Skip to main content
All CollectionsSelections
Selections Overview
Selections Overview

Use Selection Categories and Items to track important client decisions

Updated over 2 months ago

Selections management in BuildBook allows you to organize and track all of the important material and finish choices your client will need to make along the way to keep the project on track.

Selections are made up of two components:

  • Categories are containers to organize related items (e.g. - Windows, Tile, Appliances, Paint, etc).

  • Selection items belong to a Category and are a place to capture the details of each individual choice within the Selection Category (e.g. - kitchen cabinets, master bath shower tile, etc).

Allowances are set at the Category level. Then, actual costs are tracked per Item. Both the Category and Items within roll up to the budget so that you and the client get a clear picture of the impact of selection decisions on the overall project budget. Ideally, the sum of the Items is equal to or less than the entire allowance for that Category.
​To see more about creating Selections, check out this article!


Arrange Selections

Easily change the order of your Selections by clicking the ••• menu in the upper right corner in the Selections tab, then click “Arrange Categories”

The new arrangement is reflected everywhere that Selections are displayed in BuildBook, including the print preview.



Share Selections

To share Selections externally with someone who does not have a BuildBook account, simply click on the Share button in the upper right corner within a Selection Category and toggle "Share with Public Link" on. This is a great way to communicate Tasks with subs or vendors who you may not need to join your project.

When you turn on "Share With Public Link" you can copy the link to share and preview what is included. Anyone on the internet with that particular link will have the ability to view a read-only version.

Anyone you share the public link with will see a branded page with your logo along with the Project name, type, and address, along with each Selection included in the Category with their details. Costs and allowances do not appear.


Copy From Selections

You're now able to copy Selections from one Project to another! This comes in especially handy if you have a great set of Selections in a Template or Project and want to use those on a new Project.

To copy selections from other projects, open Selections and use the ellipsis menu to open the 'Copy From' command. In the options modal, select the project you'd like to copy from, then adjust the category due dates of where you'd like dates to begin remapping.



Prepare a Selections Report

Selections can be printed and/or saved as a PDF with BuildBook's Reporting feature. To access this menu, go to the Selections tab and click the ••• menu. Then click "Print."

The report is fully branded for your company with your logo and/or company name along with the project name and address.

Customize your report

You have multiple Display Options to customize how you'd like to export your Selections into a report:

  1. Category View or Room View - choose what view to use for your primary report display

    1. Category View gives you a more detailed report with a summary of each Selection along with the options to include Prices, Comments, and Descriptions.

    2. Room View provides a more image-forward report with each Selection organized by room and the option to include prices.

  2. Options - select what information to include or you can choose to exclude all options

    1. Description

    2. Price

    3. Comments

  3. Status - display every Selection regardless of Status, or choose to only show Open or Closed items

    1. Open

    2. Closed


Print your report

Once you've chosen the display options for your report, click the Print button in the upper right corner of the report.

Use the print preview to make adjustments before printing.

Save as PDF

Export to PDF for supported operating systems (Most Windows and Mac systems feature a PDF option for printing) by changing the destination/printer to "Save as PDF" or similar.


View Selections by Room

Selections can be viewed by Category or by Room. Category view helps you see a snapshot of progress by category. Room view is a more visual view that shows progress by room.


Permissions

Pro Team and Collaborators

Selections can be viewed, created and managed by Pro Team and Collaborators with Everything access to the Financials and the Selections. Selections are a piece of the Financials and to create them, you'll need access to be able to manage financials as well as create Budget items. If you don't have that access but you need to be able to manage selections, reach out to the Project's creator or an account Admin to get those permissions adjusted. Folks with Read and Comment access will be able to read and comment on already created selections, but they won't be able to create them.

Clients

As with everything in BuildBook, Clients have Read and Comment only access across the entire platform. That means that Clients are not able to create selections on their own or add information to them. If a Client does have a finishing choice they'd like you to use, have them add that information to the comments section of that Selection item or category so you can create an item based off of it.


Up Next

Did this answer your question?