In this article:

Welcome to Aidi

Preliminary information

Main section of the application

Sequence of uasge of essential Aidi functions

Create a project

Create a budget

Create a project financing

Create a purchase order

Create contractual changes

Create payment request

Invoicing

Cost summary

Scheduler

Logbook

 

Welcome to Aidi!

This guide will give you an overview of the application, helping you familiarize yourself with Aidi and get started with your first project. In this guide, you'll find the steps to create a project which include financing, budgeting, purchase orders and scheduling. For more detailed information on the numerous modules in the application more articles are available on the Aidi Wiki.

The Aidi Wiki can be accessed at www.wiki.aidi.io. In addition to documentation on Aidi functionalities, you'll find frequently asked questions, release notes (e.g. updates in new versions), upcoming developments, etc. Take the opportunity to subscribe to our newsletter.

Through all of Aidi’s features, you will be able to manage all your critical project information in one integrated and collaborative place.

 

Preliminary Information

We recommend using Google Chrome or Edge browsers to access Aidi. Firefox is also compatible.

If the Aidi page does not respond normally, press Ctrl + R on your keyboard (Cmd + R on Apple products). This refreshes the Aidi page. If the problem persists, please contact your organization’s Aidi administrator.

If you are an Aidi essentials subscriber, some of the features shown may not be available in your environment.

 

Main sections of the application - Home screen

1. The primary sidebar reflects the functionality groupings inherent in project management.
2. The secondary sidebar displays features available according to the primary sidebar item selected. This serves as an access point to specific modules.
3. The view displays the selected module.
4. The top horizontal bar contains : 
   • Left: name of the view
   • Right: buttons for various operations depending on the selected functionality (add, delete, print, export, etc.).
5. Search for a project number using the project Code or Project Reference in the provided search box. To facilitate navigation in Aidi and consult data specific to a project, you can "set a project" in this box which filters all the information on the screen to that specific project.
6. Selecting a project line in the Project List view (Initialize ➤ Projects) will load the project dashboard and details for that project. Selection is made by double-clicking on the line, or by clicking on the eye icon on the right.

✏️Note: One of the key aspects of the Aidi platform is that different users play different roles in the project management process. Therefore users may have a different view of the Aidi navigation bars depending on the access level they are provided. In this guide, we can see all modules given we have an administrative view.

💡Tips

• Clicking on the dog at the top left takes you back to the project list, or to the home page if it has been set.
• Right-click on a link to Open in a new tab to enable you to work in multiple Aidi windows simultaneously.

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Sequence of Usage of Essential Aidi Functions

The diagram below gives you an overview of Aidi functionalities and helps you to visualize the links between each of Aidi's mandatory, or optional, elements. For more information on features and their links, please consult the detailed document.

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Create a Project

Here's how to start a new project in Aidi. Please note that certain element must be added to Aidi before a project can be created.

From the Initialize tab, select Projects and click on the Create button in the top right-hand corner (it looks like a pen on a notepad).

 

 

In the creation mode, fill in the mandatory fields marked with an asterisk. Other fields can be filled in now, or after the project has been created.

1. The Project Reference is your internal code for the project. This code must be unique.
2. Enter your project title.
3. Choose as Asset from the drop-down list. 
4. Project types are defined by the administrator.
5. Click on Next Step.

6. Description: A word-processing tool allows you to enter a description of your project. Click on Next step.
7. Configure: A project template* can be used to facilitate the creation of your project. Alternatively, you can fill in all the information manually.
8. Select the project template to use.
9. Selecting a template allows you to retrieve the configuration of various elements from another project. Select the elements you wish to import. 
10. Click on Next Step.

✏️ Note 1: Using a template ensures consistency between projects and avoids time-consuming manual entry. Templates also make it easier to compare projects with each other.

✏️Note 2: The templates available in the list are projects marked as templates and projects to which the user has access in Aidi.

11. Info: This section allows you to enter additional information directly related to the project. Additional information is specific to each organization and set by administrators. It may or may not be mandatory (indicated by '*'), or it may not exist altogether.
12. Fill in the fields as required and click on Create to access the project dashboard.

13. From the project dashboard, click on the Details button in the top right-hand corner to access the project details page.

The Description section of the project details page displays the information entered when the project was created, and allows you to enter further information such as project status, objectives, etc. You can also define the project as a template to be used when creating other projects.

You will also be able to add contacts to the project on this page who will be able to collaborate on the project in Aidi. To complete the creation of your project, Aidi lets you set up approval chains.

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Create a Budget

The project budget is an essential part of financial planning. Budget items will be used for various other processes in Aidi (e.g. purchase order, payment request, invoice, directive, change request, change order and more).

Access the budget from the Planning menu and click on Create to create a budget. Select your Project and the Type of budget to be created, then click Save and Open.

If this is the first budget to be created for this project or component, you have the option of importing the budget from a template project. We recommend this option to avoid having to enter each budget item manually.

If you selected a project template when creating the project, the budget for this project project will already be available on the Budget page.

If you have used a template budget, some amounts may already be entered in your budget. These are the amounts saved into the template itself, which you can modify according to the needs of the project.

1. In the Budget items section, click on the arrow to open the budget tree.
2. Click on the Create button if you need to add new budget items.

3. To add a sub-line to a budget item, select the parent budget item from the drop-down list.
4. Add a prefix that could be related to your internal budget items, either a numeric or alphabetical increment.
5. Enter a description of the item to be added.
6. Click Save )you can select Save and close or Save and new to create a new budget item immediately, a new creation window will open).

If certain imported budget items are not required for your project, you can delete them by clicking on the 3-dot menu of the item to be deleted.

7. Once a project financing has been created for your project, you can associate it with your budget. 
8. Once the budget is complete, you must approve it or send it for approval. Sufficient funding is required for budget approval. 
9. An approved budget cannot be modified. You must create a new budget version to apply modifications. By clicking on Create new budget, the approved budget will be copied into a new version, which you can then modify.

✏️Note: When you approve a new version of a budget, the status of the last approved version changes to archived. This allows you to keep track of all budget versions.

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Create a Project Financing

Project financing are the monetary sources that feed the project budget and determine the maximum amount that can be committed to each component. They are associated with annual funding (Financing allowed) and a specific project.

To create a funding source, access the Initialize menu, select Project financing and click on the Create button.

1. Select the project if not already set in the secondary sidebar.
2. Enter the fiscal year applicable to this funding.
3. Select the financing envelope or financial envelope from which this project will be financed.
4. Enter a reference associated with this financing.
5. Enter the amount of funding. You can enter either the amount before taxes, the amount including taxes or the amount net of taxes. Other amounts are calculated automatically.
6. Save this information.

Financing is now available to be associated with a budget. Once financing is associated with a budget, to modify it, you must add revisions.

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Create a Purchase Order

Purchase orders are associated with suppliers. They allow you to incur the budgeted costs of the project while also facilitating management of the invoicing process and contractual changes. A budget with sufficient available funding must be approved before a purchase order can be created.

• Access the Purchase orders from the Execution menu.
• Click on the Create button.
• Select the project if not already fixed in the secondary sidebar. Otherwise, the project will already be listed. Click on Next step.
• Then select the Supplier associated with this purchase order. Click on Next step.
• Add a description of the purchase order (optional). Click on Next step.
• Complete the information relevant to your purchase order in the Info section.

 *Note that the fields available in this section are specific to your organization and may vary or be empty.

When the purchase order is created, some contractual elements must be updated, in addition to the breakdown of costs according to approved budget items.

In the Purchase order information section, you can:

1. Define default contractual holdbacks
2. Make payment requests mandatory for invoice processing
3. Allow various types of contractual changes such as: select all applicable changes. 

This will enable you to create contractual changes when the time comes, if necessary.

The Purchase order components section allows you to break down costs by budget item.

4. Open each budget sub-item by clicking on the arrow in front of the parent item. Purchase order costs must be associated with the last level of the tree and not with parent items.              ✏️Note: The addition of the purchase order amount to a parent item is considered as an addition to what had been budgeted. This results in an addition to the trend calculation in the Cost Summary.
5. Indicate the quantity associated with this purchase order.
6. Modify the unit price if necessary.
7. When finished, you can delete empty items to lighten the page content.

✏️Note: It is possible to create a purchase order by importing the amounts from a supplier’s proposal directly.

8. If any contractual changes are associated with this purchase order, they will be displayed in the Contractual changes section.
9. You can also set up approval chains for the different types of contractual modifications, as well as for payment requests and invoices.

Before proceeding with payment and invoicing, the purchase order must be approved by clicking on the Approve button, or Send for approval if an approval chain has been configured.

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Create Contractual Changes

Contractual changes must be created when a change to an approved purchase order is required. The aim of this functionality is to facilitate the management and tracking of contractual changes by creating different types of changes, such as Directive, Instruction, Amendment, Penalty and Change Order (CO).

Some contractual changes can be made in a single step (ex. Amendment), others require two steps (e.g. it is necessary to create a Directive in order to be able to create a CO). This may vary depending on the configuration of contractual changes of your environment.

Creating a 2-step change - Step #1

In this section, we present the procedure for creating a contractual change in a two-step process. The first step essentially serves to obtain agreement between the various stakeholders on the amount of the change and its causes. Once this step has been approved, it will not immediately change the value of the purchase order. This will be done in the second step (next section).

• Access the Contractual changes page from the Execution menu and click on the Create button.
• Select the project if not already fixed in the secondary sidebar. Otherwise, the project will already be listed.
• Select the component with which the purchase order requiring change is associated.
• Select the purchase order requiring change.
• Select the type of contractual change. The following fields depend on the type of change selected. In the example below, a Directive is selected.
• The reference is automatically created by Aidi using the type followed by an incremental number. This reference can then be manually edited, but must remain unique within the purchase order.
• Enter the title of the contractual change and the date.
• The issuer is the person or organization behind the request.
• Click Save and Open.

Once the contractual change (Directive in this example) is open, you can document it in greater detail by adding a description and justification in the Description section.

1. In the Impacts section, you can select the specialty impacted and the delay in days caused by this directive (the delay can be positive or negative; if no delay, enter 0 or leave empty).

The Costs section allows you to break down the costs of the directive according to the items in the selected budget component. As with the purchase order, costs must be associated with the last level of the tree and not with parent items.

2. The first column allows you to enter your estimated cost for this directive. This column may be hidden depending on your access profile configuration.
3. The “amount submitted” column lets you enter the cost submitted by the supplier.
4. The “approved amount” is the amount that will actually be invoiced.
5. If required, you can add lines or sub-lines to budget items by clicking on the Add button or on the + associated with a budget item.
6. When finished, you can hide the $0 lines to shorten the page.

When the change is a Directive type, you can indicate the cause(s) associated with this change and distribute a percentage between the various causes. Depending on the configuration of your access profile, this section may be hidden. 

See the article Typical use case of contractual changes for more details on this subject. This article also explains the differences and links between Directives and COs.

Before a CO can be created, the Directive must be approved by clicking on the Approve button, or Send for approval, if an approval chain has been configured.

Creating a 2-step change - Step #2

Once step #1 described above has been approved, it is then possible to create step #2, which usually consists of a change order (CO). The aim is to link one or more directives to the CO, thereby increasing (or decreasing) the value of the purchase order. 

1. To create the CO, follow the same steps as for step #1 above.
2. Select the type Change order (CO).
3. As in step #1, the reference is created automatically by Aidi, using the type followed by an incremental number. This reference can then be manually modified, but must remain unique within the purchase order.
4. Enter the title of the contractual change and the date.
5. Select the directive(s) (step #1) associated with this CO. You can link one or more directives to the same CO.
6. Click Save and Open.

1. The Impact section displays the delay in days as entered in the linked directive. You can modify this information as required. The total amount of costs associated with this CO is the amount entered in the linked directive.
2. The directive(s) linked to this CO are displayed; simply click on the name (in blue) to open it in another tab. This section also allows you to associate other directives and delete a link.

✏️Note: you can only associate directives that have been approved and that are not previously associated with another CO.

3. The cost breakdown as entered in the directive is also detailed in the CO.

The Change order must be approved in order to adjust the purchase order amount. Once approved, it will then be possible to enter the progress on a payment request and/or invoice.

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Create Payment Request

The payment request, sometimes called progress estimate, is an intermediate stage between the purchase order and the invoice. The main purpose of this step is to document and approve the quantities and costs incurred at the time of the request, and then invoice the amount linked to the percentage of completion. The payment request may be optional or a prerequisite for invoice creation, depending on the purchase order configuration.

• Access the Payment request from the Execution menu and click on the Create button.
• Select the project if not already fixed in the secondary sidebar. Otherwise, the project will already be listed.
• Next, select the supplier for whom a payment request is to be created.
• Select a purchase order associated with this supplier.
• Enter the date of the payment request. Please note! This date is important because it will enable Aidi to link progress correctly to the invoice.  
• Click Save and Open.

The payment request opens automatically. 

If you have entered a contractual holdback in the purchase order, it will be entered by default in the Contractual information section. If not, you can still add it at this step.

You can attach documents or URL links related to this payment request. If Custom fields have been configured previously, enter those as needed. You can also enter a note if required.

In the section From Purchase Order, the breakdown of descriptions respects the budget lines associated with the purchase order.

1. In the image below, a payment request linked to this purchase order has already been created previously, so the columns associated with the received totals show the percentage and amount already included on other payment requests (invoiced or not). When this is the first payment request linked to a purchase order, all fields are set to 0.
2. If necessary, select "%" if it's more accurate than "Qty". You can also change the default selection by clicking on the arrow to the right.

You can enter payment request information in a number of different ways, depending on your requirements for each of the budget items concerned:

3. By adding a received percentage or quantity that includes the progress of previous and current payment requests. When the cumulative percentage is 100%, the line turns green.
4. By adding a differential percentage or quantity that includes only the progress of the current payment request.
5. By entering the total amount received, which includes the total amount of previous payment requests as well as the current request.
6. By entering the amount of the current payment request.

✏️Note: In all cases, percentages, quantities or amounts must be associated with the last level of the tree structure and not with parent items.

By entering one of these items, the other elements of the line are automatically calculated.

Move the screen to the right to see information related to previous payment requests, such as:

7. Total ordered amount by budget item.
8. Total amount of previous payment requests, excluding the current request.
9. The amount associated with payment requests that have already been invoiced.

 

 

If approved change orders or amendments are attached to the purchase order, the From Contractual Changes section will be available. Enter the CO information in the same way as for the purchase order.

The Synthesis section at the top of the page shows: 

1. The received amount of payment requests associated with the same purchase order, including the current request and change order.
2. The amount of the current payment request, including change order.
3. The amount payable for this payment request, including holdbacks.

When all payment request elements have been entered, the request can be approved or sent for approval if an approval chain has been defined. If amounts or percentages of completion are edited during the approval process, all these changes will be visible and logged. 

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Invoicing

This functionality allows you to convert committed purchase order amounts into actual amounts charged to the project. The invoice can be associated with an approved payment request.

• Access the Invoices tab from the Execution menu and click on the Create button.
• Select the project if not already fixed in the secondary sidebar. Otherwise, the project will already be listed.
• Select the purchase order associated with this invoice.
• Enter the invoice reference number and date.
• Click Save.

If a Payment Request exists

1. Access the invoice Components section.
2. When a payment request exists for the supplier selected in the invoice, the Auto quantity button is displayed. 
3. By clicking on this button, Aidi imports the amounts and percentage or quantity of completion from the last payment requests that have not yet been associated with an invoice and that are prior to the current invoice date.
4. You can hide the $0 lines to shorten the page content.

5. If one or more change orders are entered on the payment request, repeat the same operations in the Contractual changes section of the invoice, in order to import the amounts and percentage of completion of the change orders.

If the invoice is processed without a payment request 

1. Go to the invoice Components section.
2. Enter the overall percentage of progress (or quantity) or
3. Enter the current invoice amount. The amount must be associated with the last level of the tree structure and not with parent items.
4. Note the amount shown on the purchase order.

5. If one or more change orders are associated with the purchase order, repeat the same operations in the Contractual changes section of the invoice, in order to enter the current invoice amounts or the overall progress of the change orders linked to the purchase order.

All types of invoices

The Holdback section displays the holdback percentage applied to this invoice, as well as the amount calculated on the basis of the invoice amount.

The Synthesis section shows different amounts:

1. Current invoice amount
2. Payable amount = current invoice amount minus holdback
3. Purchase order amount associated with this invoice
4. Amount left to bill = amount of purchase order minus amount payable of all invoices (approved or not) associated with this purchase order.

The invoice can also be used to manage taxes (requires specific configuration) and discharge.

Once the invoice has been completed, it must be approved, or sent for approval if an approval chain has been defined. Once the invoice has been approved, the actual amounts will be charged to the project.

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Cost Summary

The Cost Summary, available in Aidi in the Supervision menu, enables you to instantly monitor any projects’ financial health. It presents information from financing to project trends, enabling you to see if any gaps are anticipated. The Cost Summary is updated in real time. For a detailed description of this feature, please refer to the Cost Summary article in our Wiki.

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Scheduler

The Aidi Scheduler lets you keep track of the tasks associated with your project with a Gantt visualizer. You can create and update tasks, create dependencies between different tasks, assign them to a specific person, and even set up a completion approval process.

Please note that certain features of the scheduler are reserved for the Project Manager identified in the project Contact section.

There are 3 ways to create a scheduler in Aidi: 

1. Adding tasks manually to a brand new scheduler
2. Importing a scheduler from another project
   • A scheduler already created in Aidi can act as a template and be imported into other projects
3. Import tasks/schedule from an MS Project file

Adding tasks manually

Access the scheduler from the Planning menu. In the tasks section, click on the project name, then click on the New Task button.

You are ready to create your first task. The Planning tab opens automatically.

1. Enter the task name.
2. Select the type of task from the drop-down list: 

• • Activity
  • Milestone (task without duration)
  • Deliverable (deliverables are displayed on the project Dashboard  page and in some reports)

3. Enter the planned dates: for activities and deliverables you must enter the planned start and end dates, for milestones only a planned start date is required.
4. You can also enter the number of operating days required, and the end date will be automatically calculated. By default, a "Weekdays" calendar is applied to the date calculation, so weekend days are ignored.
5. It is possible to select a 7-day calendar, or to associate another calendar with the task.
6. You can define a task as a start-of-project task or an end-of-project task. This changes the date displayed for the project in the Project List and Analytics views.
7. The task can be set as critical. (For information only)
8. You can associate tasks with a project phase.
9. Assign a person to be responsible for this task. The person must be a project contact. The person will receive a notification in Aidi and by email that they’ve been assigned a task.
10. If the project has more than one component, you can associate a task with a specific component.
11. Finally, you can specify the status of the task (in progress, waiting approval, done, etc.).
12. Before you can continue with the other sections of the task, you need to Save, which will create the task in the scheduler.

The Resources tab lets you assign resources to the task and estimate the effort required per resource. If the timesheet is used, actual effort will be added to this page and progress calculated.

1. Full details of the Dependencies tab can be found in the article Critical path, Dependencies and Constraints.
2. The Text tab lets you add a task description or related information in text or table format using this word-processing tool.
3. The Documents tab lets you upload documents to this specific task.
4. If additional information has been set up, enter it as required in the Custom Fields section.

5. The discussion bubble lets you view the activity history of this task.
6. It also lets you add notes and serves as a collaboration tool where you can mention a contact person on the project so that this person can be notified by e-mail when a note is addressed to them. To do this, type @ followed by the first letters of the person's name.
7. Click on Add to save the note.

Once you have entered all the elements of the task, you need to save it.

8. Click on the arrow to the right of the Save button and select the type of save you require.

• Save: Saves the information and keeps the task window open.
• Save and New: Saves the information and opens a new window to create another task.
• Save and Close: Saves the information and closes this window to return to the global schedule.

Back on the scheduler page, several operations are possible. Please refer to the article Scheduler Display to understand the elements available in the scheduler view.

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Logbook

The logbook is a collaborative tool for internal and external resources that allows you to see the project's progress from the most recent to the oldest. Photos, notes, weather and key activities are recorded in the log. 

The logbook can be accessed directly on phones and tablets, making it easy to take photos and notes directly on site.

Access the logbook from the Supervision menu.

To add a note to the logbook, click on the + button in the top right-hand corner of the page.

• Enter the project name if not already set in the secondary side menu.
• Enter a report number or leave the space blank and Aidi will generate a sequential number off the last report.
• Click on the arrow at the bottom of the window to move on to the next step.
• By default, the current date and time are displayed. If you wish to enter a note for a past date, you can change the date and time.
• Proceed to the next step, which is the note content.

1. In the Text section, you can enter notes.
2. You can use a note template to simplify creation and ensure you always have the same format.
3. You can use the full-screen function to enlarge the writing window, reducing it to the original size when you’re done.
4. The Files section lets you attach photos or other documents.
5. If the additional information fields have been configured by your organization's Aidi administrator, you will be able to complete the Info page.

6. In the Tags section, you can enter keywords related to the subject of the note to enable you to create filters later and find specific notes more easily.

💡Tip: To avoid ending up with an infinite number of tags (for example, the same word but sometimes singular, sometimes plural), we suggest you establish a nomenclature and even a list of tags that should be used.

7. Finally, you can determine who will be able to see this note. Select All to allow all project contacts to see the note (default selection). Select Private to allow only the note creator and the person(s) with an Administrator role in Aidi to see the note, or individually select the contacts who will be able to see the note.
8. Click on Create.

Your note has now been added. A number of other functions are available on this page, including the 3-dot menu on the right, you can also view the weather forecast and add comments.

✏️Note 1: Only the author of a Logbook note or an Aidi administrator can modify its content. However, all project contacts with access to the note can add comments.

✏️Note 2: You can notify a collaborator by typing @ followed by the first few letters of their name - this brings up a list of project contacts, which you can select. This will send a notification to the person concerned.

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