Journals overview

Sage Construction Management can record and track basic project correspondence using the Journals feature. Examples of journals can be letters, emails, faxes, notes, and phone conversations. Each type of journal can have reminder and due dates alerting staff members on when to follow-up.

The Journals feature helps to solve common communication issues. Contractors occasionally email external project team members using Microsoft Outlook or Gmail and CC their own staff. The problem with this scenario is when the recipient replies just to the originator, instead of using the reply all option. Consequently, staff members who were initially CC'd will not receive the follow-up response. As a result, each individual will have countless emails in their inbox, while not everyone will be on sync. This issue can be eliminated if project correspondence is documented using the Journal feature. Learn more about collaborating with external project team members on specific documentation.

Before you add a journal

• Make sure all companies that will be referenced in the From and Respondentsections of the journal are in the project leads directory or project directory.
• Optional: Review the list of journal types that can be used to categorize records.

Journal functions

• Add a journal
• Edit a journal
• Email a journal
• Print a journal

About journal responses

• When you email a journal, the email includes a hyperlink that enables the respondents to comment online using the TeamLink Portal. This is the preferred method as opposed to printing the journal. The originator or contact specified in the From section will get an alert when a response has been posted in the portal.
• Responses sent using standard email and not through the portal will need to be moved from the Email feature and be re-associated with the original journal.
• After receiving the response, make sure to mark the journal as Closed when you edit the journal. This way only open items will appear in the Correspondence Calendar and Alerts view.
• You can use the Create Follow Up Journal option to create another journal that will link the two records.