Quick start: your first project in an hour
Set up your firm, import a BOQ, put the project on the board and log the first day from site. The shortest path from signup to a working project in Nuvailo.
This is the fastest useful path through Nuvailo. Follow it on one real project, not a test one. Real data is the only way to find out whether the setup fits how your firm actually works.
Time needed: about an hour at a desk, plus five minutes on site the next morning.
1. Create your company
Sign up with your work email, confirm it, and complete onboarding. You are asked for the company name, your currency and your first project. The account you create is the owner and can never be locked out by another admin.
- Currency drives every figure in the ledger, so set it before you enter costs.
- You can rename the company later, but changing currency after transactions exist means restating them.
2. Create the project
A project holds the BOQ, the board, the site logs and the ledger entries. Give it the name your team already uses, not a code only the office recognises.
- 1
Name and client
Attach the client company. If it does not exist yet, create it here, it takes one field and it is what later powers the client portal.
- 2
Contract value and dates
Contract sum, start date and expected completion. These drive progress and cash views, so approximate is fine but empty is not.
- 3
Retention terms
Percentage held and release terms, if your contract has them. Recording it now means the cash view is right later.
3. Import the BOQ
Export your priced BOQ to Excel and import it. Nuvailo reads your column layout rather than demanding a template. See Import your BOQ for the column mapping and the checks to run afterwards.
Import the whole BOQ even if only part of the work has started. Lines with no activity cost nothing and give you a complete picture of what is left.
4. Add the team
Invite people by email and give each one a role. Start narrow: managers and site supervisors first, finance next, clients last. See Roles and permissions for what each role sees.
| Who | Role | Gets |
|---|---|---|
| Project manager | Manager | The board, the BOQ, progress and their project costs |
| Site supervisor | Employee | Attendance, logs and photos on the mobile app |
| Accounts | Admin or finance role | The ledger, vendors, payments and reports |
| Your client | Client | Their own project progress and documents, nothing else |
5. Put the project on the board
The Kanban board is where work moves. Create the columns your process actually has, not a generic set: most firms use something close to Enquiry, Estimating, Awarded, In progress, Snagging, Handover.
6. Log the first day from site
Give your supervisor the Android app and ask for one thing tomorrow: mark attendance. Nothing else. One habit at a time survives, four at once does not.
7. Read the first report
After a week of logging, open budget vs actual on the project. Compare it against the figure your finance lead works out by hand. If they differ, the difference is almost always an uncoded cost, and finding it is the point of the first week.
Where to go next
- Import your BOQ for column mapping, units and rollups.
- Attendance and labour for the daily site routine.
- Ledger and cash for how costs become financial records.
- Troubleshooting if something does not behave as described here.