In this article:
- Why integrate Appia and Doc Express? | Enable the integration | Daily report workflow | Payment and change order workflow | Material approval workflow
Related resources:
Doc Express® is a secure, web-based platform for construction administration document workflows created by Infotech® and included with your Appia® licenses.
Connect an Appia project to a Doc Express contract and see how the review and approval processes in Doc Express integrate seamlessly into the payment, change order, and materials approval workflows of Appia.
Why integrate Appia and Doc Express?
When you connect an Appia project to a Doc Express contract and submit your documents there, you can be sure the document has gone through all of the appropriate channels before you approve it in Appia and apply the changes to your project.
Brand new Doc Express user? Start here to get familiar with the Doc Express service.
An integrated workflow between Appia and Doc Express happens at the project level. There is no service-wide enablement of the integration; you must enable the integration for each Appia project and Doc Express contract that you want to connect.
When you enable the integration on an Appia project and connect it to a Doc Express contract, you can choose to submit Appia-generated daily report, change order, and payment documents to the Doc Express service to go through the workflows you have set up there. You can also choose to link a document from Doc Express to Appia for materials approvals.
The daily report, payment, or change order screen in Appia will then display the Doc Express information, including a link to view the document in Doc Express and the document's status. If you are linking a materials approval, the document will appear as an attachment on the material approval page.
Once the document has been through the appropriate approval process in Doc Express, approve or attach it in Appia to have the information update and reflect on the project.
Enable the integration
Click to expand the following sections and learn the step-by-step process to enable this integration for an Appia project.
First, you need to have the appropriate Doc Express contract ready to select when you enable the integration on an Appia project. This will be the contract and drawers that will receive documents generated in Appia.
Follow the steps outlined in this help guide to set up a contract in Doc Express. You may find it helpful to give the Doc Express contract the same name as your Appia project.
When you have the Doc Express contract and its drawers set up, return to Appia.
Back in Appia, find the project you want to connect with Doc Express. To enable the integration:
- From the sidebar menu, go to More > Project Settings.
- Click on the Integrations tab.
- Click Enable Integration.
- A pop-up modal will prompt you to select a Doc Express contract from the drop-down. Find and select the appropriate contract for this project.
- Once you have selected the appropriate Doc Express contract, click Enable.
The Appia project and Doc Express contract are now connected. To disconnect them, click Disable Integration. The integration can be enabled again at any time. To change the contract associated with this project, click Change Contract.
Daily report workflow
With the integration enabled, you can send daily reports which were generated in Appia to a contract in the Doc Express service.
Daily reports have to be submitted for approval in Appia before they can be sent to Doc Express.
- When you've drafted your daily report, click Submit for Approval.
- If the service prompts you to review materials, review and make any necessary edits before submitting the report for approval.
- Once the daily report has been submitted, you will see a new option: Send to Doc Express.
Once the daily report has been submitted for approval in Appia, it can be sent to Doc Express.
- From the daily report page, click Send to Doc Express.
- In the submission window, select a Doc Express drawer to send the daily report to. Select a type if required.
- Click Submit.
Doc Express information will be displayed on the daily report page, including its status. Click View in Doc Express to open the daily report document in Doc Express.
Once the document has been sent to Doc Express, it can be transitioned through the steps of your drawer workflow as usual. When the daily report is transitioned in Doc Express, its status will update in Appia within the Doc Express Information panel of the daily report page.
The daily report can be approved or denied in Appia at any time, independently of its Doc Express status. Refer to your team's particular workflows for guidance on when to approve or deny a daily report.
When a daily report is denied, it is placed back into draft status. It can then be edited as needed and submitted for approval again. Daily reports cannot be edited while in pending status.
Changes made to a daily report in Appia will not update the document in Doc Express. You must halt the workflow process in Doc Express and send the daily report again once the changes have been made.
Payment and change order workflow
With the integration enabled, you can send payment and change order documents which were generated in Appia to a contract in the Doc Express service for a secure, paperless approval process.
In the Appia service, create a change order or create a payment.
When the document is ready to submit for approval:
- Click Submit For Approval to open the submission drop-down menu.
- Select Submit to Doc Express®.
- In the pop-up modal, use the drop-down menu to select the Doc Express drawer where you want to send the document.
- If the type menu appears, you must also select the appropriate type(s). You can select more than one type.
- Click Submit.
The modal will close and you'll see a new section on the change order or payment page called Doc Express® Information. This section will include the document name, date submitted to Doc Express, its Doc Express type, its status in Doc Express, and a link to view the document in Doc Express. If a document is revised, the name will automatically update both here and in Doc Express.
In the Doc Express service, transitions show the forward progress of a document and who needs to sign it and when. Transition workflows can be configured to your particular business needs.
With this integration, Appia users can be sure that a change order or payment has gone through the appropriate channels before approving the document and applying its associated calculations to the Appia project.
We recommend that you do not approve a document in Appia until it has an approved status in Doc Express, which you can see from the Doc Express Information section of the payment or change order page in Appia.
To transition a document:
- Click on the View in Doc Express link to open a new tab displaying the document in Doc Express.
- Follow the appropriate process to transition the document according to your particular Doc Express workflow set up.
The document's status in Doc Express will update when you refresh the Appia payment or change order page.
Once the document has undergone the appropriate review and transition process in Doc Express, you must approve it in Appia. This will apply the changes and calculations from the payment or change order to your Appia project.
To approve in Appia:
Material approvals workflow
With the integration enabled, you can link materials approval documents from the Doc Express service to Appia for a secure, paperless approval process.
The materials approval form must exist in Doc Express before you can attach it to your Appia project. For help submitting documents to Doc Express, see Doc Express® | Submit, edit, and remove documents .
Once the document has been through the appropriate review and approval process in Doc Express, it's ready to link to Appia.
When you are ready to link the document in Appia, open your project and click on the Materials tab. Follow these steps to attach the Doc Express document to the material approval in Appia:
- From the Materials tab, find the material you want to approve. Click the expandable menu (it looks like three lines stacked) next to its name.
- Click Approve. This will open the Material Approvals page for the selected material.
- Click Add to add a new approval or click Edit on an existing material approval.
- Click Add Attachment. You will see two options:
- Add a document | This option allows you to attach a file from your computer.
- Link a Doc Express® document | This option allows you to select a document from a Doc Express drawer to attach to this material approval.
- Click Link a Doc Express® document. A new panel will appear.
- Click Select Document. A pop-up selection modal will appear.
- This is a filtering step. Find the Doc Express drawer containing the document and select any required types you want to apply. Click Next.
- Select the title of the document you want to link. Click Attach.
- Optional: Enter a description in the description field.
- When you are finished, click Save.
When you click on the saved material approval, you will now see your Doc Express document in the Attachments panel with a Doc Express flag indicating that it's a linked attachment. Click on the document title to view in Doc Express.