Documents does two jobs, and it’s worth being clear which one you’re using.
Files is a folder tree — a place to put anything. Contracts, photos, a scanned soil report, the stuff every job accumulates.
The Register is drawing control. Every document in it has a number, and that number is
what makes a re-issue a revision of the same drawing rather than another file called
A-101 FINAL v2 (2).pdf. If you’ve ever had two people building off different revisions, this
is the part that fixes it.
The switch between them is simply whether the document has a number. Give a file a document number and it appears in the Register.
For sending documents to people and tracking what came back, see Communications.
Setting up your folders once
Folder Templates define the folder structure every new job starts with. Set one up and you stop recreating the same eight folders on every project — and more usefully, your jobs all look the same to anyone who has to find something.
The tree is edited as indented plain text, one folder per line, two spaces per level:
01 Contract
Head Contract
Subcontracts
02 Drawings
Architectural
Structural
03 Approvals
Mark one template as your default, and every new job gets it automatically along with a root folder named after the job number.
Applying a template to an existing job is safe — folders that already exist are reused, not duplicated.
Filing a drawing package
When a consultant sends through twenty drawings, Bulk Intake files the lot in one pass instead of twenty uploads.
1. Where does the package land? — pick the project and the folder.
2. Select the drawings — choose the files.
3. Check and correct — CortexPM reads each filename and pulls out the number, the revision and the title. It handles the common shapes:
| Filename | Reads as |
|---|---|
A-101_RevD_Ground-Floor-Plan.pdf |
A-101, Rev D, Ground Floor Plan |
21034-A-101[D].pdf |
A-101, Rev D |
S-2.03 Rev C.pdf |
S-2.03, Rev C |
A-101 Ground Floor Plan.pdf |
A-101, Ground Floor Plan |
Anything it can’t read is flagged, not rejected — you fill in the gaps by hand and it’s filed with the rest.
Set Discipline, Reason for issue and Revision date for the whole batch at once, then correct individual rows. A merged PDF can be split into one document per page.
Tip: the revision date is the date printed on the title block, not today. It’s the date that matters in a dispute about what was current when.
Watch out: split a merged drawing set into pages. Don’t split a specification or a contract — you’ll end up with forty single-page documents.
On Commit, each row is filed independently: one bad row is skipped with a reason rather than failing the batch. CortexPM works out for each one whether it’s a new document or a new revision of an existing number, and supersedes the previous revision automatically. You get a count of what was created, what was revised and what was skipped.
Watch out: zip files aren’t expanded. Unzip the package first.
Reading the Register
Register lists every controlled document: Number, Title, Discipline, Rev, Status, Rev date, Project.
Numbers sort naturally, so A-9 comes before A-10 rather than after it.
Search hits number, title, filename and originator. Filter by project, discipline and status.
The Distribution view
Filter to one project and a Register | Distribution toggle appears. Distribution turns the Register on its side: documents down, every party the project has corresponded with across, and in each cell the revision that party was last sent — green if it is the current one, red if they are behind, blank if they were never sent it.
This is the question that matters when a drawing changes: who is still working to the old one? Tick the rows with someone behind (or Select all behind) and Transmit to those behind opens a transmittal already loaded with those documents at their current revision, addressed to exactly the parties who need them. Export CSV takes the grid out for a handover pack.
Reason for issue
The status is why the current revision was issued:
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Preliminary | Early, not for pricing or building |
| For Tender | Issued for pricing |
| For Approval | Sent for someone to approve — the one that expects a decision back |
| For Construction | Build to this |
| As Built | What was actually built |
| Superseded | A later revision replaces it |
Disciplines
Architectural, Structural, Civil, Hydraulic, Electrical, Mechanical, Fire, Landscape, Survey, Other.
Revisions
Click any row to open the document drawer.
Details — number, title, discipline, status, originator, description, and whether the client can see it.
Revisions — every revision with its label, status, revision date and who uploaded it. Upload a new revision supersedes the current one. You can correct a revision label or date in place if something was filed wrong.
Sharing — share links for people outside CortexPM.
Distribution — one row per party this document has gone to, showing the revision they were last sent and whether that is still the current one. Behind — on Rev C, current is E is the row to act on. Project stakeholders who have never been sent the document are listed underneath. Read-only here; see Communications for the sending side and the project-wide distribution matrix.
Tip: “revision” is the label on the drawing — A, C, P2, C01, whatever the consultant uses. CortexPM works out for itself which is newest, so you can use whatever scheme your consultants use.
Sharing a file with someone outside CortexPM
Share links give someone a document without an account — handy for a certifier or a one-off supplier.
Watch out: anyone with a share link can open it. Set an expiry, and don’t use one for anything you wouldn’t email.
Showing a document to your client
The client visible checkbox in the document drawer publishes a copy into the client’s portal and app, in Documents. Clear it and the copy is withdrawn.
The category shown to the client is worked out from the filename — specification, plan, invoice, contract, certificate, or other.
Watch out: this is a copy for them to read, not a request for a decision. If you need your client to formally approve, accept or sign something, issue it — see Communications. Issued documents reach the client’s portal automatically as well.
See Client Portal for what your client’s end looks like.
What subcontractors see
Subcontractors don’t see the Register. Their portal shows documents that come to them through contract actions — variations, notices, instructions, defect notices — plus anything you transmit to them directly as a recipient.
A drawing sitting in your Register does not reach a subcontractor until you send it to them.
See Subcontractor Portal.
Where to next
- Communications — transmitting documents and tracking responses
- Contracts — contract actions and the documents they generate
- Client Portal — what your client sees