Creating and Managing Your Projects

Create a project, set it up properly, switch between projects, and understand statuses, filters and what can actually be deleted.

What do I do next?

Open **Projects** from the navigation and match your situation.

| What you see | What to do next |
|---|---|
| **No projects yet** and a **Create Project** button | Select **Create Project**, type a name, choose what you are building. |
| A project card, but no budget anywhere yet | Open the project, then go to **Budget** and start your line items. |
| A card badged **Sample** | That is demo data. Explore it freely, then create your own project. |
| Project created, but the loan details are missing | Open the status badge on the card → **Project Settings**, then fill in **Lender Name**, **Total Loan Amount** and **Retainage (%)**. |
| Several projects and you are on the wrong one | Select the card you want, or use the project selector in the sidebar. |
| Work finished on a build | Open the status badge → **Complete**. |

Creating a project

Select **New Project** (top right) or **Create Project** (on the empty-state card). The **Create Your Project** dialog asks for only two things:

  • **Project Name** *(required)* — for example *123 Main Street Build*. The **Create Project** button stays disabled until you type one.
  • **What are you building?** *(optional to change, defaults to New Home Build)* — **New Home Build**, **Remodel / Renovation**, or **Addition / Expansion**. This changes wording and guidance around the app; it does not change any calculation.

Everything else — address, ZIP, lender, loan amount, retainage, permit number, waiver rules — is set afterwards in **Project Settings**. The dialog says so: *You can add more details later.*

New projects start with **Funding Source: Bank Loan**, **Retainage 10%** and a **Total Loan Amount** of $0. If you are paying cash, change the funding source in settings so the app stops applying strict lender checks.

*Professional builders:* nothing in creation is per-company. Each project carries its own funding source, retainage and waiver policy, so a cash remodel and a bank-financed build can run side by side.

What to do immediately after creating a project

In this order:

1. **Project Settings** — address, **ZIP / Postal Code (for Weather)**, funding source, and if it is a loan: **Lender Name**, **Total Loan Amount**, **Retainage (%)**, **Bank Contact Email**.
2. **Lien Waiver Requirements** — in the same settings dialog. Decide this before you log payments, because it controls which expenses the app asks waivers for.
3. **Budget** — build your line items. Almost everything else in OwnerDraw reads from the budget, so an empty budget means empty dashboards, empty schedule of values and no draw requests. See *How to Use the Budget Page*.
4. **Vendors** — add the trades you already know, with insurance expiry dates, so compliance warnings are real rather than noise.
5. **Dashboard** — confirm your two owner policies on the **Owner Insurance** card. See *Understanding Your Project Dashboard*.

Selecting and switching projects

  • On **Projects**, selecting anywhere on a card makes that project current and takes you to the dashboard.
  • In the sidebar, the project selector switches projects from any page. Collapsed, it becomes a single initial button with the same list plus **New Project**.
  • Switching is instant, and every money page — Budget, Expenses, Draws, SOV, Draw Schedule, Bank Ready — always shows only the selected project.

Selecting **Project Settings** from a card's menu also makes that project current, so check the sidebar afterwards if you did not intend to switch.

Editing project details

Open the coloured status badge on a card and choose **Project Settings**. The **Edit Project** dialog holds:

| Field | What it affects |
|---|---|
| **Project Name** *(required)* | Labels everywhere, including generated PDFs. |
| **Project Type** | Wording and tips only. |
| **Property Address** | Cover pages and headers. |
| **ZIP / Postal Code (for Weather)** | The dashboard weather card. US ZIP or Canadian postal code. |
| **Project Status** | Same three values as the badge on the card. |
| **Funding Source** | **Bank Loan** applies full compliance — retainage, waiver requirements, G702/G703. **Cash / Self-Funded** turns hard blocks into warnings. |
| **Lender Name**, **Total Loan Amount ($)**, **Retainage (%)**, **Bank Contact Email** | Loan fields, shown only for **Bank Loan**. Retainage is the percentage held back on draw requests. |
| **Permit Number** | Reference only. |
| **Lien Waiver Requirements** | See below. |

Lien waiver requirements live here

Inside **Edit Project**, the **Lien Waiver Requirements** box is the only place these rules are set, and they apply to the whole project:

  • **When is a waiver needed?** — **Loan-funded payments only**, **Every payment**, or **Never — don't track waivers**.
  • **Only for payments above ($)** — enter `0` to require a waiver on every qualifying payment, no matter the amount.
  • **Also require an unconditional waiver after payment clears** — adds the second, post-payment waiver.

These settings decide which expenses are counted as needing waivers on the Expenses page, in draw checks and in the project health score. Details are in *Lien Waivers in OwnerDraw: What to Send and When*.

Statuses, filters and views

Three statuses exist, and you change them from the badge on any card under **Change Status**:

  • **Planning** — grey, the default for a new project.
  • **Active** — green, work under way.
  • **Complete** — navy, finished.

Status is a label for you. It does not lock the budget, hide the project, block draws or change any calculation. A confirmation toast tells you the new value.

Above the cards, when you have at least one project:

  • **Search projects…** — matches project name and address.
  • **Status** — All Status, Planning, Active, Complete.
  • **Sort by** — Newest first, Oldest first, Name (A–Z), Loan amount.
  • Three view buttons — **Card view**, **Compact thumbnails**, **List view**. Your choice is remembered on this device.

Filters change only what you see. If a filter hides everything you get **No matching projects — Try a different search or status filter**, which means nothing was deleted.

Each card shows the name, a **Sample** pill on demo data, the status badge, the address, the created date and the loan amount when it is above zero. Administrators additionally see the owner's email on every card.

Archiving, reopening and deleting

Be clear on what exists today:

  • **There is no archive action and no reopen action.** Marking a project **Complete** is the closest thing, and it is fully reversible from the same menu.
  • **Delete exists only for the sample project.** **Delete Sample Project** appears in the menu solely on the demo project named *Sample Home Build*. It permanently removes that project and all of its demo budget items, expenses, draws, tasks and bids, and cannot be undone — the confirmation dialog says exactly that.
  • **Real projects cannot be deleted from this page.** There is no delete option on your own builds, by design, because the financial history behind them is the record you may need to show a lender.

Related guides

  • *How to Use the Budget Page* — the first thing to build after creating a project.
  • *How to Record and Manage Expenses* — logging costs and vendor payments.
  • *Lien Waivers in OwnerDraw: What to Send and When* — the settings above, in practice.
  • *Understanding Your Project Dashboard* — reading what the project pages produce.
  • *Creating and Managing a Draw Request*, *Schedule of Values and Budget Mapping*, *Building Your Draw Schedule*, *Preparing Your Lender Packet* — the lender side of the work.