This article provides intake instructions for manually uploading plan review documents in PDF format and supporting attachments in any format, to a Project.

Incoming plan review documents will undergo an inspection via our PDF Scout tool.

Pre-configured workflow distributions may be triggered.

The user may manually create plan review assignments.

Assignments will be created. 

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Prerequisites:

1. An open project record exists. See Add a Project record, Step 1.
2. Plan review documents in PDF format and supporting documents, in any file format, are accessible to the user.

In this article:

Step 2 - Upload Documents

• Navigate to the Projects page and select the Documents tab.
  • Click the upload icon on the bottom of the Documents tab.
• Browse and select the PDF’s for plan review and supporting attachments (in other file formats).
  1. Drag PDF’s not intended for plan review to the ‘Attachments Here’ panel, as shown below. 
     1. Supporting attachments will not be used to create plan review assignments. They are considered reference material only.
  2. Confirm that the plans and supporting documents are on the correct panels.
  3. Select the PROCESS button to launch the PDF inspector for the incoming plan review files.

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• After the PDF inspection completes, results are displayed on the REVIEW PROCESSED DOCUMENTS tab, shown below.
  1. For files flagged with a warning icon or X status,
     1. Select the eye icon to see the inspection results.

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Delete plan review files marked with an X status 

• PDF's that do not pass inspection will not proceed to plan review.

Finishing upload for Plan Review files that pass inspection

For plan review files that pass inspection are flagged with a green check mark as shown above.

• Select the FINISH button to complete the upload process. 
• Plan review documents will be sent to the rendering server.
  • An optical character recognition (OCR) process is then performed to capture the sheet numbers.

• Attachments/supporting documents will be visible on the ATTACHMENTS page.
  • OCR is not performed on attachments.

Step 3 - Intake

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The Intake Page Described

The Intake page (below), will list all plan review files that have yet to be assigned. 

After assignments are created for a document, it is removed from the list on the Intake page and made visible on the Documents page.

SEARCH: Filter for a document by filename.

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Prior Submittals: Click here to view a drop-down list of plan review files that have already been assigned for review. If a previous version of the current document has a matching filename, it will be set automatically in this field.

Document Versioning 

The filename of the incoming document is checked against previously uploaded files to look for other files with exactly the same filename.

If a matching document does not exist for the project, the new file is assumed to be a 1st submittal. 

When a matching document is found, the new file is assumed to be the next submittal.

Select the 'Prior Submittals' dropdown to associate the new document to an earlier document when the filenames do not match.

Workflow Distributions

In addition to the filename being important for managing document versions, it is also evaluated to determine whether preconfigured workflow distributions are triggered to preload assignments on this Intake page. See Workflow Distributions.

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For example, the document B_BUILDING PLANS.pdf triggered the autocreation of assignments for the Planning and Building groups because a workflow was configured to create these assignments for documents prefixed with 'B_'.

The user may choose to accept the distribution records, or modify them as desire.

Creating Assignments for the 1st Submittal

1. Click on the expand control (triangle) to view any assignment suggestions triggered by automatic workflow distributions.
2. Add new assignments or edit existing suggestions as desired.
   
   1. Select the appropriate Group from the dropdown.
   2. Optionally, select a Review Type if more than one assignment needs to be created for a single Group.
   3. Optionally, chose a specific user as an Assignee. If this user is subscribed to receive assignment notifications, they will receive a notification that they have a review task.
3. Once ready, click CREATE ASSIGNMENTS for this document.
4. Repeat these steps for any remaining documents that you wish to create assignments for.

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Batch Creating Assignments for the 1st Submittal

As an alternative to individually creating assignments for each document, the intake page allows users to batch create one set of assignments for multiple documents at the same time.

1. Select one or more documents using their individual checkboxes or use the 'Select All' checkbox next to the Search field.
2. Click on the CREATE ASSIGNMENTS button that appears to the right of the Search field to open a form for batch creating assignments.
3. Add new assignments as desired.
   
   1. Select the appropriate Group from the dropdown.
   2. Optionally, select a Review Type if more than one assignment needs to be created for a single Group.
   3. Optionally, chose a specific user as an Assignee. If this user is subscribed to receive assignment notifications, they will receive a notification that they have a review task.

4. Once ready, click CREATE ASSIGNMENTS for these documents.

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Creating Assignments for the next Submittal

When an incoming document filename matches to a prior plan review document, or when you have manually selected a file from the Prior Submittals dropdown to make that association, assignments that were previously handled, whether they are closed or still in process, will be pointed to the latest version.

Although you cannot change the Group/Review Type/Assignee for these records, you may set a Due date.

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Setting Assignment Due Dates

Use the calendar control to set a future due date, as desired.

Select 'DUE DATE' to choose a future due date that you wish applied to all assignment records, or to records which have an empty due date. 

If appropriate, set due dates for each document.

Due dates can be applied to all assignments at once using the 'Edit Dates' button next to the batch CREATE ASSIGNMENTS button.

Step 4 - Create Assignments

Before continuing, confirm the following:Image Removed

1. Does each document you intend to assign have the correct Groups, and if appropriate, optional Review Types and Assigned users?
2. Does each document you intend to assign have the correct Due Dates?
3. Does any document you intend to assign have Prior Submittals that should have been set instead of creating new assignments?
4. If everything is okay, then select CREATE ASSIGNMENTS to process these assignment tasks.

Intake is now complete.

Deleting a Document from the Intake Page

Select the trash icon to the far right of the document record to delete an unwanted document from IntakeThe intake process - where plan review assignments/tasks are created for documents in e-PlanREVIEW® (EPR) - varies based on whether an Agency is using EPR standalone, EPR with goPost, or if EPR is integrated to a partner permitting system. It also depends on whether assignments are created from scratch manually or if Automated Distribution workflows are configured.

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The Intake Tab

Whenever documents require intake, the e-PlanREVIEW® (EPR) Intake tab displays a number that corresponds the number of files that need assignments. Incoming documents are listed separately, with each one then listing its own possible assignments. If there is more than one file, the first displays an expanded ‘assignments view’ while the rest remain collapsed until clicked.

From this tab, staff will either manually fill in assignment information or confirm assignments suggested by Automated Distribution Workflows for each document. Alternatively, staff can select multiple documents at once and create the same set of assignments for all selected files.

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Creating Assignments Manually

If no Automated Distribution workflows are active, you can create assignments by working with one document at a time or you can batch create the same set of assignments for multiple documents at once.

Working with One Document at a Time

If each document will require different assignments (or if documents are resubmittals), it’s best to create those assignments one document at a time by going through the document list.

Document List

If more than one document has been uploaded for review, the Intake tab will list each pdf file so that staff can create assignments for each one.

The first file (or only file, if there are no others) will display an ‘expanded’ assignments view where staff can either manually add assignment information or, if using automated assignment distributions, staff can confirm these automated suggestions are correct.

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Additional files are listed below the first in a ‘collapsed’ view. To expand a collapsed file, click on the expand icon ( ) next to its name.

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Assignments View

The first document listed will display assignment(s) by default. This ‘assignments view' will either show prepopulated assignment suggestions based on Automated Distribution workflows, prepopulated assignments based on a prior document version review, or simply display an unpopulated area for staff to create assignments manually. This view allows intake staff to fill in assignment information as noted in the table below.

Feature	Icon	Description
Prior Submittals	N/A	For resubmittals only. Dropdown that lists all first submittal documents within this project. Resubmittals (documents listed as new versions of existing documents) will reference the prior document filename (or its document display name, if different) to which they are linked in this field. If no filename is listed, the incoming file will be treated as a new first submittal file unless staff manually select a prior version document from the dropdown before creating assignments. Info See Prior Submittals section for more details.
Group	N/A	Required. Each assignment must belong to a group so that one or more members of that group can view and work on the assignment as needed.
Review Type	N/A	Optional. If staff need to create multiple assignments for a single group, they can use this field to create unique sub-assignments. The options for this field populate from a list configured by the Admin.
Assignee	N/A	Optional. Staff can further designate a specific assignee (from a list of group members) to perform a plan review. Other group members will still have access and can work on the assignment, but the assignee is the designated reviewer.
Due Date (Assignment-level)		Recommended. Click on the calendar-shaped icon next to each assignment to set a Due Date. Info If multiple assignments are required, make sure each assignment has a Due Date set.
Due Date (Document-level)		Optional. If a document has multiple assignments and they all require the same Due Date, click on the calendar-shaped icon in-line with the document name to set a Due Date for all the document’s assignments at once.
Add Assignment	➕	Click to add another row for an additional assignment below the existing assignment row.
Remove Assignment	➖	Click to remove the current assignment row (removed assignments will not be created).
CREATE ASSIGNMENTS (Document-level)	Image Added	Click to confirm and create all assignments for the current document.
RESET	Image Added	Click to clear all filled-out assignment information for the current document.
Delete (Document-level)		Click to delete an incoming document directly from Intake (users with delete rights only). Note Deleting is only recommend in specific circumstances because doing so will either prevent assignment(s) from being created for a new document or prevent existing assignments from updating when a resubmittal comes in.

How to Use Prior Submittals

The ‘Prior Submittals’ dropdown will populate a first submittal document filename (or its document display name, if different) if the system has been told the file in intake is a new version of that file.

• For a first submittal, this field should remain blank:

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• For a new version of a document previously submitted to EPR, the ‘Prior Submittals’ should display the name of the document’s first submittal (or its document display name, if edited).

  • The intake file will be linked as a new version of the selected document.

  • Instead of creating new assignments for the resubmittal, the linked document’s assignments are updated to link to the newest document version. If a new Due Date is provided, that will also be updated.

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Working with Multiple Documents

If all incoming documents are first submittals and will have the same set of assignments, then using the multi-document Create Assignments option can save time over creating them one by one.

Selecting Documents

Click the checkbox to the left of the ‘Search’ field to select all documents listed or select documents from the list individually.

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Multi-Document Features

When multiple documents are selected, document-level features are disabled and a set of multi-document features are instead enabled to the right of the ‘Search’ field.

Multi-document features apply to all selected documents, except where indicated.

Batch Edit and Create Assignments

Clicking the multi-document CREATE ASSIGNMENTS button will open the “Batch Edit and Create Assignments” window. This window has similar features to those in the document-level “assignment view,” but, if used, will override assignment suggestions for any first submittal files (resubmittals will be excluded).

Feature	Icon	Description
Group	N/A	Required. Each assignment must belong to a group so that one or more members of that group can view and work on the assignment as needed.
Review Type	N/A	Optional. If staff need to create multiple assignments for a single group, they can use this field to create unique sub-assignments. The options for this field populate from a list configured by the Admin.
Assignee	N/A	Optional. Staff can further designate a specific assignee (from a list of group members) to perform a plan review. Other group members will still have access and can work on the assignment, but the assignee is the designated reviewer.
Due Date (Assignment-level)		Recommended. Click on the calendar-shaped icon next to each assignment to set a Due Date.
Add Assignments	➕	Click to add another row for an additional assignment below the existing assignment row.
Remove Assignment	➖	Click to remove the current assignment row (removed assignments will not be created).
CREATE ASSIGNMENTS	Image Added	Click to confirm and create all assignments for all listed documents. Warning “Batch Edit and Create Assignments” only works for first submittal documents. Resubmittal files linked to a prior version will NOT have their assignments updated by this feature, even if selected. (Note that resubmittal files are excluded from the list at the top of the window.)
CANCEL	Image Added	Click to close the window without creating assignments.

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Creating Assignments with Automated Distributions

If Automated Distribution workflows are active, suggested assignments will automatically populate for each document listed on the Intake tab.

1. Expand each document in the list to review the suggested assignments.

2. Add Due Dates and/or otherwise modify suggested assignments, if necessary (refer to Assignment View for details).

3. Finish creating the assignment(s) by clicking CREATE ASSIGNMENTS or clear assignment suggestion(s) by clicking RESET.

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Working with Resubmittals

Updated versions of previously submitted documents, usually referred to as resubmittals, have a slightly different intake process than first submittal documents. While they still need to be processed through the Intake tab (excluding integrations where the permitting partner system handles assignments), the following differences should be noted:

1. Automated distribution workflows (if they exist), will not trigger for resubmittals.

2. New assignments should not be created for resubmittals.

3. Instead, the goal for resubmittals is to link them to the first submittal document versions that they are updating.

4. Linking a resubmittal is done through one of three ways:

   1. Automatically, if the incoming filename is an exact match for a first submittal filename in the same project (in EPR)

   2. Manually, by selecting a document from the “Prior Submittals” dropdown (in EPR)

   3. Through goPost or the integrated partner permitting system (prior to documents being routed to EPR)

5. When a resubmittal is linked properly, the first submittal document’s filename (or document display name, if different) is displayed in the “Prior Submittals” field.

6. Linked resubmittals will list the assignment(s) that already exist for the prior document versions, but will allow staff to set a new Due Date for the assignment(s).

7. Existing assignments will be updated to point to the resubmittal document once intake is completed.

8. If the “Prior Submittal” field is left blank for a resubmittal and intake is completed, it will be processed as a new first submittal instead and separate, potentially duplicate assignments will be created.

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Deleting a Document from Intake

Deleting a document from the Intake tab is not advised except for the following situations:

• When a document has been uploaded or routed to EPR by mistake

• When a resubmittal document has been routed to EPR without being properly linked to a prior submittal in goPost or an integrated partner permitting system (see Unlinked Documents)

• When intake does not complete successfully, resulting in a ‘Bad File’ error message displaying on the Intake tab (see Bad File Errors)

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Unlinked Documents

One reason to potentially delete an intake file is that the incoming file from goPost or an integrated partner permitting system is not correctly linked to the prior submittal. In this scenario, staff will need to delete the unlinked file that has been routed to EPR, then go back to the partner system and correctly link the file there before rerouting to EPR.

If the partner is goPost, you will need to (or ask the applicant to):

1. Download the file from goPost.

2. Use UPLOAD NEW VERSION to link the file to the previous submittal correctly.

3. Delete the unlinked file in goPost.*

4. Delete the unlinked file in EPR intake.*

5. Re-route the linked file to EPR.

*Submitting a Service Desk ticket to e-PlanSoft Support may be required for these steps.

If the integrated partner is someone else:

1. Submit a Service Desk ticket to e-PlanSoft Support to ensure the file(s) are deleted properly and can be routed again. They will provide guidance based on your integration.

Bad File Errors

If a file on the Intake tab displays a ‘Bad File’ error, this may mean intake did not complete successfully as expected. First, check whether the assignments for that file have been created (first submittals) or updated (resubmittals).

• If assignments were created/updated successfully, simply delete the ‘Bad Error’ file.

• If no assignments were created/updated, submit a Service Desk ticket with e-PlanSoft support to have them investigate the potential cause and provide resolution.

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Creating and Updating Assignments After Intake

Although resubmittal assignments cannot be updated during the Intake step, these assignments can be updated after intake from the project’s ASSIGNMENTS tab. To update an existing assignment, either click on Edit ( ) to the right of the assignment record, or click on the checkbox for one or more assignments and then use the EDIT ASSIGNMENTS button.

Edit a Single Assignment

If editing a single assignment, staff can add or change the Review Type, add or change the assignee (“User”), or change the Due date.

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Edit Multiple Assignments

If editing multiple assignments at once, staff can add or change the assignee (“User”), change the Status, add or change the Review Type, or add or change the Due date.

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Adding Assignments After Intake

It is also possible to add extra assignments that did not exist during a previous review cycle from the ASSIGNMENTS tab. To add additional assignments for staff:

1. Click on the Add button ( ) in the lower right corner (you may need to hover over it with your cursor in order to see it properly).

2. In the “Add Assignment” pop-up, click on the “Documents” field. A list of the first submittal documents that exist for this project will display.

3. Select the document for which you want to add another assignment, then click again outside of the list to clear it.

4. Fill in Group, Review Type, Assignee, and/or Due date information as needed.

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5. If additional assignments are needed, repeat step 4.

6. Click CONFIRM to finish creating the extra assignments.

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