How to Get Started Quickly

This article is a guide to getting started quickly in FastDraft.

This guide contains the following:

• Introduction
• Step 1 - Getting logged in and accessing your contracts
• Step 2 - Navigation and basic controls
• Step 3 - Start actively managing your contracts
• Step 4 - Polish up your skills and knowledge or just get help

Introduction

FastDraft is our Contract Management Platform that will help you administrate your contracts, projects and programme of work.

In this guide, you will find walkthroughs and guidance notes on how to use FastDraft and what information should be included when submitting notifications.

Step 1 - Getting logged in and accessing your contracts

First you need to make sure you can:-

• Login which we explain here - How to log into your Contract Management Platform Account
• Access your contracts which we explain here - How to select a contract

If you get stuck you can always raise a Support Ticket with our team. If you work with the Environment Agency we have also written a dedicated quick start guide for them here.

Step 2 - Navigation and basic controls

Next let's take a look at how the navigation works and main areas of the platform:-

• Top bar - You can use the top bar to search across your contracts, access our Sprint Release Notes, and you can navigate to the My Contracts page and your Preferences page by clicking on the username. It is always visible at the top of each screen. 

• Toolbar - Contains actions button that let you take key actions at the top or bottom of specific pages in the platform. This is important because sometimes the primary call to action is hard to access when users are at the bottom of a page.

• Navigation panel - The Navigation panel is used to display the primary navigation in the sidebar of our platform. The panel includes a list of links that you can use to move between sections of the application and workflows, reports and contract settings.

• Notification panel - Informs you about important notices that require actions. This panel is used to communicate to you in a prominent way through RAG reporting. 

• Pages - In the centre of each page you will find the main content. These pages can be broadly classified as follows:-
  • Dashboards
  • Register
  • Preferences page
  • Reports
  • Notices.

Under the FastDraft Basics section of our Help Centre we also show you how to tackle common tasks, like:-

• • Editing your FastDraft profile
  • Browsers supported by FastDraft
  • How to get product support and help
  • How to Delegate Actions

If you have administrative privileges on FastDraft, we have also produced these articles to help you get started with basic admin tasks:-

• Understanding roles and permissions in our Contract Management Platform
• Migrating existing contract notices into our platform

Step 3 - Start actively managing your contracts

Next let's take a look at the main workflows in your contracts, and how to draft and reply to these notice types:-

• Risk Management and Early Warnings Workflows
• Change and Compensation Events Workflows
• Payment Workflows
• Instruction Workflows
• Notifications Workflows
• Programme Submission Workflows
• Submissions and Approvals Workflows
• Quality and Defects Management Workflows
• RFI and TQ Management Workflows

After you have started raising notices, you may also wish to get to grips with our reporting tools.

Step 4 - Polish up your skills and knowledge or just get help

What's next, I hear you ask? If you are still stuck with our product, please get in touch with our Support Team who can help out, but if you want help honing your technical skills with contracts and driving your personal and professional development, please check out these resources

• Attend a Webinar: Join us every month for a 60-minute Introduction to Built Intelligence FastDraft demo with Q&A.  Learn more and sign up here.
• Ask an Expert: Connect with our panel of industry experts to better understand technical subjects like NEC3/NEC4, the Construction Act, etc. Browse thousands of technical FAQs and ask questions. We're standing by to help!
• Check out our Blog: Learn about the latest features in Built Intelligence FastDraft, tips for being  better at contract management, and other relevant topics.