Professional setup guide

Summary: Setup guide for busy professionals who want to quickly get started as their next project begins (15–20 minutes)

This guide is designed for the Planyard champion (usually a project lead or manager) tasked with rolling out the platform across their team. Follow these eight straightforward steps to configure your account, get rid of your spreadsheets, and begin managing costs in real time.

1. Log in to your account

If you don’t have one, start your 14-day free trial here.

2. Update company profile

Your company name, registration code, and logo will appear on all documents (POs, applications, quotes etc.).

1. Click Company in the top menu row.
2. Navigate to Settings in the company menu row.
3. Use the pen icon to edit the company details and upload your logo.

3. Invite your team

Add project managers, QSs, site engineers, finance staff, or even the client to allow them to track the project in real-time.

1. Click Company in the top menu row and navigate to User management.
2. Click Add new user in the top right corner.
3. Choose whether it’s a full or a limited user.
4. Enter their email, choose permissions, and click Create.

Planyard will email them the account access details and quick setup guides.

Decide project visibility

Set whether users can access each other’s project item cost data. Shared visibility improves estimating and market benchmarking.

• Select the user right: “View projects”, either Everyone’s or Own & Shared

“Sharing this information allows team members to quickly check budget item costs in colleagues’ projects for cost estimating or to understand market prices better when negotiating subcontractors. It’s especially useful if you use the same cost codes for all the projects, allowing the users to one-click print item cost breakdowns across all portfolio projects—active and historic.”

Lock budget estimates for accountability

Prevent QSs and PMs from editing original estimates so you can always backtrack:

“Restricting edits to budget estimates increases accountability and allows backtracking what was estimated vs. what actually happened.”

• Set “Edit Estimates and Target Budgets” permission to No

5. Upload your first project

Go to Projects and click Create Project in the top right corner. Start by uploading your initial project budget, our short video guides walk you through the process step by step. You can use any budget item names and cost codes, fill them in accordingly on the import file:

• Simple project: 2-minute video for uploading the budget spreadsheet or download a sample template
• Complex project with multi-level budget subcategories: 3-minute video for uploading the budget spreadsheet or download a sample template
• Or convert a winning quote directly in the Sales module into a live project

To ensure consistency, we recommend having a single manager upload all initial projects. Once uploaded, you can assign the appropriate project owner in the project settings. This helps standardize how projects are set up across your team.

6. Collect subcontractor/vendor invoices as you receive them

Best way to collect accounts payable invoices to Planyard:

• Auto-import from your AP email (recommended)
• Outlook Add-in: How to download & tutorial
• Planyard Gmail Add-on: Download & tutorial
• Planyard application: iPhone & Android

7. Automate invoice forwarding to accounting

Avoid manual entry by integrating it with your accounting software:

• Connect to Xero, QuickBooks, Sage, or MYOB
• Or let Planyard automatically forward approved invoices to your accountant’s email

8. Supporting roles for your projects

You can share access to your Planyard project with stakeholders such as the client (view-only), site engineers, and foremen (to register change orders, raise purchase orders, etc.). To do this, start by inviting the user to your company account; refer to Step 3 for guidance. Then follow these steps:

1. Navigate to the project.
2. Click Settings in the project menu row.
3. Click Share project in the top right corner.
4. Select the team member in the dropdown and assign appropriate user rights

9. Custom Purchase Order Terms Template (Recommended)

This configuration lets you define a purchase order terms template that your team can customize before sending POs to vendors. It’s helpful for reminding suppliers about:

• Payment terms
• Where to send the invoice
• Including the Purchase Order number as a reference

This ensures all purchase orders from your company follow a consistent and professional format.

1. Click Company in the top menu row
2. Navigate to Settings and click Company-wide features
3. Find the Custom purchase order terms in the list and add your terms.

11. Sending emails to vendors from your work email address (Recommended)

This setup allows Planyard to send emails using your company’s work email domain. It’s especially useful when sending purchase orders, RFQs, and payment applications to subcontractors or vendors, helping avoid spam filters and improving trust.

1. Click Company in the top menu row
2. Navigate to Settings and click Company-wide features
3. Find the Email identities feature in the list
4. Copy the configuration details and send them to your IT support. They only need to make a small update to your email service provider.

Advanced setup (optional) – support@planyard.com

• Invoice approval workflows
• PO approval workflows
• Subcontractor bid comparisons