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Doc Express® is a secure, web-based platform for construction administration document workflows created by Infotech® and included with your Appia® licenses.
Connect an Appia project to a Doc Express contract and see how the review and approval processes in Doc Express integrate seamlessly into the payment estimate and change order workflows of Appia.
Why integrate Appia and Doc Express?
When you connect an Appia project to a Doc Express contract and submit your documents there, you can be sure that a payment or change order has gone through all of the appropriate channels before you approve it in Appia and apply the changes to your project.
Brand new Doc Express user? Start here to get familiar with the Doc Express service.
An integrated workflow between Appia and Doc Express happens at the project level. There is no service-wide enablement of the integration; you must enable the integration for each Appia project and Doc Express contract that you want to connect.
When you enable the integration on an Appia project and connect it to a Doc Express contract, you can choose to submit Appia-generated change order and payment documents to the Doc Express service to go through the review and approval process you have set up there.
The payment or change order screen in Appia will then display the Doc Express information, including a link to view the document in Doc Express and the document's status.
Once the document has been through the appropriate approval process in Doc Express, approve it in Appia to have the payment and change order information update and reflect on the project.
Enable the integration
Click to expand the following sections and learn the step-by-step process to enable this integration for an Appia project.
First, you need to have the appropriate Doc Express contract ready to select when you enable the integration on an Appia project. This will be the contract and drawers that will receive change orders and payments generated in Appia.
Follow the steps outlined in this help guide to set up a contract in Doc Express. You may find it helpful to give the Doc Express contract the same name as your Appia project.
When you have the Doc Express contract and its drawers set up, return to Appia.
Back in Appia, find the project you want to connect with Doc Express. To enable the integration:
- From the sidebar menu, go to More > Project Settings.
- Click on the Integrations tab.
- Click Enable Integration.
- A pop-up modal will prompt you to select a Doc Express contract from the drop-down. Find and select the appropriate contract for this project.
- Once you have selected the appropriate Doc Express contract, click Enable.
The Appia project and Doc Express contract are now connected. To disconnect them, click Disable Integration. The integration can be enabled again at any time. To change the contract associated with this project, click Change Contract.
The Appia <-> Doc Express workflow
With the integration enabled, you can send payment estimate and change order documents which were generated in Appia to a contract in the Doc Express service for a secure, paperless approval process.
In the Appia service, create a change order or create a payment.
When the document is ready to submit for approval:
- Click Submit For Approval to open the submission drop-down menu.
- Select Submit to Doc Express®.
- In the pop-up modal, use the drop-down menu to select the Doc Express drawer where you want to send the document.
- If the type menu appears, you must also select the appropriate type(s). You can select more than one type.
- Click Submit.
The modal will close and you'll see a new section on the change order or payment page called Doc Express® Information. This section will include the document name, date submitted to Doc Express, its Doc Express type, its status in Doc Express, and a link to view the document in Doc Express. If a document is revised, the name will automatically update both here and in Doc Express.
In the Doc Express service, transitions show the forward progress of a document and who needs to sign it and when. Transition workflows can be configured to your particular business needs.
With this integration, Appia users can be sure that a change order or payment has gone through the appropriate channels before approving the document and applying its associated calculations to the Appia project.
We recommend that you do not approve a document in Appia until it has an approved status in Doc Express, which you can see from the Doc Express Information section of the payment or change order page in Appia.
To transition a document:
- Click on the View in Doc Express link to open a new tab displaying the document in Doc Express.
- Follow the appropriate process to transition the document according to your particular Doc Express workflow set up.
The document's status in Doc Express will update when you refresh the Appia payment or change order page.
Once the document has undergone the appropriate review and transition process in Doc Express, you must approve it in Appia. This will apply the changes and calculations from the payment or change order to your Appia project.
To approve in Appia:
- Back in Appia, refresh the page to see the Doc Express status update.
- Once the status shows approved or completed in Doc Express, click Approve to apply the change order or payment to the Appia project.