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How to Use the Engineering Scrub Stage
How to Use the Engineering Scrub Stage

Scrubbing, swapping, and releasing items once the project is in the Engineering stage

Clayton avatar
Written by Clayton
Updated over a week ago

Once you have turned on the Engineering Scrub Workflow for your company, you can head back to the Projects area to get your projects ready to be scrubbed.

Before a project can move into the Engineering stage, you will need to assign an Engineer, Project Manager, and Project Type.

  • Engineers are those users who have the Engineer Projects permission in Settings > Team. These users are responsible for approving all equipment before it passes to the next stage. You may assign up to two Engineers per project.

  • Project Managers can be selected from any of your Project users, as long as they have the base permissions to create/edit projects and view costs/margins. The Project Manager will be able to release equipment for purchase once it has been scrubbed (if you need to start ordering before the full project is scrubbed.)

  • Project Types are set in Settings > Company > Defaults. The project type you set will designate whether the project passes through the Engineering stage(s).


When a project advances into the Engineering/Scrub Stage, a few things will happen:

1. A task is assigned to the Engineer on that project, letting them know it's ready to be scrubbed.

2. A new version of the project is automatically created. This will allow you to compare the total costs and margins of the original project with the scrubbed version.

Note: Pre and Post Engineering have their own reference versions, and own scrub fields, making Pre Engineering and Post Engineering comparisons and scrubs completely separate. For example, upon entering Post Engineering, even if all items were scrubbed in Pre Engineering, all items must be scrubbed again.


3. You will see a new "ER" (Engineering Release) column in the Builder


4. If you have placed the Engineering stage between Contract and Install (Post-Engineering), you will see a new "PMR" (Project Manager Release) column in the Builder.

Let's first take a look at the functionality from the perspective of the Engineer.


Once in Engineering, the Engineer can:

1. Swap Items. If an item needs to be replaced with a different product, hover your cursor over the item, and click the 'swap' icon.

This will open a window where you can search for a new item to replace the existing item. When you do this, you will be able to select whether you're replacing only that line item, or all of the matching line items in that project.

Bundled items will need to be un-bundled (or 'exploded,' as we say) before the items can be swapped.
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​Note: If you swap in an item that you've used before (one that is currently set up in your company database), it pulls in the labor values that are saved to that item. If you swap in an item you’ve never used before, it copies the labor values that were on the item you are replacing.
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​2. Scrub Items. Engineers can select the checkbox in the ER (Engineer Release) column to indicate that the item has been approved/scrubbed.

(If a project is set to go through Engineering between the Contract and Install stages, items that have been scrubbed are eligible for Project Manager Release - more on that in the "Project Manager Release" section below!)
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​3. Compare Versions. The Comparator at the top displays the difference in pricing between the previous project version and the scrub version, so you can see how the project totals compare as you complete the scrub.

4. Sign off Engineering. The Engineering Progress % reflects the percentage of items in the project that have been scrubbed. Once all items have been approved, the number will show 100%, and the Engineer can click the "Sign Off Engineering" button, which will pass the project to the next stage.

Project Manager Release

If Engineering is set between Contract and Install (a.k.a., Post Engineering), there will be a "PMR" column in the Builder. This allows the Project Manager to send items to Purchasing if they have already been scrubbed, which allows you to start ordering items that may have longer lead times.

Project Managers can only release items to purchasing if they have first been scrubbed by the Engineer, and once an item has been sent to purchasing, it cannot be un-scrubbed.

NOTE: If the Engineering stage is set between Estimate and Proposal (a.k.a. Pre Engineering), there will be no PMR column.

We hope this helps! Please reach out to us in support chat if you have any questions 🙂

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