t so tech savvy.

“Compared to the others, Fieldwire is the most intuitive and user-friendly. It continues to be user-friendly for new users.

“We also like the adaptability of tasks. We get creative with the base templates — they’re really flexible and can be tweaked depending on the project.”

How they use Fieldwire

Danielle: “Fieldwire has so much functionality and it works with our other process that we use to make sure things run smoothly. We use it to work through issues that come up in the field and coordinate with our different divisions — we can make sure that any issues that arise get addressed.

“The forms help our teams make sense of what needs to be done when they’re out in the field. We use tasks like a ticket system — everything is documented in a task with a checklist. We can see who’s assigned each task, its status, and what’s been completed — we get notified in real-time when anything changes and everything’s documented.

“We use Excel spreadsheets with links to tasks for everyone to see and to make our work quantifiable. They’re useful for scheduling and look-aheads — we get a general view of our projects and technicians see which rooms they’ll be working on next.”

Rachel: “For our medical center client, all the rooms we’re working on are scheduled through Fieldwire. We screenshot the calendar and send that to all the PMs so they can see what each department is working on.”

“I love how I can customize reports to communicate exactly what we need to when there are issues — and it helps protect us in a legal sense. We’ve had situations where we used the reports with timestamped photos to show where we’ve run into issues, ‘We can’t move on these, here are ten drawings with the pics linked.’ The reporting is exact, concise, and very professional. I don’t know how we could’ve done it otherwise.

“It’s exciting that we’ve started using Fieldwire for tailgate topics, weekly safety, anything that needs to be signed off on. We upload files and use the share function to make sure everyone gets them — they’re not loose documents we hope to get filled out, instead we get real-time feedback.

“It’s also fun to see how Fieldwire adoption bubbles up over time. How much use it gets depends on how savvy the crew is. Some are good at tech — AV teams adapt really well. We find some field workers that are disinterested in tech, but when one or two people get excited about using it, their enthusiasm is contagious.”

Interested in learning how Fieldwire can help you? Contact us today!

For all of our newcomers just getting started on Fieldwire (hey!), we created this simple guide that’ll help you set up your first project.

But for power users looking to learn about Fieldwire’s more advanced project features, this is for you!

We’ve got a bunch of tips and tricks up our sleeve for importing tasks, cloning projects, and setting user permissions. So let’s get straight to it.

Importing tasks in bulk

Save time during project setup with Fieldwire’s task importer! This handy feature is great for users who need to create repeatable tasks in bulk or import their tasks from a schedule in Excel.

To import all of your tasks from one plan to another — from, say, ‘Building 1’ to ‘Building 2,’ follow the steps outlined in this video tutorial. To get the most out of this feature, take note of the following tips:

1. Use a spreadsheet template to maintain a list of repeatable tasks and copy/paste those in Fieldwire’s task importer at project creation
2. If any data is highlighted in red on import, it means something is wrong with it — e.g., there could be a formatting issue with a date which you’d need to fix in Excel before copying over again
3. Start typing within the task importer window to add in a task attribute you’d previously left out, such as a hashtag – Fieldwire will auto-populate your options
4. Add files to your tasks by referencing an existing file in the task importer window

Cloning a project

Do you have similar projects which need creating over and over again? Save even more time during project setup by cloning existing projects! Cloning a project will copy over existing project attributes to another so that all you need to do is upload your project documents. Now you’re ready to go!

To clone a project, select ‘+New Project’ on the project dashboard, then select the project you’d like to clone. Just like importing tasks, you can select exactly which attributes you want to be copied over. It’s that easy!

If you think that you’ll be cloning a particular kind of project frequently, create a project template that is pre-populated with the relevant categories, forms, checklists, folders, and settings. This is a useful time-saving tip if you work on many projects at once.

Setting user permissions

There are three main types of user permission levels on Fieldwire: admins, members, and followers. From the People tab, you can add new users, set user permission levels, and remove users from a project. To learn more about setting up users, read this guide.

In a nutshell, here’s what the permissions are and how they work:

• Admins: Admins have full access to and total control over a project. They’re also the only people that can mark that project’s tasks as verified
• Members: Members can do most of the things that admins can with the exceptions of adding or deleting plans, inviting new users to the project (without admin approval), and deleting tasks containing attachments. And one more thing: they can mark tasks as completed, but not as verified
• Followers: Followers can only see tasks that are or have been assigned to them. They can create tasks, but cannot generate reports or edit, add, or delete plans, tasks, categories, or users. They also cannot add markups, hyperlinks, or attachments

Of course, you can make everyone on your team an admin if you like — though only a current admin can grant admin permission to another user. However, most folks prefer to set their PMs and supers as project admins and designate most of their teammates as members.

If you have any questions or concerns, please email us at support@feldwire.com. We also have many more guides available in our resource center.

If you want more tips and tricks like this delivered straight to your inbox, please subscribe to our weekly newsletter, The Wire.