UWS – Session Two – Tutorials › Commnia Construction Software from pre-construction to handover

Commnia is a comprehensive, cloud-based construction project management software that communicates with your team everywhere.

For over two decades, Commnia has worked with hundreds of Australia’s leading construction companies. We are consistently developing better ways to connect your teams, automate tasks and increase your productivity. We pride ourselves on delivering outstanding customer support and are proudly Australian owned and operated.

We provide you with an intuitive platform to manage every stage of your project – from concept to completion.

Design Change Workflow

The Commnia Inbox

Commnia Inbox has been designed to be intuitive and simple to navigate. All communications are stored within a single hub allowing you to control and track your documents and giving you complete transparency over your project.

1. Overview

All communications are stored within a single repository giving you complete transparency of your project.

From the main menu, click on Quick Links and select Inbox from the dropdown list.

Inbox Features

Attach hundreds of documents, no matter how big, all within the one email.
Attach documents from Commnia Drive, the Document Register or from your computer files.
All recipient responses will be automatically registered in the Commnia Inbox, users do not have to log into Commnia to respond.
Category email templates ensure all required information is entered, e.g. a delay notice form will include the delay duration period and reason for delay.
Inbox Registers: In-built registers for every category to easily monitor days remaining/outstanding.
Category Changes: Send new responses based on a new category, e.g. changing an RFI to a Delay Notice. To eliminate any confusion, we make sure that you will always be able to see where these categories originated from by viewing previous responses when you select the email.
Design collaboration and documents can be discussed, approved and rejected all from Commnia Inbox. If approved, these documents can be automatically populated to your document register straight from your inbox.
Include the Contract Clause to each category relevant to the project
Include standard templates for each category to include in the document description.

2. Inbox/Sent/Draft Folders

Switch between your Inbox, Sent and Draft folders easily.

3. Viewing Emails

Click on a category to filter your Inbox results.

Every email message is classified under a document category to make it easier to find important project information.

Select an email category and all emails in that folder will appear as a list on the right side of the screen.

The email you select will appear with all relevant information and history.

4. Conversation Trails

There are emails referred to as a conversation trail, it is a chain of information showing that all these emails displayed here are related to each other allowing you complete transparency of the communication. Even though emails can have different categories they are still part of the same conversation.

This means that you can trace back a delay notice all the way back to the original RFI.

The following will appear. Click on any item to open the email up.

5. Responding/Forwarding

You are able to reply, reply all and forward like regular mail service, however, Commnia Inbox gives you the ability to forward emails as part of the conversation, or as a new email (thread/conversation).

To keep what you are forwarding in the same topic, click on ‘Forward’ and then Add to Existing Thread.
To forward as a completely new email, and start a new topic click on Forward and then Create New Thread or Conversation.

6. Other Email Options

Add Recipient gives you the option to add a user to the original email communication if they were originally left out or if they’re new to the project.
Only the email sender can add other recipients to the email.

There are other email options available by clicking on the Menu icon which will display the following.

Internal/Closed Notes – You will be prompted to write a close response which will only be visible to members of your company
Close Topic – Change the status of the email to closed. Closing topics are category-specific, so if there is more than one category as part of the conversation (e.g. RFI and a Delay Notice), closing one topic will not impact another if it is from a different category
Print Email – will convert the email to a print-friendly PDF document
New Task – This will show a dialogue box where you can assign a task to a contact within the project

7. Approve/Reject Documents

When viewing an email in Commnia, you have the ability to view each document, download one or multiple documents.

Download – Click on a document to download it, click Select All or check the box of multiple documents and click Download to bulk download.
Click on the View magnifying glass icon to open the document viewer.

8. Filter Email

Emails can be filtered by a number of different search features.

Simple Search by Email subject, open and unread

For a more detailed search click on the filter button to open the email filter options.

Select your desired filters and click on Close.

To remove all filters, click on the Reset button and then click on Close.

Once you have applied these filters, you can choose to run this list as a report by clicking on the report button. There are four formats available:

The Register Report displays a PDF summary of the list of emails in the list.

The Cost Report displays a PDF summary of any costs related to the email category in the list.

Export Cost Report will generate an excel spreadsheet listing all cost-related emails in the list. Your browser will download the web link. Click on the file in the bottom left corner of your screen to open the report.

You will be presented with a cost report, as in the below example:

EOT Report will provide you with a breakdown of all EOT’s claimed and their statuses associated with the project.

9. Inbox View

Commnia Inbox has in-built registers for all construction documents, helping you to monitor days remaining/outstanding and stay on track.

Your inbox can be viewed in three different formats; the register view, inbox view, or classic register view.

Regardless of which view you use, the email itself with all details and attachments will be displayed on the right-hand side.

The Inbox View displays emails similar to most email providers displaying the sender, subject and received date.

The Register View and Classic Register View display emails in a Register format that includes information such as document category, due dates and status. They will display the first email sent for that subject.

Classic Register view is best for wider screens.

Creating and Sharing Meeting Minutes

Commnia’s Meeting Minutes feature allows you to create, distribute, and save project meeting minutes, ensuring everyone on your project is kept up to date with the latest information.

To create meeting minutes in Commnia the project administrator must first add meeting types and sections via the control panel. To see how to set up meeting types and sections click here.

1. Navigate to Meeting Minutes

From the Commnia login screen, enter your Commnia login details and click login.

From the main menu, click on Contracts and Communication and from the dropdown menu select Meeting Minutes.

2. Create New Meeting

You will be presented with the Meeting Minutes summary screen showing all previous meeting minutes.

You can filter these meetings by project, date, chairperson or by using the search any keyword box.

To create new Meeting Minutes, click on New.

Select the meeting type from the drop down list.
You can copy the details from a previous meeting if one exists. This will also allow attendees to be automatically copied across from the previous meeting.

Enter the meeting date, start and finish times.
Select the chairperson of the meeting. Start typing the contacts name and select from the list or alternatively, click on the Search icon to open the project contact list.
Enter the location of the meeting.
Type the purpose of the meeting.
Enter any relevant meeting header notes.
Enter the date and time of the next meeting if required.
Type any meeting notes for the next scheduled meeting.
Click on Save to continue.

Once you have saved the Meeting Minutes, the following options are available.

3. Add Attendees

Click on Attendees to flag each contact as Attended, Copies To or Apologies.
You can delete a contact by clicking on the Trash icon.
To add other contacts, click on the Add Attendee button to open the project contact list.

4. Add Minute Headings

Click on Minutes to add sections, actions and responsibilities.
Click on Add Section to add a new section to the meeting minutes.
To view and edit each section of the meeting minutes, click on the section heading from the list.
Click on Add Minute to add a new topic with the option to add a due date and responsibility.
If there was a previous meeting, each minute will automatically be displayed; and includes options to Edit, Delete or Mark as Complete.

5. Add Minutes to Headings

Once you have clicked Add Minute, the following screen will appear.

Enter the due date for the action.
Type the name of the member responsible for the action.
Enter a summary of the action item.
Enter the details of the notes or action item.
Click on Save to update the action item.

The minute Description section is HTML formatted, allowing you to copy and paste directly from emails, web pages and images. Click and Save and Continue to add more minute notes.

6. Send Meeting Minutes Email

Once the meeting minutes are ready for distribution, click on the Email button.
To add more users, click on the Add Users button to open the project contact list. You can filter by different categories, groups and also have the option to find contacts from other jobs.
You can preview the meeting minutes by clicking on the Preview button. A formatted PDF will open and display everything from who has attended, what was discussed, and what actions have been assigned.
Click on the checkbox next to each contact you would like to include in the meeting minutes email. Alternatively, click on Select All to tick all checkboxes.
Click on Send Email to finalise and distribute the meeting minutes.

Each contact will receive an email with a pdf of the meeting minutes.

A copy of the meeting minutes will also be saved in the Commnia Inbox under the Meeting Minutes category.

Creating and Sending RFIs

Commnia allows you to send out RF’s with a formal letter, track responses from any mail client, and generate a Register.

RFIs are created through the Commnia Inbox as an email message. This way you retain full transparency within your Inbox.

1. Accessing the RFI Module

From the main menu via Quick Add (+) click on RFI.

Alternatively, create a New Email from your Inbox and select Request for Information from Category Folder.

2. Add Recipients

Start typing the name of the contact to display a list of users from the project contact list. You can click on the To, CC, or BCC button to display the full global contact list.

If a contact is not already a part of Commnia, you are able to add them by clicking on the Create New Contact icon. To see how to Create New Contact, click here.

The Send Privately function means that recipients will not see who else the email has been sent to in To Field.

3. Enter Email Subject

Enter a subject for your new email message.

5. Complete Dynamic Fields

Enter any required information into the dynamic fields. The dynamic fields have been set up based on the email type.

For an RFI, the default fields are Requested By Date, Advised by, and the option to include Addons.

Click on Addons to include a Standard Clause, Cost Table, Risk Description, and/or Authorisation.

If you select Cost Table the following dialogue box will appear:

Once you have entered the information to the cost table, click on Add to include it in your email.

Add Risk Description, the following template will appear and select Yes or No.

Authorisation will display a new field where you can either enter the details of the authorisation or insert directly from a custom template.

To see how to add Authorisation templates to the Inbox email click here.

6. Enter the Email of the Body

Enter your email message into the description field.
You can manually enter the body of your email, this field is in Html format meaning you can paste text and images directly from word or even your internet browser.
Alternatively, select from a list of Custom Templates. To see how to create Custom Correspondence Templates click here.

7. Attach Files

Files can be attached to the email directly from The Document Register, Commnia Drive, or your local device. You can drag and drop files into the window and there are no restriction on file sizes.

To learn more about how to attach files to email click here.

8. Send Email

Your email signature will automatically be included in every email communication. You can edit your email signature by clicking on the edit icon.

To learn how to create and edit your signature click here.

Once you’ve entered all information for your email, you can Preview, Save as Draft or Send.

If you have checked the Send Privately checkbox, the recipients will not see who else the email has been sent to.

9. Email

Once you have clicked send, the receiver will receive the following formatted email with the option to view it as PDF Letter.

Below is an example of the PDF Letter.

Each RFI that is created will be logged directly on to the Request for Information Register in Commnia Inbox, to see how to review the list click here.

Marking Up Documents with Commnia MarkUp

As any complex construction project develops, the detail of its plans will be evolving all the time.

The drawings for a project will change and evolve as the job progresses. Marking up plans and drawings by hand is very time-consuming and a lot of effort will go into continually revising and make sure everything is up to date.

Managing your drawings and documents using Commnia Mark Up Tool offers many efficiencies and streamlines the mark-up process. Changes can be made by authorised persons, no matter where they are, on-site or off-site.

1. Select Drawing or Document

You can select drawings or documents to mark up via Inbox, defects, Document Register or Commnia.

To see how to create and Attach Markup Drawings via Email, Defects and RFI click here.

A pop up will appear to markup drawings.

2. The Toolbar

Project Users can create annotations, text comments, draw, add shapes and signature and distribute updated documents to the entire project team in a matter of minutes.

The View Screen will appear by default.

Click on the heading for different markup tool options.
You can send a document with markups via Transmittal or Add to Defect which will open a new defect form with the document attached.
Access to additional settings tool, search for words ( case sensitive or whole word), search for comments, screen view settings, download or print

3. Marquee Zoom Tool

Marquee zoom is a feature that allows you to zoom in on a particular area of your document, by dragging around that area using the Zoom tool

Zoom example:

4. Annotate

The annotation toolbar allows the user to easily switch tools when adding annotations to a document.

Select Annotate
Click on the Annotation Tool
Customise tool colour, i.e. highlighter colour.
Undo or redo markings.
Erase markings

5. Shapes

Select Shapes.
Select your shape, to adjust the shape, move the shape and drag across anywhere on the document.
Change the outline colour, tap a colour in the colour picker.
Change Opacity by dragging the bar.
Adjust the thickness of the outline of the shape
If you would like your shape to have a fill colour, click on the fill tab and select from the colour pick.
The Rectangle tool, the Oval tool, the Arrow tool, and the Line tool let you create simple shapes.
The Rectangle style can also be converted to create a cloudy outlined rectangle as per the below example.

6. Insert

Select Insert from the menu
PDF Signature
Insert Stamp
Insert Image
Insert Attachment
Callout Text Box
Activate Eraser

PDF Signatures

You can implement digital signatures onto a document.

Use your mouse to sign your name in the text box, you can select the colour of your signature by touching one of the colour options. Click Create.

Simply type in the text box and click Create.

You can choose to upload or drag & drop an image/signature from your gallery. Click Create.

Add Stamp

Click the Stamp button.

You can make a selection from the Standard Menu, scroll down to see the full list.

Create a Custom Stamp, select the information you would like on the stamp, username, date and time, additionally, you can add custom stamp by typing in the text box.

Add Image

Click on the Image/Picture icon, then click on the PDF where you want to place the attachment.

Local Device will open, you can navigate to a different storage location, select your picture(s) and click done.

You can move or resize the image by clicking on the image and dragging the sides.

Attachments

Click on the paperclip icon, then click on the PDF where you want to place the attachment, your local drive will open, select file and click open.

Callout Text Box

Callout text boxes are especially useful when you want to single out—but not obscure—a particular area of a document.
Move the crosshair to where you want the callout to point.
Drag in your document to insert the shape into the page. As with any image that you insert into the document, you can use the sizing handles to resize the shape. Click on the shape, and type the desired text.
You can change the outline by clicking on the colour picker.
If you need to edit the text box, click on the text box and editing menu will appear including adding a link, deleting the callout, editing text or add fill colour in the box.

7. Additional Menu Options

Search document, case sensitive or whole word
Search for comments in the document.
Settings, Download, or Print.

8. Example of a Document Mark Up

Every single Mark Up is recorded and stamped with time and the person who made the marks on the side panel.

Enter Text
Create Stick Annotation
Enter Text
Add Shape
Freehand Tool
Enter Text
Add Shape
Add Signature

9. Document Details

The document will have an information box detailing all of the documents information, including revision number to ensure you are marking up the latest document.

10. Add Action

1. Add to Defect, if you click on Add Defect it will automatically create a new Defect Entry with the Drawing Attached.

To see how to create and complete a New Defect click here.

2. Email – A screen will pop up prompting you to create a new email and the drawing will be attached in the Markup Attachments field.

To see how to create New Email, click here.

Creating and Sending Delay Notices

Commnia allows you to send Delay Notice with a formal letter, track responses from any mail client, and generate a register.

Delay Notices are created through the Commnia Inbox as an email message. This way you retain full transparency within your Inbox.

It is important to keep a record of delay causation and liability to ensure that extension of time claims are supported. Using the delay notice tool helps you to limit the risk of losses or disputes occurring in your projects.

1. Accessing Delay Notice

From the main menu via Quick Add (+), click on New Email.

Alternatively, select Inbox and create New Email.

Select Delay Notice from Category Folder.