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The project manager path

For the person who runs the job — the budget, the schedule, the changes, the paperwork and the owner.

About 40 minutes · 9 guides to read · a check of 10 questions, 8 to pass

Read, in this order

Jobs: the board, Job Home and the next thing to do
Job Home names the next step; the Timeline is the job’s one feed.
The budget: lock, committed, actual, forecast
Lock the baseline; committed and actual arrive on their own lines.
Schedule: look-ahead and critical path
Link finish-to-start for the critical path; set a baseline to see slips.
Change orders: event → approve → budget
Approve once and the money lands on the budget once.
Project controls: RFIs, submittals, logs, punch
Ball-in-court says who owes the next answer.
Meetings: agenda, minutes, transmittals
Build the agenda from court; actions land on My Day.
Selections & allowances: boards to budget
Overage becomes a change the owner approves, never a surprise.
Owner portal: invite a client, stay in control
Preview as the owner before anyone is invited.
Closeout: punch, retainage, and the binder
Punch, warranties and retainage close on Job Home.

Try it on the sample job

The check

Ten questions on the product’s own screens; 8 right to pass. Every answer is in the guides above.

1. What does Job Home name beside the money tiles?

The newest invoice, with the day it was sent and to whomEvery file on the job, the newest firstThe job’s next step, from where the job standsThis week’s weather for the job’s site

2. You lock the budget. What keeps moving?

Only the actualsThe quantities and unit costsNothing at allThe estimate’s lines

3. On the budget, what is Committed?

What the line has cost so far, from the matched billsThe line as it stood the day the budget was lockedBudget less billedWhat you agreed to pay — the purchase orders

4. How does the Gantt find the critical path?

From the budget’s largest lines, the costliest firstFrom the finish-to-start links between the tasksYou draw it by hand, task by task, on the chartFrom the daily logs the crew files each evening

5. Why set a baseline on the schedule?

So later slips show against the plan you committed toSo the tasks are locked and can no longer moveSo the owner is sent a copy of the plan each weekSo the schedule can be exported to a spreadsheet

6. The client approves a change order on the portal. What happens to the job’s budget?

You retype the approved amount into the budget yourselfNothing changes until the change order’s invoice is paidThe approved dollars land on it once — no double entryA second budget is started for the change alone

7. On an RFI, what does ball-in-court show?

Who wrote the RFI and on which dayWhat the answer to the RFI will costWhether the RFI has been printed and filedWho owes the next answer

8. Before Thursday’s OAC you press Build agenda from court. What does it pull in?

Open RFIs, late submittals, punch and leftover actionsEvery email sent to or from the job since the last meetingEvery budget line that is over, with its varianceThe owner’s payments and the invoices still open

9. Before you invite the owner, how do you read the portal exactly as they will?

Invite yourself as the owner from a second emailPreview as the owner, on the job, before anyone is invitedAsk the owner to send a screenshot once invitedPrint the job and read the printout

10. A homeowner’s pick runs past its allowance. What is the next step?

Raise the allowance to match the pick, on the budget and the portalBill the overage on the next draw as an extra lineDraft a change from the overage for the owner to approveRemove the pick and ask the owner to choose again

0 of 10 answered