Records overview

Everything you send a client or vendor is a Record — proposals, contracts, change orders, bid requests, invoices, and vendor orders & bills all run through one shared system. They look consistent and track their own status automatically, so you always know where each one stands.

Tied to the budget — or not

The one thing that decides how a record behaves is whether it carries budget line items:

• Budget-linked records pull their line items straight from the project budget — they're the bridge between your client or vendor and the budget sheet. A proposal or change order sets the price the client approves; an invoice bills against it; a vendor order commits the cost; a vendor bill records what you actually spent; a bid request asks vendors to price your scope and feeds the budget's Bid Requests column. As each one is sent, accepted, priced, and paid, the numbers flow back onto the budget's committed, invoiced, collected, and actual columns.
• Sign-only records carry no line items and never touch the budget. Use these when you just need something signed — a lien waiver or another agreement.

Whether a record pulls from the budget is set by its kind, so an agreement can be budget-linked (a proposal) or sign-only (a lien waiver).

Every record has a conversation

You don't ask questions with a separate record — every record has its own message thread built in. Open a record and use Messages to talk it through, and the same thread is shared with the client or vendor it was sent to, so their replies land right on the record (and in your Messages inbox). The records list shows a message count on any record with an active conversation. That's how you handle an RFI-style back-and-forth: send the record, then discuss it in the thread.

The five record types

When you create a record, you pick from five families:

• Client Agreements — proposals, contracts, and change orders you send a client to review and sign (numbered CA-0001).
• Client Finances — invoices you bill a client with (CF-0001).
• Vendor Agreements — purchase orders, work orders, and lien waivers you send a vendor (VA-0001).
• Vendor Finances — bills you record from a vendor (VF-0001).
• Bid Requests — sent to vendors only. A bid request lists your scope without prices; each vendor fills in their own, and the quotes line up side by side and feed the budget's Bid Requests column (BID-001).

Within each type you choose a kind — a Change Order, a Lien Waiver, a Bid Request, and so on. The kind shapes the record's body and decides whether it pulls from your budget. See Record templates to manage your kinds.

Where records live

1. Open Records from the sidebar to see every record across every project in one list.
2. Each project also has its own Records tab showing only that project's records.

Find a record

1. From Records, type into Search records… to match a title, record number, or project.
2. Click Filters to narrow by Type, Status, Project, or Date.
3. Click any row to open it.

Status tracks itself

You never set a record's status by hand. Foreman reads it live from the record itself:

• Draft — being built, not yet sent.
• Active — sent and in flight (sent, viewed, awaiting signatures, overdue).
• Completed — accepted, paid, or closed.
• Cancelled — declined or voided.

Create a record

1. From Records, click Create Record.
2. In the Create Record window, pick a Project, then choose a kind under its type heading.
3. The builder opens. Customize it, add recipients, and send — see Customize & send a record.