Construction document management software for UK firms

What does document management mean on a building job?

In practice it's drawings, specifications, certificates, warranties, insurance documents, quotes and sign-offs, arriving from several directions and needing to reach different people. The failure is rarely storage. It's that the file exists in three places at slightly different vintages and nobody is sure which is live.

The second failure is access. Some documents are for the client, some are for a subcontractor, some are internal, and a tool that shares at project level forces you to over-share or keep a second set outside the system. The second set always goes stale.

The third failure is the one that costs money. The client approved the drawing, but which one? Revision B went out on a Tuesday, revision C on the Friday, the yes came back by email on the Thursday, and now the finished work matches one of them. If the approval isn't pinned to a revision, it's pinned to nothing.

What should you check before choosing one?

The question that decides your shortlist is whether you need a formal common data environment with check-in, check-out and transmittals, or one reliable current copy with its history. Firms issuing drawings under design responsibility on larger projects usually need the former. Firms receiving, filing and getting documents signed off usually do not.

Whichever side you fall on, ask the questions below of every tool, and ask the fourth one twice. Most tools can store a file and share it. Far fewer can put it in front of a person who will never create an account and bring back their signature pinned to the version they saw.

• Is every upload a new version, with the previous ones kept and downloadable?
• When someone approves a document, is the approval pinned to the version they saw?
• Can access be set per folder or category, or only per project?
• Can you send a document to someone who won't create a login, and can they sign it there?
• Is there a record of who uploaded, changed or deleted a file?
• Can you get everything back out, and in what format?

How does Portal Worx handle versions and sign-off?

Every upload of a document is a new version with its history kept: who uploaded each one and when, with any earlier version downloadable when the argument needs it. An approval is pinned to the version that was signed. When revision C replaces revision B, the sign-off on B stays exactly as it was, and the record says B.

The sign-off itself needs no account at the other end. You send one person a link; they open the drawing, the quote or the variation on their phone, read the file itself, leave a note or mark a spot on the page, and approve or decline with a drawn signature. If you asked for it, they enter a one-time emailed code first, which proves whoever signed had control of that inbox at that moment. The record comes back dated and signed, with the file name, its version and the SHA-256 fingerprint of the exact bytes they saw, and the original file embedded in the record. Unanswered requests are chased from the same screen.

What Portal Worx doesn't do is a formal common data environment: no check-in and check-out, no transmittals, no drawing register with issue sheets. If you issue drawings under design responsibility on a project that expects those, you need a tool built for it. Saying so on our own page is cheaper for both of us than finding out in month two.

How does it handle everyday documents?

Documents live in categories you create inside a project, and each category carries its own audience, so a client, a supplier and your own team can be given different slices of the same job. Comment threads and mentions sit on the document itself, so the discussion stays attached to the thing being discussed.

Practical detail: preview PDFs, images and text in the app with page thumbnails, zoom and search; Office files download rather than render, and they can't be sent for signature until they're saved as a PDF. Up to 500MB per document and 2GB per batch, with direct upload for anything over 10MB. Download a selection or a whole category as a zip. Send any document, or a whole category, by link to someone who never sets up an account, for 90 days or until you turn it off.

Document reminders send an email nudge against a specific document, once or daily or weekly or monthly, to named people, for the things that need returning rather than signing: the insurance certificate, the warranty, the completed form.

What happens when something gets deleted?

Projects, categories, folders and reports go to trash for 30 days and can be restored. Individual documents and images don't: deleting one removes it immediately, so it's worth knowing before someone tidies up. A signed approval record, once downloaded, is a PDF with the original file embedded, so keep a copy of anything you may need to produce later.

Everything else is recorded. Uploads, new versions, moves, category changes, comments, share links and deletions are written to the project activity trail with the person and the time, kept for a year and filtered per person, so nobody sees an entry for something they cannot open.

The approval itself is the most durable thing on the job. It's pinned to the version that was signed, it embeds the original file, and replacing the document with a newer revision doesn't touch it. The one way to lose it is to delete the document it belongs to, which is a reason to archive a finished job rather than tidy it away.

Common questions

Does Portal Worx keep previous versions of a document?

Yes. Every upload is a new version with its history kept, and earlier versions can be downloaded. An approval is pinned to the version that was signed, so a later revision does not disturb it.

Can different people see different documents on the same job?

Yes. Each document category carries its own audience, so a client, a supplier and your own team can be given different slices of the same project.

Can someone sign a document without an account?

Yes. They open a link on their phone, read the file, and approve or decline with a drawn signature. The record names the file, its version and its SHA-256 fingerprint. PDFs, images and plain text can be signed; Word and Excel files need saving as PDF first.

Is it a common data environment?

No. There's no check-in and check-out, no transmittals and no drawing register. It keeps one current copy with its version history and the approval pinned to each version.

Is a deleted document recoverable?

Not individually. Projects, categories, folders and reports have a 30-day trash window, but individual documents and images are removed immediately.

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