Specifications

Specifications (Settings > Entities > Specifications) are the method statements attached to scope templates. They print on the customer’s proposal so the customer knows exactly what preparation and coatings they are paying for, they appear on the job card so trades know what to do, and they carry the safety hazards that feed the safety paperwork. The screen is titled All Specification Templates.

What you see

Column	Meaning
Title	Short heading for the specification, for example the surface type.
Name	The specification’s name as it appears in pickers.
Description	The full method statement. Numbered steps are the usual style, for example washing, rust treatment, priming and the number of finishing coats.

Each specification also has a Code, a short abbreviation (for example MR for Metal Roof) that shows in the Specifications column of the Scopes list. Click a row to open the specification.

What you can do

Create a specification

1. Click Create new.
2. Enter a Title, Name and Code.
3. Write the Description. Basic formatting is kept; anything unsafe is stripped when saved.
4. Click Create.

You can also create a specification from a scope template’s page, which attaches it to that scope at the same time.

Attach safety hazards

On the specification’s edit page the Selected Safety Hazards tab (the heading on screen reads “Selected Safety Hazads”) lists the hazards linked to this specification with their Code, Name and Description.

1. Type in the search box and pick a hazard to attach it.
2. Click the x on a row to remove it.

Hazards themselves are managed on Safety Hazards.

Edit or delete a specification

Change any field and click Update. Deleting soft-deletes the specification and removes it from the scope templates that used it. Line items on existing quotes keep their own copy.

How it works behind the scenes

• Copied onto quotes. When an estimator adds an item template on the iPad, the specifications attached to each scope are copied onto the resulting line items. Duplicating a quote copies them too.
• Proposal. The proposal and its PDF list the specifications for the included items in a Specifications section placed after the Scope of Work, and list specifications for optional items separately beneath the optional items. Duplicates are removed when several line items share a specification.
• Global specifications. Separate from these templates, each quote version has a free-text global specifications field that the estimator can amend for one customer (for example to name a specific product). That text also prints on the proposal and is carried onto the job. Use templates for standard wording and the global field for one-off changes.
• Variations. When a variation is raised on a job, the specifications of its line items are shown on the variation the customer approves.
• Safety. The hazards attached to specifications are gathered from the selected line items to produce the Project Safety Plan PDF on the proposal and are linked to each sub job so the tradesperson must acknowledge them before starting. See Safety Hazards.

Tips and gotchas

• Keep one specification per surface or treatment and reuse it across scopes; editing it here updates every future quote at once.
• The Code is what appears in the Scopes list, so keep codes unique and memorable.
• A specification with no safety hazards attached produces no safety entries for that work. If a scope involves heights, chemicals or abseiling, make sure its specification carries the matching hazard so the SWMS is complete (the abseiling rule in ROCH-641 is met this way).