Summary:
The AIA Contract Documents online service is organized into four main tabs: Home, Projects, Template Library, and Contacts. The Home tab provides quick access to recent documents and updates. The Projects tab lists all projects and their details. The Template Library contains standard and custom templates. The Contacts tab manages contact information for multiple projects.
The online service is organized in four main tabs (Home, Projects, Template Library and Contacts). In the top right of your screen, you can access your settings and if you are an account administrator, your company settings.
Home tab
The Home tab is what you see when you log into the online service. It provides quick and easy access to recently accessed documents and templates. The What’s New section provides a current list of updates to the online service, any new training materials, and notices of any service advisories. A service advisory entails a period of time when you may not have the ability to purchase new documents or access and finalize your documents in the online service. To prepare for a service advisory, you will also be notified via email and encouraged to download your drafts and work offline in Microsoft Office during that time.
Recent Activity
The Recent Activity area of the Home tab displays up to three projects listed in order of the most recent document activity. Click on a project name to view the project details and manage that project’s documents. You can use the Import File button to finalize a draft document.
Frequently Used Templates
The Frequently Used Templates area of the Home tab lists up to five templates you used most recently to create a document. To begin editing a template in the list, click the template name, or click View All Templates to access the Template Library.
Projects tab
The Projects tab lists all of your projects and displays project details and documents. You can perform a variety of tasks from this tab, including:
- Create or edit a project
- Create a new document
- Finalize a document
- Create a project manual to combine documents
Projects list
The projects list shows all of your projects and any project subfolders. Clicking a project name opens the selected project in the Project Details window. You can sort the list by name or modified date using the drop-down menu.
Project details
The documents you create require certain project information, such as the project description and project team. The project information is stored and automatically entered into new documents you generate for the project.
- You can edit a project’s data by clicking Edit Project Data.
- The Project Team tab lets you view and manage the contacts associated with a project.
- The Distribution List tab lets you view and manage an email distribution list for the project.
- The Project Manual tab lets you combine documents into one PDF.
Project documents
The Import File button allows you to save a copy of any file to a project, including (but not limited to) software-generated document drafts. You can click View all documents to view and manage the documents you have created and/or imported for a project.
- Clicking Finalize allows you to generate a read-only final version in PDF format that can be printed or e-mailed.
- Clicking “…” under the Actions column displays a menu of additional document-related functions (Check Variances, comment, share for review, download, print, etc.).
Note: You can click and drag the headers to group your project documents. You can also click more options ( ) to the right of the column header to sort and filter further.
Template Library tab
The Template Library tab contains all the standard AIA Contract Documents templates, which are the basis of your draft documents, and comprise the AIA text only. You can also create custom templates with your standard edits and then use them as the basis for your draft documents.
The left sidebar groups available templates by series, family, and parties involved and shows the number of templates available for each. Clicking a link filters the available templates accordingly.
Note: You can click and drag the headers to group the templates. You can also click more options ( ) to the right of the column header to sort and filter further.
The Template Library tab contains four sub-tabs:
- The AIA Templates sub-tab lists all standard AIA document templates.
- The Custom Templates sub-tab lists the custom templates you have created.
- The Clause Library sub-tab lists pieces of custom text you have created for insertion into your documents.
- The Favorite Templates sub-tab lists standard and custom templates that you want to access quickly.
The Template Library tab contains two “wizards” to assist you in selecting the right template:
- Help Me Select an AIA Template helps you select a template by answering a series of progressively more detailed questions that filter the set of applicable AIA templates.
- Side by Side Comparison lets you select up to three templates to compare based on various document properties.
Contacts tab
The Contacts tab is a central location to manage your contacts. The information stored for contacts you create is not project-specific, meaning that one contact can be associated with multiple projects.
Searching in the online service
Contextual search
You can perform a contextual search in the Projects, Template Library and Contacts tabs, as well as within the software Help, and will return results relevant to where you are in the software. For example, initiating search from the Contacts tab will return matches from your list of contacts. Searching the Template Library tab will return relevant results from the selected subtab (AIA Templates, Custom Templates and Clauses).
To perform a contextual search:
- Click in the Search box.
- Type the term you would like to search for.
- Click Go.
Advanced search
An advanced search lets you expand your search across other tabs, and provides a number of additional criteria to help narrow your search.
Advanced search options can be accessed by clicking Show Advanced Options after performing a contextual search. Advanced search options include:
- All these words
- This exact wording or phrase
- None of these words
- Search by modified date
- Search within AIA document number
- Include results from one or more tabs
- File type