A recap of the October 8 call, for anyone who could not attend.
Centerline Technical Session · The PM’s Role
Andrea Bowman led a walkthrough of Centerline and what the project manager owns in it, from project setup through bidding, construction, and closeout. It was an overview, with detailed how to training offered separately. This summary carries the substance of the full call.
Andrea Bowman leads Centerline support at Grace. She set the frame early: this was an overview of Centerline and the PM’s role in it, and the step by step trainings run separately. Centerline started as a bidding and construction tool. It now covers design, and it holds the storytelling record after closeout. That is why Grace asks for a Centerline project at the start of the project, and why the PM is the single person responsible for how it runs.
Request Centerline at project start
Set up bidding and construction with care
Route every submittal and RFI
Post the last documents, then archive
Need more than the overview? Ask Andrea Bowman for a separate Centerline training. She also offered to post the security group matrix in the chat. The matrix lists every user group and what it can do, and it is on the Centerline page on MILO.
What The PM Owns
Admin rights nearly everywhere, with 3 exceptions
The PM is its own user group in Centerline, with admin rights in almost every section. Andrea showed only the places where that is not true.
BiddingYou can create and review. You can’t delete or edit.
Bidder RFIs and substitution requests follow public bid law. Once they are in the system, they stay.
Task managerYou see Grace tasks only
Tasks are visible inside the company that made them. Grace can see what it assigns to a consultant. Tasks between consultants, or inside the contractor’s team, are hidden.
StorytellerThe storyteller fills it in
The PM can view it and send links. On a small project the PM may also be the storyteller. That is a separate user group, which is why the setup form asks who the storyteller is.
2 tasks belong to the PM alone.
Manage project users
Only the PM can add or fix users. People add people all the time, company names change, email addresses go in wrong, and duplicate accounts appear. One owner keeps the list clean. Click the green Update button when you are done.
Manage the project record
Check that the project information is correct. The gray fields came from the setup form and can’t be edited. The PM also has admin view of the email correspondence log, so you can search every message on the project.
MILO Forms And The Admin Team
2 forms start and end the project
New project setup
Project name, number, location (now required), and every team member you know today. Submit it at the start of the project. You won’t know the contractor or the owner’s rep yet, and that is fine. Anyone can submit the form, but knowing who needs access, and what access, is the PM’s job.
Project archive
Your confirmation that the project is over. The admin team then zips every Centerline file, saves it to the project folder, and archives the project in the system.
The admin team can post the documents they help create, through MILO forms and through Catena for AIA documents. Agree with your admin early on whether they post or you do. They don’t touch RFIs, submittals, or anything else in Centerline.
The Dashboard
Other people read your project here first
The project dashboard shows what is assigned to you, the bidding status, and quick views of RFIs, submittals, and change requests. Firm leaders use it too. When a leader has a question about a project, this is the first place they look. If the answer isn’t there, they call the PM. They also use it to find out who the PM is.
Keep it current
A current dashboard answers questions before anyone has to call you. Under your name you also manage user groups, such as a standard distribution list you send to every time. The PM and any design team member can set those up.
Design Phase
4 tools for the design phase
Centerline Drive
The one place that takes any file type, with no size limit. You can upload a Revit model or a whole folder. It can replace Dropbox, Box, or OneDrive, and it records when people view files. It sits in the design section. Use it there for any phase.
Task manager
Assign tasks to the team, consultants, or the owner, with priorities and due dates. Centerline sends the email reminders. People can mark up attachments in Bluebeam inside the task.
Tasks from meeting minutes
Upload the minutes and open View Unpublished Tasks. Centerline lists the action items it found. Assign each one, edit the text, then publish it or discard it. Minutes with a ball in court column give the best results. It works in design and in construction.
Design package review
Issue a set to the owner or consultants for a set review period. They view, download, and upload comments in one place, and you can see who opened it and when. Anyone on the team can post it. Making sure it gets posted is the PM’s due diligence.
Bidding
Bidding is set up for bid law. Some mistakes can’t be fixed.
Only Bid Management Setup shows until the required fields, marked with an asterisk, are complete. The admin team reads the project contact field when bidders call the office, so it must name the right PM. Use of the bidding module is optional. Decide it with your owner.
1
Live dateOnce the live date and time pass, you can’t change it. The other dates can change later. If you don’t know the exact live time yet, set it in the future and adjust it.
2
Specifications and drawingsYou get one upload of each. It can be several files, but once it is up it can’t be replaced. A wrong file means Grace opens a new Centerline project. There is no fix behind the scenes.
3
AddendaYou can’t remove an addendum. To correct one, issue another addendum.
4
Green buttonsNothing on the page saves until you click the green button. Green buttons appear in 3 places: Publish Changes in bid setup, Submit Details in construction setup, and Update in manage project.
5
Bidder RFIsYou can’t answer a bidder RFI directly. Collect the answers in your addendum. Bidders see nothing until the addendum goes out. You can assign a bidder RFI to a consultant, and their answer comes back only to you.
6
One bid phaseThere is no rebid. A rebid needs a new Centerline project. CMAR pricing rounds run outside Centerline for now.
Bid submissions are visible to the design team after the bid date. RFIs can be marked complete once an addendum covers them.
Construction Setup
Name the architect administrator, then publish the set
Only Construction Management Setup shows until its required fields are complete.
1
Architect administratorMost of the time this is the PM. Some offices use a construction administrator. This person gets every email and notification in the construction section and is assigned to every submittal and RFI.
2
Contractor administratorThe contractor’s PM or main contact, with the same full notifications. Add anyone else who needs every email under default notifications.
3
Financial informationRequired at setup. If you don’t have the exact number yet, enter your best figure and change it later. You can also set retainage descriptions, review periods, custom working days, and a time zone. The scheduled end date is calculated from the notice to proceed and the days to completion, so you can’t edit it.
4
Users and Submit DetailsOnly the PM can add users here. Click the green Submit Details button. The rest of the construction section then appears.
The publishing center is the step people miss most. Grace asks the PM to do it, or to hand it to a team member they trust.
AlwaysReview before publishing
Check that each sheet number, spec number, and spec section title came in correctly. Centerline flags a sheet that doesn’t match the rest and asks you to fix it.
OptionalAs built placeholders
Centerline counts your sheets and makes one as built placeholder for each. 155 drawings means 155 as built sheets to expect from the contractor.
OptionalSubmittal placeholders
Centerline reads the submittal list in each spec section and makes a placeholder for each item. The contractor still owns the submittal log. Compare their log to the placeholders and talk through the gaps.
PM best practiceASIs
Upload the ASI, distribute it, then conform it into the current drawings and specs. The admin team can post an ASI, but they won’t conform it.
Submittals And RFIs
Every submittal and RFI starts and ends with the PM
Arrives, assigned to the PM
Assign consultants and set an earlier internal due date
Review their response, then accept it or send it back
Mark up and return to the contractor
Centerline fills in the contract review period, such as 14 days. Give consultants an earlier date so you have time to review. It records when you assigned the item, the internal due date, and when it came back. You get a notice when each consultant finishes. RFIs work the same way. Under Grace contracts, the PM is responsible for seeing them addressed.
More than 1 consultantAssign them all at once, then accept each review as it lands
When you accept a review, it becomes the current file, so the next consultant marks up the latest version. You can also open a Bluebeam Studio session for one document and record its log in credentials there.
ProcoreThe only system Centerline connects to
It brings over submittals and RFIs. Nothing goes back to Procore until the PM sends the final response, so the contractor never sees the consultant review. The architect administrator should make the connection with their own Procore login.
Consultants can’t assign other consultants, and contractors can’t send items straight to consultants. If the Procore connection fails, the MILO troubleshooting guides cover the usual causes: a permission on the contractor side, or the Centerline app not added from the Procore marketplace. Still stuck? Contact Andrea Bowman or the admin team.
Money And Change
Pay applications and change orders feed the dashboard
Pay applications
The contractor can submit a draft, a final, or a final executed copy for information. Assign reviews the same way as RFIs, mark it up, and send it back. The admin team can post the final executed version. Totals should match the pay application summary page.
Change orders
Posting them is the PM’s job. Enter the number, title, cost change, and any time extension, and Centerline calculates the new contract total. Tag the PCOs or RFIs behind each one.
The change table
The same table shows on the project dashboard. Practice and studio leaders use it to check the health of the project and where it is going.
ASI, PCO, CCD, proposal request, and the other folders are only places to upload and distribute documents, so each project can use the names in its contract. Centerline doesn’t create AIA documents. Those come from Catena. The blue tracking boxes are visible only to Grace staff.
Closeout And Storytelling
Close the record before you archive it
1
Substantial completion documentAnyone can post it. Making sure it is there is the PM’s job. Before archiving, the admin team checks for it and asks you to add it if it is missing. A project that ends before construction can still be archived.
2
Punch list, as builts, and closeout submittalsAnyone can create the punch list. As builts and closeout submittals follow the same review process as submittals.
3
Project progress reportsAnyone can create one. It can replace a biweekly report to the owner. Use it to show work complete, phases not yet paid, and what comes next.
4
Storyteller, QC forms, and the A3The storyteller fills in the storytelling module and keeps the A3 current. The PM can view both. QC forms now live in Centerline too, with dates, assignments, and a log.
Questions From The Room
Conformed sets, storage, and keeping up with changes
1
Do addenda move from bidding to construction?No. Upload the construction set separately. Many teams build the conformed set in Bluebeam first and upload it as the issued for construction set.
2
Will later ASI sheets file in the right place?Yes, if the sheet numbers match exactly. Review before publishing, and Centerline color codes each sheet as new or as replacing a current sheet. It never deletes the old sheet. The old sheet just stops being the current file.
3
Is there file storage in the construction phase?No. Use Centerline Drive in the design section in any phase. The miscellaneous documents section in construction takes one off items to distribute.
4
How will we hear about new features?Centerline sends Grace notice of changes, and Andrea posts them on the Centerline page on MILO. One participant asked for an in app list of new features on the opening page, even once a quarter. Andrea took it as feedback.
5
Who trains the contractor?Grace trains its own staff without limit and can advise on consultant training. The Centerline team trains contractors on request. Centerline is free for contractors.
Grace is Centerline’s largest customer, but not its only one, so Grace can suggest changes and can’t make them. Small fixes often arrive the next day. Grace IT doesn’t support Centerline. Use the How To menu at the top of Centerline, or contact Centerline support, and copy Andrea so she learns how it was solved.
What Comes Next
Put it to work on your next project
1
Request Centerline at the startSubmit the MILO new project setup form at project start, with the location and every team member you know.
2
Check your project dashboard this weekConfirm the project information, the PM name, and the user list. Leaders read it before they call you.
3
Before you bid, check the files twiceSet the live date in the future until you know it. Check the spec and drawing files before you upload, because you get one upload of each.
4
At construction setup, review before publishingThen decide whether to use as built and submittal placeholders.
5
Give consultants an internal due dateSet it ahead of the contract date on every submittal and RFI you assign.
6
Post the substantial completion documentDo it before you submit the archive form.
Find the security group matrix, the troubleshooting guides, and the feature updates on the Centerline page on MILO. For training or problems, contact Andrea Bowman.
PM Excellence