Bulletins activity center

19 minutes
11 months ago

Bulletins Activity Center

Use this activity center to create, log, review, and track bulletins electronically. Bulletins are a part of contract management.

Project Center administrators can set which tasks appear here using the Remove Contract Management Item Tasks dialog box.

Bulletins

New Bulletin > Create Bulletin

Click to open the Create a Bulletin dialog box to create a new bulletin or to file an expected one.

New Bulletin > Log Received Bulletin

Click to open the Log a Received Bulletin dialog box to log a bulletin that you have received.

Create Report

Click to open the Create Report dialog box to select the type of bulletin report to create. The report contains the contents of this activity center’s log.

You can customize which columns appear in reports simply by selecting which columns to show and hide in the activity center. Simply right-click on column headers to add or remove columns. A checkmark indicates the column will appear in the activity center and the report.

Import Spreadsheet

Click to open the Select Spreadsheet dialog box to select a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet containing bulletin data that you can import. The imported bulletins are placed in the appropriate bulletin log based on the type imported.

View Pending Items

This task appears only when there are Pending Review Response bulletins.

Click to list only Pending Review Response bulletins.

Selected Bulletin

The following list shows all available tasks for all bulletin categories, in alphabetical order. The tasks that appear depend on which category you select from.

Add Similar Bulletin

Click to create a new bulletin based on the one selected. The new one contains most of the information from the original, except for unique identifiers such as the ID. The new one is also automatically related to the original. Supporting documents from the original are included. If the original has no received actions (such as those is a draft/expected state), the Create a Bulletin dialog box opens. If the original has at least one receive action, the new one will be created using the Log a Received Bulletin dialog box.

If the original contains a receive action with files and/or description of contents entries, the Select Files and Description of Contents dialog box opens first, enabling you to select the items to include in the new copy.

Close > Close

Click to open the Close Bulletin dialog box to close the bulletin without providing a response.

Close > Respond and Close

Click to open the Respond to Bulletin and Close dialog box to file your response to the sender of the bulletin and close it. If the bulletin has files associated with it, the Select Files to Send dialog box will open first.

Close > Send and Close

Click to open the Send and Close Bulletin dialog box to send the bulletin to team members and close it. If the bulletin has files associated with it, the Select Files to Send dialog box will open first.

Delete

Click to delete the selected bulletin from Project Center.

You must be a Project Center administrator and have a contract management role to delete bulletins.

Forward for Review

Click to open the Forward Bulletin for Review dialog box to forward the bulletin to any contacts who are responsible for reviewing the bulletin and to create a transmittal. If the bulletin has received files or supporting documents associated with it, the Select Files to Forward for Review dialog box will open first so you can select the files to forward.

Modify

Click to open the Modify Bulletin dialog box to edit the settings for the selected bulletin, including due dates, email message reminder settings, and the description.

Receive

Click to open the Receive Bulletin dialog box to log the receipt of an expected bulletin.

Receive Pending Review Response

Click to open the Record Reviewer Response for Bulletin dialog box to record a response received about a bulletin via Info Exchange.

Record Reviewer Response

Click to open the Record Reviewer Response for Bulletin dialog box to record a response received about a bulletin that you forwarded to other contacts. When you receive a response back from a contact, record it using this task to track its progress.

Reopen

Click to open the Re-Open Bulletin dialog box to re-open the closed bulletin.

Review Related Action Items

This task is available only when you select an item that has related action items.

Click to open the Related Action Items activity center to view action items related to the selected item.

Review Related Markup Sessions

This task is available only when you select an item that has related markup sessions.

Click to open the Related Markup Sessions activity center to view information about and preview the related markup sessions.

Send

Click to open the Send Bulletin dialog box to send the bulletin to other project team members.

Send Email About Bulletin > To the Sender

Click to open an email message in Microsoft Outlook to send to the contact who originally sent the bulletin. The email message includes information about the bulletin.

Send Email About Bulletin > To the Recipients

Click to open an email message in Microsoft Outlook to send to the original bulletin recipients as a reminder or with additional information. The email message includes information about the bulletin.

Send Email About Bulletin > To All Reviewers

Click to open an email message in Microsoft Outlook  to send to the contacts who are currently reviewing the bulletin, as a reminder or with additional information. The email message includes information about the bulletin.

Send Email About Bulletin > To All Participants

Click to open an email message in Microsoft Outlook to send to all bulletin participants, including the sender, recipients, and reviewers as a reminder or with additional information. The email message includes information about the bulletin.

View Form

Click to open the Bulletin form to view or print the selected bulletin’s history and details.

Selected Action

See Selected Action panel for more information. Access the actions by clicking the expand icon in the first column next to each bulletin.

The file tasks apply to files in the Supporting Documents tab. See File Tasks panel for more information.

See Email Tasks panel for more information.

See Related Item Tasks panel for more information.

Bulletins

Category drop-down list

The category drop-down list contains filters to display the bulletins in particular categories. For example, if you want to view overdue bulletins, select Overdue from the list. Only overdue bulletins will appear in the log. You can also choose to display bulletins for all project users or only bulletins on which you are listed as the sender or recipient. Each category is explained below.

Click to toggle between showing bulletins for all users or only bulletins you are involved with.

All

Click to display all bulletins that have been entered for this project.

Pending Incoming

Click to display all bulletins sent via Info Exchange that need to be received. When a bulletin or bulletin response is logged by a project team member on Info Exchange, it will show up in this category.

Draft

Click to display all bulletins that are in draft form and have not been sent.

Under Review

Click to display bulletins that have been received, but responses have not been sent to the bulletin senders.

When a non-expected bulletin is first filed, it is placed in the Under Review category.

Awaiting Action

Click to display bulletins that have been received, but they:

Have not been forwarded for review, or

Have been forwarded for review, but a response has not been received, or

Have been forwarded for review and all responses have been received, but there has been no response sent to the bulletin sender.

Forwarded for Review

Click to display bulletins that have been forwarded with a due date for another contact to review that have not been received back yet.

Response Overdue

Click to display bulletins that have been forwarded but the responses back from the reviewers are overdue.

Overdue

Click to display bulletins that were received with a due date but have not been closed yet.

Expected

Click to display all bulletins filed as expected.

Expected Resubmission

Click to display expected bulletins that were created for bulletins that require the sender to resubmit the bulletin (the action taken on the bulletin was Rejected or Revise and Resubmit).

Late

Click to display expected bulletins that are late.

All Closed

Click to display bulletins that have had a response sent to the bulletin sender and there is no further action required.

Filter All Columns

You can filter by any text that appears in any of the columns in the log. For example, if you know the subject (or part of the subject) of the bulletin that you are searching for (or the ID, status, due date, etc.), enter at least part of the text in this field. The bulletins list updates automatically as you type. For example, if the bulletin you are searching for has the number 30 somewhere in one of the columns, enter 30 in this field. The list will be narrowed down to only bulletins that have the number 30 somewhere in one of the columns.

Click to clear all filters.

>

Click to toggle between showing and hiding the column filter fields.

> >

Click to group by the any of the columns. For example, if you want to group the list of items by subject, select Subject from the drop-down list. The items will be grouped into separate sections alphabetically by subject. See Column Sorting, Filtering, and Grouping for more information.

Bulletins log

The bulletins log displays the bulletins for the category selected above. Click a bulletin for a list of tasks you can perform, which appear in the Tasks panel. Double-click a bulletin to open the Modify Bulletin dialog box to view the bulletin’s information and settings.

Bulletins (and actions) are listed in red if the bulletin is overdue or if a review response is overdue.

You can drag and drop or copy and paste email messages from Microsoft Outlook and files from Windows Explorer into the Bulletins log to create a new bulletin. This also prevents Microsoft Outlook from opening multiple instances of Project Center.

Columns

Column headers are different for each category. The following list includes all column headers for all bulletin categories. Some categories may not include all headers, and they may not be in the order listed here. If you move and resize columns, they are saved in that position for each category. Column settings are reflected in bulletin reports. Right-click on any column header to list and de-list columns. Click the icons for more filtering options.

ID

The ID number of the bulletin.

Sender ID

The number the contractor gave to the bulletin.

Type

The bulletin’s type.

Subject

The subject of the bulletin.

Contract Sum

The proposed basis of adjustment to the contract for the changes identified in the bulletin. Additional information for the sum type is provided in the Sum Description field. For example, for a Unit Price of contract sum, add the dollar amount per unit in the Sum Description field.

Sum Description

Any additional details for the Contract Sum type, providing unit price, lump sum amount, etc.

Contract Time

The agreed upon time that the contract will change. It can be a positive or negative number.

Initiated By

The contact who requested or authorized the document change.

Reasons

The reasons the bulletin was created.

Responsible

The contact responsible for the change resulting in the bulletin.

Status

The status of the bulletin (Expected, Open, Closed, etc.).

Discipline

The disciplines associated with the bulletin.

Contract

The contract the bulletin is associated with.

COP Status

The status of whether or not a change order proposal has been received for the bulletin.

From

The contact the bulletin came from.

Received

The date the bulletin was received.

Last Action

The last completed workflow action for the bulletin. It displays the action and the purpose or type for that item. For example, if a bulletin was received and there was no action required selected for the Action field, the Last Action column would display Received – No Action Required. If you were looking at an entry in the Under Review category that had a Last Action of Received – No Action Required, that indicates that the item needs to be closed using the Close task.

Forwarded To

The contacts the bulletin was forwarded to.

Review Due Back

The date the bulletin is due back from the contacts reviewing it if it is note yet received. It is based on the oldest Forward for Review date.

Due Back From

Any contacts a response to the bulletin is due back from.

Current Reviewer

The contact who is currently reviewing the bulletin in a sequential workflow.

Due Date

The date a response is due back to the contact who sent the bulletin.

Total Days

The number of days to process the bulletin. The count starts from the start date, which is either when the item was created or the received date, and ends either now or when it was closed if a closed date was entered. If it is re-opened, it displays the count from when the bulletin was created. It’s based on calendar days (not business days) and does not consider holidays in its calculations.

Expected Date

The date the bulletin is expected (for Expected bulletins only).

Keywords

Any keywordsIn Project Center, keywords are words you can add to items to use for filtering. When you add keywords, they appear in the Keywords column of the corresponding Project Center activity centers. You can then filter the list of items using the keywords to quickly find the items you are looking for. applied to the bulletin.

If the bulletin has any related items, the icons appear here.

This column is a text version of the icons in the Related Items column. The text will appear in reports.

To

The contact who received the bulletin.

Last Forwarded

The date the bulletin was last forwarded to a reviewer.

Last Reviewed

The date the most recent reviewer returned the bulletin. (The most recent review response date.)

Review Days

The total number of days the bulletin has been in the review cycle for all reviewers.

Internal Notes

Any personal notes added to the submittal. These are also added to the Remarks Summary tab.

Supporting Documents

Any files attached to the bulletin.

Closed Date

The date the bulletin was closed.


 

Remarks Summary tab

A description of the bulletin and the sum appear here. If the bulletin originated from an email message, the contents of the email is added here. This tab is not editable.

 

Description of Contents tab

A description of the contents of each action in the bulletin workflow appears here. This information is used to fill in the Contents section of the Transmittal form.

Workflow

The task that was selected from the Tasks panel (Forwarded for Review, Record Reviewer Response, etc.).  

From

The originator of the action.

Qty

The quantity of each item received.

Date

The dates individual items were received.  For example, if you have six shop drawings, it may help to track dates on each individual sheet.

Number

The number for each item.

Title

The title of each item.

Revision

The revision number, if applicable.

Scale

The drawing scale, if applicable.

Size

The drawing size, if applicable.

 

File Summary tab

This tab contains any electronic files that were included with the bulletin. Select a file to display file tasks you can perform, including opening, comparing, sending, and publishing the file. These files are stored in a compressed .ZIP file that is referenced by the bulletin. Each column in this tab is described here.

Name

The name of the file.

If the file is an email message, Project Center creates the file name with the date, a system generated ID, and the subject of the email.

Type

The file’s type.

Workflow

The workflow step (Forwarded, Review Response, etc.) for the file.

Size

The file’s size.

Modified

The date the file was last modified.

ZIP Folder

The full path to the location of the .ZIP file.

Related Items

Any Project center items related to the file.

 

Email Log tab

This tab lists all email messages associated with the selected bulletin. When you click File in Project and then choose the Bulletins option and select the bulletin from the legacy Project Center Add-in for Microsoft Outlook Toolbar, the email message appears here.

You can copy and paste and drag and drop email messages from Microsoft Outlook and Windows Explorer into this tab.

To file a reviewer response, you can drag and drop an email message into this tab, then select the email message and click Log as from the Email Tasks panel and select the Reviewer Response option.

Double-click an email message to open it in Microsoft Outlook. From there, you can reply to or forward the message.

The number in parentheses indicates the number of email messages filed to the bulletin.

Add

Click to open the Add Email Messages dialog box select an email message to add to the current bulletin.

Remove

Click to remove the selected email message from the bulletin.

 

Supporting Documents tab

Use this tab to attach files to the selected bulletin, and to view attached files. For example, if you receive a bulletin and a particular drawing is related to it, you can use this tab to attach the drawing file to the bulletin. Another example is if you receive a file with a bulletin, mark it up, and want to send the marked up file to a reviewer. Also, files added using the Add to > Bulletin task are added to this tab.

The number in parentheses indicates the number of files that are attached to the bulletin.

You can copy and paste and drag and drop files from Windows Explorer into this tab.

Change Version

If you are using an EDMS, click to select a specific version of the file to link to the bulletin.

Set Order

Click to open the Set Document Order dialog box to set the order of the documents.

Add Files > Another Project File

Click open the Add Supporting Documents dialog box to locate and attach a file to the bulletin.

Share with External > Yes

Click to allow the selected files to be shared with external project team members through Info Exchange.

Remove

Click to remove the selected supporting file from the bulletin.

Preview tab

A preview of the selected file appears here.

Related Items tab

This tab lists all related Project Center items for the selected file.

 

This tab lists all related Project Center items for the selected bulletin.

Click to open the Identify an Action Item dialog box to create a new action item and link it to the current bulletin.

Click to open the Send Files to Email Recipients dialog box to send project files via email. Nothing is logged in this tab.

Click to open the Transfer Files to a Newforma Info Exchange Server dialog box to transfer project files via your Newforma Info Exchange Server and link the transfer to the current bulletin.

Click to open the Send Files and Create an Outgoing Transmittal dialog box to send project files via email, file an outgoing transmittal for a file transfer, and link the transfer to the current bulletin.

Click to open the Transfer Files and Create an Outgoing Transmittal dialog box to transfer project files via your Newforma Info Exchange Server, create a new outgoing transmittal for the file transfer, and link the transfer to the current bulletin.

Click to open the Create Contract Management Item dialog box for the type of contract management item you selected to create a new CM item and link it to the current bulletin.

Click to open the Create Web Link dialog box to enter a web link and automatically relate it to the selected Project Center item. After it is created, the Relation Type column will indicate Web Link, and users can double-click on it to open the website.

Relate to >

Click to select an existing project item and establish a relationship between it and the currently selected bulletin. This gives you the ability to link two items that are related together (for example, a markup session that is related to a bulletin). Select Another Project Item to open the Select Project Item dialog box to locate an item that is not in the list. When you create a relationship between two items, each item’s icon is added to the other item’s Related Items column and tab.

Share with External

Click and select Yes to allow the selected web link to be shared with external project team members through Info Exchange.

Remove

Click to unlink and remove the selected project item from the Related Items tab.

Removing a related item from the Related Items tab does not remove it from the database.

The Relation Type column  has two icons to indicate the relationship type:

The icon indicates that the relationship was created by a user and can be deleted (such as an action item related to a bulletin).

The icon indicates that the relationship was created by Project Center and cannot be deleted (such as a transmittal or record copy related to a bulletin).

 

Change Log tab

This tab displays a history of the actions taken on the bulletin, including when it was created, modified, who was involved, and any details.

To access this activity center

Click Bulletins from the Activities list or from the Project Home activity center.