Set up a company, step by step

Do it in this order: each step builds on the one before. You can change almost anything later, so don’t wait for it to be perfect. A new company starts with the card types its owner ticks when they first sign in, and the fields those use. These are ordinary ones, so rename, change or archive them as you like.

Only owners and admins can change card types and fields.

1. Write down your reports

List what you’ll want to count, group and filter, and answer the questions to ask first. Use paper. Nothing in Pointmap changes yet.

2. Choose your card types

List the kinds of things you mark on a drawing. Two things asking the same questions are one card type. Compare your list to the card types you already have, and keep what fits.

3. Choose your fields

Go through your reports and write down the fields they need, with each one’s field type. Check each against Make a new field or reuse one, and against the fields you already have.

Write a good Description for each field and card type as you go.

4. Build the fields and card types

1. Make each card type, starting from a copy or a starter that’s close.
2. Add its fields, reusing fields from the list wherever you can.
3. Put the lines in order: the ones people answer first at the top. The order also sets which field wins the point’s color.
4. Turn on Required only where a blank would spoil a report.
5. Under the card’s Title bar, pick the Name: what reports, search and lists call the point.

5. Decide what each card type’s points show

Set each card type’s Color and Initials or icon. Then go through its lines and set On the plan, using Choose what a point shows. On a computer, the preview at the top of the page shows the point as you change things. Type answers into the card below it to try them; lines you leave blank use made-up samples.

6. Add templates for what repeats

If the same answers come up again and again, make a template. The easiest way is to fill in a real point the way you want, then save it as a template.

7. Test on a real drawing

Before the crew starts, make a test project and upload a real, busy sheet:

1. Place a few of each card type, and fill them in the way the crew would.
2. Zoom out. Can you read what matters from across the sheet?
3. Build each report from step 1. If one can’t be built, the field it needs is missing or is the wrong type.
4. Time yourself placing a point. If it feels slow on a phone, cut questions.

Change what didn’t work, and you’re ready to go.

See one built out

Pick the example setup closest to your company, and use it as your starting list. There are ten, from framing and electrical to general contractors and building handover.

Once points are going in, ask Claude, ChatGPT or Grok Bot about them in plain words.