Customer access

1. Set up what the job shows.

   At the top of Customer access, check the modules under What they see, described below. What is checked here shows to everyone with access, now and as it changes. Add a Message for the customer for the top of every customer's page if you like, such as when paving starts or who to call. If a project manager is named on the job, their name shows at the top of the page (Project manager on their page); check Show phone or Show email to show those too. Select Save. Save as the default for new jobs, where you have it, makes these the checks new jobs start with.

2. Start it.

   Under People with access, select Add a person. Each person or office gets a link of their own.

3. Say who it is for.

   Who is it for is only for you, to tell your links apart. Put their address under Email it to and Aggrado emails them the link, and emails them again whenever a change order or pay application is waiting on them.

4. Choose their access.

   Access is Full access (they can approve change orders, answer pay applications and ask for changes) or Read only (the same page with none of those buttons). You can change it later on their row.

5. Set a passcode.

   A Passcode of six characters or more is optional but recommended. Send it to them separately from the link. They type it each time they open the page, and repeated wrong tries lock the link for a while.

6. Choose when it stops.

   Stops working is three months ahead unless you change it. Leave it empty and the link never stops.

7. Copy the link.

   They see what is checked for the job under What they see. Select Add them (or Add them and email the link), then Copy link if you want to send it yourself too. The link is shown only this once and is not kept anywhere, not even in Aggrado. If they lose it, Email the link again sends them a fresh copy; each email after the first carries its own button, and a notice's button works for 30 days.

The note under each module under What they see says exactly what it shares. Unless your company has saved its own default, a new job starts with pay applications, lien waivers and change orders on. At the time of writing, the modules are:

• Financial summary — the contract, including approved changes, and what has been billed to date, at the top of the page. Shown only to people who also see pay applications or invoices.
• Pay applications — each application with its lines, retainage, backup and PDF. Full access can approve one or send it back.
• Lien waivers — your waivers with each pay application, ready to download. Turn on pay applications first.
• Invoices and payments — invoices on this job, what has been paid on each, and what is left.
• Change orders — the change orders you have sent them. Full access can approve with a signature, or decline.
• Ask for a change — lets them ask for a change from the page. Full access only. See below.
• Schedule — dates and percent complete, against the baseline once it is set. Subscribe in your calendar puts the schedule in their own calendar app and keeps it up to date as dates move; Download it once gives a copy that doesn't change. The calendar address opens only the schedule, never the page, and stops when the link is turned off.
• Daily reports — only the words written for the customer, on reports that have been approved.
• Photos — progress photos on the daily reports they can see. Turn on daily reports first.
• RFIs — the RFIs that have gone out, and their answers.
• Submittals — what has been sent for review, the stamp that came back, and the dates.
• Documents and files — what you share under Documents and files for the customer, grouped as plans, test reports, as-builts, permits and other documents.
• Stormwater inspections — signed inspections as their reports, and the actions still open.
• Cover photo — a photo of the job at the top of their page.

Some modules, such as change orders, pay applications, invoices, RFIs and submittals, also have Items shown, to show only some of their items by status. At least one stays on; to show none, turn the module off.

To share a document, select Share a document under Documents and files for the customer, say What it is, give it a Title they will recognize, choose the file, and select Share it. Plans can come straight from a plan set on the job instead (From a plan set). Everyone who sees Documents and files sees the same list. Leave Email the customer that it’s there checked and the addresses on those links get an email once the file is up. Remove takes it off their page; Aggrado keeps the record with the date.

With Financial summary off, the top of the page shows no contract amount or billed to date. Someone who sees neither pay applications nor invoices never sees it, whatever is checked.

Whatever is switched on, the customer's page never shows:

• your cost, budget, forecast, margin or committed cost;
• hours, rates, payroll or who was on site;
• the office's own daily report narrative;
• your suggested answer or impact note on an RFI, or the reviewer's notes on a submittal;
• drafts and anything void;
• cost codes or crew notes on the schedule.

The customer opens the link on a phone or computer, enters the passcode if there is one, and reads the page. Nothing they type reaches anybody except three things, and someone with Read only access can do none of them:

• Deciding a change order. A change waiting on them has Approve and Decline. To approve they give their name, an optional title, and draw their signature, then select Sign and approve; to decline, a name and an optional note, then Decline change order. Approving marks the change order approved and tells the project manager; it goes into the contract when you execute it. The signed change order PDF, from PDF beside it, shows their signature. A change without a price can only be declined.
• Answering a pay application. Each application opens line by line: what each pay item is worth, billed this period and to date, what's left, and the retainage held. Approve takes their name and a drawn signature (Sign and approve); Send back takes a note saying what needs fixing. Approving moves no money and marks nothing paid. Sent back, it shows as sent back on your Pay applications tab with their note; Reopen to revise turns it back into a draft under the same number, and sending it again emails them to answer afresh.
• Asking for a change, when Ask for a change is checked.

Lien waivers go with a pay application from its panel on your Pay applications tab: make one from the application (the amount and the through-date filled in) and sign it on screen, or upload a copy signed elsewhere. Once signed or uploaded, the customer downloads it with the application. Where the contract or a state (Mississippi, Wyoming) wants it notarized, Print it for a notary prints it unsigned with a notary's certificate: sign it at the notary's desk, then Upload the notarized copy, and the customer downloads it marked notarized. The waiver Aggrado makes is a common form, not a state's statutory text. Some states set out a form the waiver must follow (Georgia, Mississippi, Texas and Wyoming among them), so a notarized common form may not be enough there: fill in that state's form, have it signed (and notarized where the state asks), and upload that copy instead.

They can also download, for their own records: each change order as a PDF, and Download for Excel, the latest pay application line by line with its retainage and the change order log, as a file their draw spreadsheet or software opens.

A customer with several projects, with you or with other contractors on Aggrado, can keep them all in one place. On a link, select Invite them to an account, check Their email, and select Email the invitation. The address is added to the link's emails too.

They sign in, or sign up with that address, and select Add it to your projects. Only someone signed in with the address you invited can accept it, and the invitation works for 14 days. From then on, Your projects lists every project shared with them; Open it opens the same page the link does, showing the same modules, without asking for the link's passcode. Projects with a change order or pay application waiting on them come first, saying what's waiting, and Email me when something is waiting on this project lets them turn that project's emails off or back on themselves.

A customer's account is not a place in your company: they aren't on your Users and roles page, hold no role and cost nothing. Remove account takes the project off their list and closes any page they have open from it. Turning the link off does the same for everyone on it.

With Ask for a change checked, a customer with Full access selects Ask for one, says What you'd like changed, adds more under Tell them more, gives their name and selects Send it. Asking does not agree to anything.

1. You are told.

   Project managers and owners receive a notice, and the request appears at the top of the job's Change orders tab.

2. Price it.

   Select Price it. A draft change order is made from the request. Price it and send it as usual; the customer sees that it is being priced, and decides it once it reaches them.

3. Or decline it.

   Select Decline and write why, in words they will read on their page, then select Decline again.

Each person under People with access shows their access, when their link stops working, when it was last opened, and anything held back from them. To change what everyone sees, change the checks under What they see and select Save. On a person's row:

• Full access or Read only — change their access.
• Change what they see — hold modules back from this person only, change Who we email, or add a Message for this person only under the job's message for the customer. They see the change the next time they open the page.
• What happened on it — when it was opened, wrong passcodes, and changes decided or asked for.
• Turn it off — the link stops working at once. This cannot be undone; add the person again if it is needed again.

The passcode and end date cannot be changed on an existing link. To change them, turn the link off and add the person again.

To close the whole job to customers for a while, switch off Customer access is on at the top and select Save: every link on the job says customer access is turned off, and nothing on it opens. Switch it back on and the links work again.

Customer activity, at the bottom of Customer access, lists everything your customers did on the job: opening their page, downloading, approving, answering and asking.