Chapter Two — Creating Your Project

☰ Chapter index

Before we start
The Library: your data banks
From spreadsheets to PZone ERP
Library tabs (19)
Projects: an overview
Creating a new project
Editing an existing project
The “Commercial” module: a roadmap
Project bill of quantities
Quantity take-off
Preliminaries and pricing settings
The dashboard and the bridge to Chapter Three

01 Before we start

In Chapter One you established your presence on the platform: you opened your account, created your company, assigned your team, assessed the staff one by one, and filled in your company qualification profile and made it available for your clients to assess you. Now we move on — in the same step-by-step style of Chapter One — to building the foundation your projects rest on.

Any precise project (bills of quantities, costs, documents) needs organized reference data: units of measure, activities, work items, disciplines, countries and regions… etc. This is the Library — your data banks that feed the rest of the system.

And instead of starting from scratch, we’ll show you how to migrate what you already have in Excel spreadsheets into PZone ERP in minutes — a self-service digital transformation you do yourself.

02 The Library: your reference data banks

The Library is an essential module you always find in the sidebar as Library (the book icon) — or directly at the link /library. Its title in the app: “Library — managing the reference data used across the system.”

Who sees it and who edits it?: Every approved user can browse it. Adding, editing, and deleting are for the manager/admin in your company across all tabs — each tab is a copy owned by your company. The only exception: Countries is a general read-only reference list (a shared key for the marketplace and service regions), and public regions are managed by the platform administrator while your company’s own regions are freely editable.
How is it organized?: A horizontal bar with 19 tabs, each tab a single table of reference data — you search, sort, and add rows. There is no separate “master data screen”: you open the Library and start straight from the first tab (which you find prefilled, not empty).

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Your library comes prefilled automatically: when you create your new company, the Library tabs are filled automatically with a ready set of reference data from the platform’s base — without prices (you set your own prices) — so you don’t find it empty. All these records are yours and editable, deletable, and addable freely.

You aren’t obliged to stick with what’s ready — edit or delete what doesn’t suit you, and add your own records via Upload CSV. Start with what serves your next project (usually: units, activities, bill-of-quantities items).

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One exception to deletion: if a bill-of-quantities item is already used in one or more projects, you won’t be able to delete it from the Library — instead of an error, a message tells you how many projects use it, protecting those projects’ items and their quantity-survey data from loss. Remove the item from those projects first, then delete it from the Library.

03 From spreadsheets to PZone ERP

In each Library tab there are three buttons that move you from the world of spreadsheets to the world of PZone ERP — and let you benefit from your current information banks (if any) instead of re-entering manually.

Figure 1 — The Library toolbar: the “Blank XLSX”, “Upload CSV”, and “Download CSV” buttons

Blank XLSX — the template: Downloads an Excel file that is blank with the correct column headers for the current tab. Fill it with your data (or paste from your old spreadsheet), keeping the column names as they are.
Upload CSV — the import: Upload your file (in CSV format). The system matches columns by name, and shows a preview before importing. Reference columns (like “Unit” or “Activity”) accept names as text, and any unknown name is created automatically. Duplicate rows are skipped safely (“already exists”) — they aren’t duplicated and don’t corrupt your data. You get a tally: n imported · n already exist · n failed (with the row number for any error).
Download CSV — the export: Downloads the full content of the current tab in CSV format — by names, not numbers and with UTF-8 encoding (Arabic appears correctly in Excel). The file is ready to re-upload, so you get a convenient editing cycle.

The full self-service digital-transformation cycle

Figure 2 — Your data migration cycle: blank template ← fill in ← upload ← inside PZone ERP ← download ← edit ← re-upload

Download the Blank XLSX for the tab you want.
Fill it with your data or paste from your old spreadsheet, and save/export it as CSV.
Click Upload CSV, review the preview, then Import.
Later: Download CSV for the full content, edit what you want, and re-upload — a continuous cycle with no re-entry.

Tip: always use the “Blank XLSX” button to get the correct headers — because column matching is done by exact name.

04 The Library tabs one by one

These are the Library’s 19 tabs in the order they appear in the app — each one a reference data bank that feeds the rest of the system. The tab marked Shared across the platform (Countries) is a general read-only reference managed by the platform administrator; everything else is your own copy.

1. Abbreviations: A dictionary of the abbreviations used in the system and their meanings — a copy specific to your company, copied from the platform list at setup, and free to edit.
Columns: abbreviation · meaning
2. Activities (BOQ titles): No longer a separate tab: an activity is the BOQ item’s title itself, and the item’s tasks and products follow it automatically in pricing, execution and reports. It is set in the Activity column of the BOQ Items tab (pick from the list or type a new name) and managed with the Activities button there: rename (its items follow) and merge two spellings into one activity.
Managed from: BOQ Items tab · Activities button
3. BOQ structure: The tree structure of bill-of-quantities (BOQ) items: item → task → products — a special tab (the tasks’ activity is the item’s title). Each product carries a quantity factor (× BOQ quantity) or a fixed quantity used as-is; this template is the only source of pricing quantities (projects are seeded from it; the Catalog holds prices only).
Columns: tree structure · quantity factor / fixed quantity per product
4. BOQ items: A bank of ready bill-of-quantities items for reuse in your projects.
Columns: MasterFormat section · org unit · item title · quantity item · unit
5. Brands: A list of brands and trademarks.
Columns: brand
6. Business activity types: Company activity classifications (used in defining companies and their directory) — a copy specific to your company, copied from the platform list at setup, and free to edit.
Columns: activity type · translation
7. Catalog: Your company’s item (SKU) master — a special tab. It feeds the pricing engine (cheapest vendor per item), procurement, warehouse, submittals and e-invoicing. Quantities are not managed here but in “BOQ Structure”; a pink row is an item a task needs that has not been priced yet.
Columns: Task · Country of Origin · Item Type · Item · Vendor · Brand · Unit · Currency · Unit Price · Resource Type · Source
8. Components: Project components and buildings.
Columns: component
9. Countries Shared across the platform: A list of countries.
Columns: country · translation
10. Document types: Classifications of the documents used across the system.
Columns: document type
11. Levels: The names of floors and vertical levels in the project.
Columns: level
12. CSI MasterFormat: The MasterFormat coding system for classifying building and construction operations to a standard classification.
Columns: division · section
13. Org units: Disciplines/org units (Org Units).
Columns: org unit
14. Positions: Job titles.
Columns: position
15. Regions public + your own regions: Regions within countries: public regions are managed by the platform administrator (read-only), and you add and edit your company’s own regions freely.
Columns: region · country · translation
16. Spaces: The names of spaces and areas.
Columns: space
17. Governorates: Governorates/states.
Columns: governorate
18. Tasks: A bank of the work task names on which the schedule is built and which are linked to work activities.
Columns: task · activity · unit
19. Units: Units of measure.
Columns: unit

Two tabs have a broader interface: BOQ structure and Catalog — they work with the same import/export logic but with a custom view.

05 Projects: from the Library to reality

After you’ve prepared your library, Projects comes next — the heart of the work. You find it in the sidebar as Projects or directly at the link /projects. The page shows your projects as cards, and all creating and editing is done through a single simple dialog — no multiple steps and no sub-screens.

Who creates and edits?: The New project button and the edit and import buttons appear for the manager/admin only. Deletion is for the admin alone. As for the view-permission user, they see a 👁 View only — you don't have edit permission banner and browse without edit buttons.
What’s on each card?: The project name and code, and two badges: a Stage badge (which you set: tender / execution / closed), and a Status badge (computed automatically from the project’s tasks: no tasks / not started / in progress / completed), along with the total sell value and Edit and Delete buttons.

Figure 3 — A project card: the name and code, the stage badge and status badge, and the edit/delete buttons

There is no separate “details screen” for a project in this version — the card is the interface, and progress and status change automatically whenever you add tasks to the project (from the Tasks module). A project with no tasks appears with the status No tasks yet — add tasks to track progress.

06 Creating a new project

From the Projects page click the ＋ New project button (top right of the page) and the New project dialog opens. Fill in the following fields in order — only the project name is required, and everything else is optional and can be added whenever you like.

Figure 4 — The “New project” dialog and its fields in order (only the name is required *)

1. Project name required: The name shown on the card and everywhere. The project isn’t saved without it.
2. Description: A free description of the project (optional).
3. Stage: A list of three options: Tender / pricing · Execution · Closed — the default is “Tender / pricing”. This is the stage badge on the card.
4. Base currency: The project’s main currency (default EGP). Used in pricing and costs.
5. Country: You choose it from the reference country list.
6. Project code (legacy): A reference code from your previous system (like PRJ-001) — for migration and linking, and not auto-generated.
7. Postal address: The site address as text.
8. GPS coordinates: Paste them from Google Maps in the format lat, lng (e.g. 30.0444, 31.2357) — the latitude and longitude are stored automatically.
9. Employer: The client/owner — you choose it by searching your company’s parties book, or type a new name and it is created immediately as a party of type “owner”.
10. Contractor: The executing contractor — in the same way as the employer (search or immediate addition as a “contractor” party).

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Avoid duplicating parties: in the “Employer” and “Contractor” fields, typing a new name and confirming it creates a new party immediately in the parties book. If the party already exists, choose it from the list instead of typing it again.

Exchange rates: you won’t find their section during creation — the dialog’s message says Save the project first, then edit it to add exchange rates. (We cover it in the next section.)

The steps in brief

Click ＋ New project.
Type the project name (required), then fill in what you need from the remaining fields.
Click Save.
The project card appears immediately in the grid (you stay on the same page, with no navigation). Its status starts as No tasks yet until you add tasks.

Importing several projects at once

Just like the Library, the head of the Projects page (for the manager/admin) provides Blank XLSX template, Upload CSV, and Download CSV buttons to create projects in bulk from a spreadsheet. Accepted columns: project name (required) · currency · project code · address · GPS coordinates.

Each imported project starts with the status Pending exactly like a manually created one — the same “self-service digital transformation” logic as in the Library.

07 Editing an existing project

To edit a project, click the ✎ Edit icon on its card and the same dialog opens with the title Edit project and its fields filled with the project’s data. You edit any of the previous ten fields exactly as in creation — and the only difference is that the exchange rates section now appears.

What can be edited?: All ten fields (name, description, stage, currency, country, legacy code, address, coordinates, employer, contractor) — plus exchange rates.
What isn’t edited manually?: The status, the progress percentage, and the total sell value — all computed automatically from the project’s tasks, so they change on their own and aren’t edited from this dialog.

Exchange rates — with an indicative rate from the internet

In edit mode the Exchange rates (one unit = ? of your base currency) section appears. Add a currency from the list and the system fetches you a suggested market rate from the internet — you can accept it by clicking Use, or type your own rate instead, then add it with the ＋ button.

Figure 5 — Adding an exchange rate: choose the currency, and the system suggests a rate from the internet — “Use” or enter your own rate

Deleting a project

Deletion is available to the admin alone via the 🗑 Delete icon on the card. A confirmation appears before deletion, and if the project has tasks it warns you of their count and deletes them with it. Deletion is permanent with no undo.

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In summary: creating and editing are done from a single easy dialog — a required name and the rest of the fields as needed. The real value shows when you build on this foundation: you add tasks and bills of quantities and the status and progress move on their own.

08 The “Commercial” module: a roadmap

Your project now exists, in the “Tender / pricing” stage. Here the real work begins: the Commercial module in the sidebar — its title in the app is “cost build-up, cost control, supply chain, and tenders across the project”. This section is a quick map of it before we go into its tabs one by one.

Don’t see “Commercial” in the sidebar? The module is an add-on (its name in the add-ons panel is Commercial) that the platform administrator enables for your company. When it is enabled, a second item appears with it in the sidebar: Smart take-off. And don’t look for it at a direct link — as long as it’s disabled the app quietly returns you to the projects page.

Figure 6 — A map of the sidebar in its actual order: the core for everyone, and the add-ons according to what the platform administrator enables for your company

Its fifteen tabs in order

Some tabs carry a title inside that differs slightly from their name in the sidebar — we mention both when they differ.

1. Dashboard: “Project financial dashboard”: contract value, completion percentage, cost performance index, profit margin, the S-curve, and cost alerts — a single glance at a single project.
2. Quantity take-off: Measuring each item’s quantities from dimensions (count × L × W × H), with recording site progress, approving quantities, and locking them. It only shows the bill-of-quantities items — so it logically comes after.
3. Functions: Grouping the project’s spaces into “operational functions” (finance department, reception…) by drag and drop, for operational readiness.
4. Project bill of quantities: The starting point: you pull the items from your library, set the overhead and profit percentages, and link each item to its tasks — and from it you export the “tender form”.
5. Preliminaries: “Site setup”: the bill of general site expenses that don’t belong to a specific item, and the pricing settings (its distribution method and the risk percentage).
6. Variations: “Change orders”: a record of approved change orders that modify the contract value against the locked baseline.
7. Billing and work in progress: “Payment certificates”: client payment certificates, revenue recognition by completion percentage, and e-invoicing.
8–10. Component / level / space bills of quantities: Three read-only reports that break down the sell price by component, level, or space — and are built automatically from the tags you place on take-off measurements.
11. Cost control: “Cost monitoring”: budgeted vs actual for each product, and earned-value indicators (CPI, EAC).
12. Resource costs: A direct-cost report distributed: materials · labor · equipment · subcontractor.
13. Supply chain: Purchase requests ← quotations ← purchase orders, approved vendors, and budget control.
14. Warehouses: “Warehouse”: multi-warehouse receipt with consultant inspection, transfers, and issuing to projects.
15. Tenders: “Tender register”: bid opportunities and their outcomes, with a “convert to project” button for the winning one.

Two habits you should know from the start: (1) The module opens by default on “Quantity take-off” — but your journey starts from “Project bill of quantities”. (2) Each tab picks its own project: your project choice in one tab doesn’t carry over to the next tab, and is forgotten when you refresh the page — so choose the project in every tab you enter.

How is the price built? (Read it once and you’ll understand the whole module)

In PZone ERP you don’t type the “unit price” by hand. The price is derived from your library and catalog through a fixed chain (per CIOB/RICS practices) — and every tab in the module touches one link of it:

Figure 7 — The price build-up chain for each item: from your library to the “sell price” on the project card

Direct cost: The sum of the product quantities (materials/labor/equipment/subcontractor) linked to the item’s tasks × their prices in the catalog — the system chooses the cheapest vendor automatically unless you pin a specific vendor. Foreign currencies are converted at the project’s exchange rates.
+ share of site setup: The total of the “Preliminaries” is distributed over the items in proportion to their direct cost, or appears as a standalone item — depending on the project setting.
× (1 + overhead) × (1 + risk) × (1 + profit): The overhead and profit percentages are per item (prefilled from your company settings), and the risk percentage is for the whole project.
= sell price: The unit price is rounded to two decimals, then multiplied by the quantity. And the sum of the items is the green number on the project card.

Permissions within the module: the owner and admin add, edit, and delete; the manager adds and edits without deleting; and the viewer reads only — they see a 👁 View only banner at the top of the module and the action buttons disappear.

✓

What changed on the project card? Nothing yet. The green number (total sell) appears once the items are priced — and it updates only when the “Project bill of quantities” tab is opened for that project; editing the preliminaries or the risk percentage alone does not update it.

09 Project bill of quantities

Its title in the app: “Add bill-of-quantities items to a project with quantities, overheads, and profit”. This is the tab that turns your library into a priced project — which is what we prepared for in sections 02 through 04.

Adding items from your library

Choose the project from the search field at the top of the tab (type part of its name).
Click Add item. In the bill-of-quantities item field type to search — by number or word, like “20” or “concrete” — and your library items (bill-of-quantities items) appear with the MasterFormat section for each. Previously added items disappear from the results automatically.
Quantity is optional: leave it empty if you’ll take it off from the dimensions in the next tab, and it’s computed automatically.
Overhead % and profit % come prefilled from your company settings — adjust them for this item if you like — then Add.

Figure 8 — The “Project bill of quantities” tab: the form for adding an item from your library, and the items table with the price columns and the project total

The table columns: Item (section / title / item) · Quantity · Unit · Unit sell price · Overhead · Profit · Direct cost · Overhead value · Profit value · Sell price, and a Project total row at the bottom.
What is edited manually?: With the pen ✎: the quantity and the overhead and profit percentages only. All the money columns are computed. Hover over “sell price” to see its composition: direct + preliminaries + overhead + risk + profit.
Why is there no “unit price” field?: Because the price is derived from the catalog products linked to the item’s tasks (section 08). An item with no priced tasks appears with a dash “—” in the “tender form”.

Linking the item to its tasks — and from it the execution tasks are born

Click the branch icon ⑂ (Tasks & products) on the item’s row and a two-pane screen opens:

The right · “The template — all possibilities”: All the tasks you defined for this item in the library ← BOQ structure, and under each task its catalog products with a (cheapest) marker. The Select all button adds them in one go.
The left · “This project — the selected tasks”: What you actually chose. Each product has a factor (item quantity × factor) or a fixed quantity, and you can pin a specific vendor instead of the cheapest. Quantities are seeded from the “BOQ Structure” template (the single source) and edited here for this project only.
The effect outside this screen: Every task you add here creates an execution task automatically that appears in the Kanban board and Gantt chart — and removing it removes the execution task with its dates, completion percentage, and owner. This is the bridge to Chapter Three.

Got “No template defined for this item”? Define its tasks first in the library ← BOQ structure (tab number 3 in section 04).

The lifecycle bar: from tender to project

Above the table is a bar with three stages. Moving between them is the only way to freeze a “baseline version” of the project (there is no standalone button for that):

Figure 9 — The project lifecycle bar above the bill of quantities: “Submit the tender” then “Confirm launch”, each of which freezes a baseline version

Submit the tender: you enter the submission date and an optional reason — the data becomes semi-frozen, with the option to reopen for editing for exceptional edits.
Confirm project launch: final and locks the baseline — don’t click it until the owner approves starting the actual work. And from here change orders and payment certificates are measured. The form has two optional fields: contract completion date or time for completion in days — stored in the contract-terms register — and kickoff also freezes the schedule baseline (the tasks' planned dates) that the “Schedule Adherence” report measures against (Chapter 3).
Baseline log shows all the saved versions with their dates and totals.

Export: the tender form

The Tender form PDF button exports a client-facing summary with sell prices: the section, item, quantity, unit, unit price, and value, then the subtotal, VAT (at your company’s rate), and the total including tax — with a separate line for “Preliminaries and general requirements” if you chose that in its settings.

There is no CSV import in this tab: your items come in from the Library (where the bulk import is in section 03) and are then pulled in here by searching.

✓

What changed on the project card? As soon as the items’ pricing is complete (linked tasks + products with prices in the catalog + quantities), the total sell appears in green on the project card — and it updates whenever you open this tab.

10 Quantity take-off — and smart take-off and functions

Its title in the app: “Traditional dimension take-off — compute each item’s quantity from the measurements”. Here you fill in the “quantity” box you left empty in the bill of quantities: you measure each item from its dimensions, and its quantity updates automatically.

The items list then the take-off screen

After choosing the project, the tab shows the bill-of-quantities items (item · quantity · unit) and a purple Take-off button in front of each item, and a lock 🔒 in front of an approved item. You can’t create an item from here — if you see “No items in this project”, go back to section 09. The Download CSV button at the top of the list exports a summary of all items’ quantities.

Click Take-off on the item and its screen opens, with the unit, the total quantity, and the actual with its percentage at the top.
Click Add measurement and a green row appears: enter the count, the dimensions (L · W · H in meters), and the factor (default 1), and mark deduction for openings and voids so the row is counted as negative.
Choose the component, the level, and the space from your library lists — or type a new name and it is created immediately in the library.
Save: the rows are summed and written into the item’s quantity in the bill of quantities automatically.

Figure 10 — A single-item take-off screen: each measurement row with its dimensions, factor, and tags (component/level/space), and a negative deduction row for openings

The formula per unit: Length unit (m): count × L × factor · area unit (m²): count × L × W × factor · volume unit (m³): count × L × W × H × factor · any other unit: count × the entered dimensions × factor (empty dimensions are ignored — like reinforcing steel in kg: count × length × kg/m factor). The app shows you only the dimension fields relevant to the item’s unit.
The factor: A free multiplier: kg/m, density, wastage… default 1.
Why are the tags important?: The component/level/space on each row are what the component, level, and space bills of quantities (section 12) are built from, along with cost distribution by space and the “Functions” tab. Tag every row you take off.

Site progress: actual vs planned

The green ↗ icon on the row opens the Site progress log: planned / actual (cumulative) / progress cards, and a Log a site visit button with which you enter the date, the added quantity (negative for a correction), and a note. The log is cumulative and not edited — and it is the source of “earned value” in the dashboard and the completion percentage in cost control. You won’t use it during the tender stage, but its place is here.

Approving the quantity and locking it

Approve and lock asks for an optional note, then saves a version (v1, v2…) and locks the take-off: no editing or deletion until Unlock, while logging site progress remains available. The Versions (n) button shows a table of the approved versions (quantity, difference from the previous, by, date, note).

Importing and exporting measurements

The same logic as the Library (section 03) but at the single-item level: Blank XLSX gives you the template with its headers (Number, X, Y, Z, Factor, Deduction, Component, Level, Space, Comments), Upload CSV adds measurement rows in bulk — unknown component/level/space names are created automatically, and the deduction column accepts yes, 1, or ddt — Download CSV exports the item’s rows, and Dimension sheet PDF prints the item’s dimension sheet.

Smart take-off: from the drawing to the take-off sheet

The sidebar item Smart take-off (which appears with the Commercial add-on) reads a scanned drawing (PDF or image), you measure on it what you can, then link each measurement to one of the project’s items and click Pour into take-off — and the measurement turns into a take-off row tagged with its source and confidence level, and the item’s quantity updates. And like traditional take-off, it needs existing items first.

The “Functions” tab

Its title: “Group spaces by operational readiness — a space can belong to more than one function”. The right pane is the tree of your project’s locations (component ← level ← space) extracted from the take-off tags; and the left pane is “functions” you create (example: finance department) and drag spaces into. It doesn’t affect the bill of quantities or the price — it is a grouping for operational readiness, and you’ll see it empty until you assign spaces in the take-off.

✓

What changed on the project card? The quantities filled in, so each priced item now has a “sell price” = unit price × quantity. Open the bill of quantities tab to see the project total — and after that the number on the card updates.

11 Preliminaries, pricing settings, and cost control

Three tabs complete the price after the quantities: Preliminaries (its title in the app “Site setup”) where the general site expenses and pricing settings are, then Cost control and Resource costs which read what you built.

Site setup

“The bill of general site expenses — actual project costs that don’t belong to a specific item in the bill of quantities”. Click Add item and choose the category (site management, temporary works, temporary service utilities, general equipment, transport and accommodation, guarantees and insurances, quality and safety, handover and demobilization, or other), then the description, quantity, months, and price. The line total = quantity × months × price, and the categories are summed into the “total site setup”.

Figure 11 — The “Pricing settings” card in the Preliminaries tab: how the site setup reaches the price, and the project-level risk percentage

Proportional distribution over items: The default: the total site setup is distributed over the bill items in proportion to their direct cost, so it enters each unit price.
Standalone item: The site setup appears as a standalone line in the “tender form” with a “lump sum” unit, priced with your company’s default percentages.
Risk / contingency %: A single percentage for the whole project applied to each item after overhead. Entered as a percentage.
Don’t forget: Click Save settings. And this page doesn’t update the card number by itself — open the bill of quantities afterward.

Cost control (“Cost monitoring”)

“Budgeted vs actual cost for each product — recorded as the work is completed”. A row for each product linked to a task: task ← product · progress · quantity (B/A) · unit price (B/A) · vendor (B/A) · cost (B/A) · variance (B = budgeted, A = actual), with All / recorded / over budget / not recorded filters, a Record actual button, and Excel and PDF export. Above the table is an earned value panel: budget (BAC), earned value, actual cost (AC), CPI, forecast (EAC), and VAC. Its “budgeted” side is the direct cost you just built; and its “actual” side fills in during execution from vendor invoices, warehouse issuing, and what you record manually.

The completion percentage for each item comes from the site progress log in the quantity take-off (actual ÷ planned), and EAC = BAC ÷ CPI per the PMI standard — as the page itself explains.

Resource costs

A read-only report: “Direct cost distributed by resource type (materials / labor / equipment / subcontractor) at the project level, in the project currency” — five cards (with “unclassified”) and a “by bill item” matrix, and Excel and PDF export. If “No priced distribution yet” appears, it means your items have no priced products in the catalog.

✓

What changed on the project card? The site setup and risk percentage entered each item’s price — the “total sell” rose by their amount after opening the bill of quantities.

12 The dashboard and the sub-schedules — and the bridge to Chapter Three

The last three stops in the module: a dashboard that gathers all the above into a single glance, three schedules that break down the price by location, then the transition from “tender” to “execution”.

The dashboard (“Project financial dashboard”)

“The S-curve, earned-value indicators, and cost alerts — a single project at a glance”. Four cards: contract value (adjusted) (baseline or computed price + approved change orders), completion percentage (cost/cost), cost performance index (green ≥ 1), and profit margin to date. Then the cumulative S-curve with three lines — earned value from the site progress log, actual cost from the general ledger (posted expense entries tagged to the project: materials on issue, subcontractors, payroll, equipment — so a vendor invoice and the store issue of the same materials are never counted twice; projects without entries yet fall back to vendor invoices, warehouse issuing and recorded actuals), and billed from the payment certificates — and an alerts card (missing prices or quantities, over budget, missing billing, low CPI).

Figure 12 — The “Project financial dashboard”: the four indicator cards and the cumulative S-curve (earned value, actual cost, billed)

During the tender stage you’ll find the dashboard nearly empty — its message: “Not enough dated activity yet.” It fills in during execution (Chapter Three). Rest easy when you see Everything is fine — no cost alerts for this project ✓.

Component, level, and space bills of quantities

Three read-only reports in one shape: a blue bar with the total sell price, then a collapsible card for each component (or level or space) with its item count and price, and inside it the items with their quantities and prices. The “space” here is the specific room (space type + component + level), not the general space name in the library. An orange warning tells you the items excluded for missing quantity or price. And if “No assignments” appears, go back to the take-off tags (section 10).

The tabs awaiting execution

Variations (“Change orders”): A record of change orders (proposed / approved / rejected) that modify the “adjusted contract value” against the baseline — they don’t work before a baseline is frozen from the lifecycle bar. Each order has an EOT days field; approving an order that carries an extension re-baselines the schedule automatically (a new, non-final baseline version) and extends the contractual completion date in the reports.
Billing and work in progress (“Payment certificates”): Client payment certificates and revenue recognition by completion percentage (Egyptian standard 48 / IFRS 15), and sending to e-invoicing.
Supply chain · warehouses: Purchase requests ← quotations ← purchase orders, approved vendors, then receipt with consultant inspection and issuing to the project — and this is what feeds the “actual” in cost control.
Tenders (“Tender register”): Bid opportunities and their outcomes; the winning one converts with a Convert to project button into an execution-stage project, and the others with a Start estimate button into a tender project that opens the same module for you.

The bridge: from tender to execution

Submit your bid with the Tender form PDF and click Submit the tender in the lifecycle bar (section 09) — a baseline version freezes.
On award, click Confirm project launch (final), then change the stage on the project card to “Execution” from the edit button (section 07).
The execution tasks born from the bill-of-quantities items are waiting for you in Tasks and the Kanban board and Gantt chart — and from here the project’s status moves on its card. This is the subject of Chapter Three: Executing your project.

✓

What you accomplished in this chapter: a library prefilled and migrated from your spreadsheets, a project created and edited, a bill of quantities pulled from your library and linked to its tasks, quantities taken off from dimensions, site setup and a risk percentage, a ready tender form, and a frozen baseline version. And on the project card a green number that attests to it.