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 and the cost the client approves; an invoice bills against it; a vendor order commits the cost; a vendor bill records what you actually incurred; 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 budgeted, 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 template, 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 the first four types you choose a template — a Change Order, a Lien Waiver, an AIA Pay App, and so on. The template shapes the record's body and decides whether it pulls from your budget. See Record templates to manage them. Bid Requests are the exception: that type has one fixed template and takes no custom ones.

Where records live

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

Whichever type you open, the builder shows the document paginated exactly as the PDF will break, and the side panel carries a Download PDF button — all five types render a PDF.

Find a record

1. From Records, type into the Search box to match a title, record number, or project.
2. Click Filters to narrow by Type, Status, Project, or Date — Date takes a preset or an explicit From and To.
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 template under its type heading (Client Agreements, Client Finances, Vendor Agreements, Vendor Finances, or Bid Requests).
3. Under each heading sits a one-line description of what that type is for, and the heading carries a small ? — hover it to see what that type moves on the budget, and when (a Client Agreement sets Approved Price only once the client accepts; a Vendor Agreement adds to Committed only once the vendor accepts). The ? beside the window's own title says what records are in the first place.
4. The builder opens. Customize it, add recipients, and send — see Customize & send a record.

Start a record from the budget

You can also start from the numbers instead of a blank page — select the budget lines first and the record opens already priced.

1. Open the project's Budget and select the rows you want. Selecting a group takes everything under it.
2. Open Selected row actions in the toolbar above the sheet and choose Create a record from these lines. It only appears once rows are selected and you have the required editing access. Foreman saves any pending budget changes before continuing.
3. The same Create Record window opens — with no Project to pick, since the budget already knows it — and you choose a template as usual.
4. The builder opens with those lines already on the document, priced from the budget. A toast confirms how many landed; if some couldn't go on that record, it says how many were left out. Click Save in the record's sidebar action row to persist the imported lines and your other edits.