Starting a Project: The Setup Questions and What They Do

The Project Setup questionnaire: what each question does, what is required, what Create & Start actually saves, and how it differs from the Build Playbook and Schedule.

What this is

The first time you sign in without a project, OwnerDraw takes you straight to a short setup questionnaire headed **Project Setup**. It asks up to six questions, creates your project, and drops you on your **Build Playbook**.

That is all it is: a few questions and a starting point. It is not an application, not a submission, and it tells you nothing about whether a lender will approve you.

Start here

1. **Project Name** — required. Anything you will recognise, for example *123 Main Street Build*. You can rename it later in Project Settings.
2. **Project Type** — **New Home Build** or **Renovation / Remodel**. This decides whether you are asked about a lot.
3. **Size** — pick a band: Under 1,500 sqft, 1,500–2,500, 2,500–4,000, or 4,000+.
4. **Your Lot** — New Home Build only: **Already Own It**, **Under Contract**, **Still Looking** or **N/A**.
5. **Spec Level** — **Budget / Builder Grade**, **Mid-Range** or **Custom / High-End**. The dollar-per-square-foot ranges shown beside each are general industry ranges, not a quote for your build.
6. **Current Stage** — **Just Ideas**, **Have Plans**, **Permits In Progress** or **Already Building**, plus **Region (optional)** — a free-text box such as *Austin TX*.

Then select **Create & Start**.

Required versus optional

| Field | Required? |
|---|---|
| Project Name | Yes — **Next** stays disabled until you type something |
| Project Type, Size, Spec Level, Current Stage | Yes — one choice each |
| Your Lot | Yes, on a New Home Build; not asked on a renovation |
| Region | Optional |

Everything else about the project — address, ZIP for weather, funding source, lender, loan amount, retainage, permit number, lien waiver rules — is **not** asked here. Add it afterwards in **Project Settings**.

What "Step 3 of 6" means

The counter and progress bar show your position in the questionnaire and nothing more. A renovation has five steps because the lot question is skipped. There is no score, no readiness check and no completion badge.

Can I go back, skip or change an answer?

**Back** returns to the previous question and your answers stay as you left them.
There is no skip. Each question needs an answer before **Next** becomes available.
Once you select **Create & Start** the questionnaire is finished. It does not run again for that project, and there is no "edit my setup answers" screen.
To change project facts afterwards, use **Project Settings**. To change how far along you are, tick or untick steps on your **Build Playbook**.
Your answers are stored once against your account, not per project. Setting up a second project replaces the earlier set.

What "Create & Start" actually does

1. Creates the project with **Funding Source: Bank Loan**, **Retainage 10%** and **Total Loan Amount $0**. Correct these in Project Settings if they are wrong for you.
2. Saves your answers to your account.
3. Ticks some **Build Playbook** steps for you, based on two answers:
- Lot **Already Own It** or **Under Contract** → the whole **Land Acquisition** phase.
- Current Stage **Have Plans** → the first three steps of **Plans & Design**.
- Current Stage **Permits In Progress** or **Already Building** → all of **Feasibility** and all of **Plans & Design**.
4. Shows a progress screen ("Creating your project…", "Loading NAHB cost code structure…" and so on). This is an animation that runs while you wait — your project already exists before it appears, and nothing further is saved by it.
5. Lands you on **Build Playbook** with the message *Project created! Here's your build playbook.*

Nothing here creates budget lines, schedule tasks, vendors or documents. Your budget starts empty.

What do I do next?

| You want to… | Do this |
|---|---|
| Add the address, lender, loan amount or retainage | Open the project card's status badge → **Project Settings** |
| Set lien waiver rules before paying anyone | **Project Settings** → **Lien Waiver Requirements** |
| Start the numbers | **Budget** → enter your line items. Almost every other page reads from the budget |
| Correct a ticked playbook step | **Build Playbook** → untick it |
| Rename or retype the project | **Project Settings** |
| Start a second project | **Projects** → **New Project** |

How this differs from the Build Playbook and the Schedule

| | Setup questionnaire | Build Playbook | Schedule |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scope | Runs once, for the project it creates | Your account — the same progress for every project you own | One project |
| Content | Six questions | Fixed phases and steps for a whole build | Your own dated tasks |
| Dates | None | None | Start and finish dates, dependencies, Gantt |
| Money | None | None | None |

So a step you tick on the Build Playbook is *your* progress, not that project's progress, and it never moves a schedule date.

Common questions

**I already had a project and ended up here anyway.** The questionnaire opens automatically only when your account has no projects. If it appeared after you created a project some other way, finish it or leave the page — see the note below about creating a project twice.

**Can I re-run setup for an existing project?** No. Edit the project in Project Settings instead.

**Do my Size, Spec Level or Region answers price my build?** No. They tailor wording and guidance. No budget line, allowance or estimate is created from them.

**Does finishing setup mean my project is ready?** No. It means the project record exists. Loan Readiness on **Bank Ready** and Project Health on the dashboard are the app's own checks, and neither is lender approval.

For professional builders

Treat the questionnaire as profile capture, not project configuration. Everything a lender cares about — funding source, retainage, loan amount, waiver thresholds, the SOV — is set later, and the defaults (bank loan, 10% retainage, $0 loan) will be wrong for most real files. Playbook completion is per user, so on a multi-project account it is not a per-file progress record.