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BuildingBlok Glossary
BuildingBlok Glossary

Navigating terms in BuildingBlok 📖

Updated over a week ago

A

Admin

An admin/administrator is the employee(s) responsible for setting up your company's BuildingBlok account and account settings. The company administrator will have "Admin" level permissions to make changes and should be the internal point person for making changes in BuildingBlok. Admins will be identifiable by a blue icon as seen here:

Approval Chain

Approval chains refer to the people assigned to review and approve a document or submittal before it can be completely resolved. When one person has reviewed the information, they assign it to the next person, and so on until the full approval chain has been complete and has been seen by all the necessary people.

Approver

An approver is the designated person(s) to review and approve a submittal or document. In BuildingBlok there can be a single approver or multiple approvers, all of which will be designated by the Approval Chain. 

ASIs

Forms used by architects to make changes to existing project contracts. Generally used to make minor changes that will not impact the overall project cost or timeline. Short for Architectural Supplemental Information.

B

Bid

A proposed offer to perform project work at a specified cost.

Budget

The specific amount of funding allocated by the owner to complete a project.

C

Change Order

A change order is an agreement representing a change to the existing project contracts. These should identify any changes in cost and/or time to completion, and explain the scope of the work required.

Contingency

An amount of money reserved by the owner and/or the general contractor to pay for unforeseen changes in the work or increases in cost. 

Contractor

The licensed individual(s) who undertake responsibility for the performance of specific work. Contractors are generally expected to provide and manage the crew, material, and equipment to accomplish the work.

D

Drawings

Project documents that provide the graphic/visual representation and technical details of the work to be done in the construction of a project.

G

General Contractor

A general contractor is a contractor with primary contract responsibility for the construction, improvement, or renovation.

I

Invoice 

An invoice is a document listing of goods or services provided, with a statement of the sum due for these; a bill.

P

Payment Application/Pay App

A payment application or pay app is an application that indicates project work has been completed by a contractor (or subcontractor) and defined the invoice and payment terms for remitting payment to the contractor.

Project Inbox

Your project inbox will give you an overview of your assigned tasks needing to be completed in BuildingBlok. 

Project Management

The use of integrated systems and procedures by a team of professionals during project creation and implementation. 

Punch-list

A punch list is a document prepared near the end of a construction project listing work not conforming to contract specifications that the contractor must complete prior to final payment.

R

Retainage

Retainage refers to a percentage amount of contract money that is withheld from the party responsible for completing the work on a job (e.g., the contractor/subcontractor). It is commonly used by the construction project owner to ensure that sufficient work and/or materials are in place to assure completion of the work. The retainage amount is typically due to the contractor/subcontractor when the contracted work is deemed substantially complete.

Request for Information (RFI)

A Request for Information is an document specifying the details of an 

Reports

BuildingBlok offers various ways of extracting data about your existing projects and teams through reports. These can all be found in the "reports" tab of any project and will provide a summary of important information. 

S

Schedule of Values

A list of basic contract segments in both labor and material, where each line item consists of a description of a portion of work and a related cost and the sum of the lines of the contract equals the total contract price. 

Submittals

A submittal refers to the written and/or physical information provided by a responsible contractor (i.e., contractors and subs) to the general contractor. This information is submitted to the design team for approval of equipment, materials, etc. before they are fabricated and delivered to the project. 

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