How to use FlowManual.

1. Create a free account with your email or a Google account. There is no credit card and nothing to install: FlowManual runs in your browser.
2. Open Projects in the sidebar, click New project, name it, and click Create project.
3. On the project’s Documents tab, drag in your PDFs, or choose files or a whole folder. Uploads are PDF only, up to 500 MB per file. Scanned PDFs are read page by page and take a few extra minutes.
4. With Flag key items automatically on (the default), each document gets its first read as soon as it is processed. Analyze all on the document list reads anything that has not been read yet.

You can also forward an email with PDF attachments to a project’s private forwarding address, shown on its Documents tab. Mail is accepted only from the account email of someone with edit access to the project, or from a sender they add under Allowed senders on Account & security.

Long runs keep going after you leave the page. The Background jobs bell in the header tells you when a run finishes and links back to the result.

Open any document from the Documents tab. The Annotations tab is the first read: scope items, cost references, deadlines, insurance requirements, and exclusions are highlighted on the PDF with a label in the margin, each ranked Critical, Review, or Skim.

• Work the list from the top. Thumbs up marks a finding correct. Thumbs down marks it wrong and asks what was wrong: Wrong label or Wrong location opens the finding for editing, and any other answer dismisses it. Dismissed findings stay dismissed when the document is read again, and Show dismissed brings them back into view.
• If the read missed something, click Add a finding above the list, paste the passage exactly as it appears on the page, and give it a label. It is highlighted like any other finding.
• Plain English rewrites the highlights in plain language for the field: click Translate the highlights.
• Review records your disposition on every finding and your sign-off with Sign off my review.
• Find, page thumbnails, and print are built into the viewer. Drawing sets show sheet numbers in the thumbnail rail.
• The chat panel answers questions about the open document. To show it part of a page, click Screenshot in the chat panel (or the camera button in the viewer toolbar) and drag a box on the sheet.

Contracts also get GC, Exposure, and Risk tabs, pay applications get a Billing tab, and submittals get a Submittal tab that reads the submittal against the spec section it answers.

Two documents that should agree

1. On the project’s Compare & Review tab, find Comparisons and click New.
2. Pick two documents that should agree, such as your bid and the signed contract, or a locked quote and the invoice against it, and click Run comparison.
3. The results list every difference ranked by severity, with the dollar impact where the documents state one. Open a difference to see both passages side by side.

Drawing revisions

Under Drawing revisions on the same tab, click Compare and pick two revisions of a drawing. The overlay stacks them in color so anything that moved stands out, changed areas are highlighted on the revised sheet, and a written summary describes what changed sheet by sheet. Compared pairs are saved so you can reopen them.

Conflicts across documents

Check for Conflicts, under Conflicts on the same tab, reads two or more documents (a spec and a contract exhibit, for example) and lists the places they contradict each other, each pinned to its source passages.

Takeoff counts

1. Open the project’s Takeoff tab and open Takeoff counts.
2. Pick the drawing sheets and start a count. The run proposes symbol counts, each pinned to its spot on the sheet. Counting a sheet sends an image of that sheet for analysis, and the page tells you so before you run.
3. Review every pin before it enters the tally: J and K move between items, A accepts, X rejects. Add pin drops a count the run missed, Box takeoff saves a boxed item, and Start counting opens a blank run you fill in by hand.
4. Set or confirm each sheet’s scale, then use Measure length and Measure area. Lengths can carry duct size, pipe diameter, and service, and roof lines take a pitch for true lengths and squares.
5. Download from the Export menu: CSV, a Bluebeam PDF, an InEight Estimate workbook, or line items in Excel. Electrical takeoffs add a count sheet for Accubid. Import markups brings a drawing marked up in Bluebeam Revu back in for review.

Electrical drawings are counted by lighting fixture type, wiring device, electrical equipment, fire alarm, and low voltage, with existing and demolition work shown but not counted.

Estimate

The Estimate tab holds a quick estimate table and the Estimation workbooks card. Workbooks are estimating spreadsheets with multiple sheets and Excel-style formulas.

• Populate from project brings accepted takeoff quantities into workbook rows, linked back to the pin or measurement on the drawing.
• Price from your own Unit Rates and Labor Rates (both in the sidebar), with assemblies, cost codes, and alternates.
• Snapshots save a version and Lock as bid freezes the as-bid workbook. The Data menu holds Excel import and export and the proposal PDF.

Project tabs are grouped into Plan Room, Precon, Operations, and Field. Beyond the tools above:

• Ask Documents (sidebar) answers questions about a project’s documents in plain language. Check critical contract details against the document itself. The Search toggle adds web lookups for the session; while it is on, text from your question and the conversation, which can include document excerpts, is sent to an outside search service.
• The Search tab finds exact text across every document in a project and opens each hit at its page.
• Bid Leveling lines up competing sub bids item by item. Record the award to lock buyout prices, and use Send for signature to send a letter of intent or subcontract for signature through a private link.
• Pre-Con Review, Code, RFIs, Submittals, Change Orders, Procurement, Equipment, and Deliveries cover the rest of the job.
• Purchasing (sidebar) builds price history by material family from a purchase order CSV export. Each family page has a current retail list price check, for reference only.
• Connected apps on Account & security imports documents from the apps listed there.

The Free plan includes every feature with a daily usage allowance. The Daily Usage meter, at the top of the app and on the Dashboard, shows how much you have used today and when it resets. The allowance resets every day at midnight UTC.

• When you reach the limit, everything you have already created stays available: you can keep reading, uploading, and reviewing. New analysis pauses until the reset, and a run that reaches the limit partway through keeps what it finished.
• Exact-text Search and the drawing revision overlay do not use the allowance. The written summary that a new drawing comparison starts does.
• Takeoff symbol counts use far more than reading a document. One dense sheet can use more than a full day of the Free allowance, so counting a drawing set needs Pro or a trial.

Pro adds unlimited usage and priority support. See Pricing or contact us to upgrade.

• Account & security, at the bottom of the sidebar, holds your profile, your role, two-factor sign-in (a code emailed when you sign in on a new browser), and Data preferences. Help improve FlowManual, which lets us use your data to improve the service, is off by default. In an organization workspace an admin can grant it for the company, and your own opt-out always wins.
• Share a project from More in its header with Admin, Editor, or Viewer access. Editors can upload and run analyses; Viewers can read everything.
• The project owner can delete a project from More in its header or from the Projects page. Deleting removes its documents and results.
• To delete your account and everything in it, email legal@flowmanual.com from the address on the account. We act on deletion requests within 30 days, and deleted data leaves the live service right away. Download any documents you want to keep first. The same address handles requests for a copy of your data.

How we protect your data, including encryption, access control, and the providers we use, is on the Security page. What we collect and your rights are in the Privacy Policy, and the Terms of Service cover use of the service.

• Questions, account problems, or something that looks broken: email founders@flowmanual.com. Include the project name and roughly when it happened; that is usually enough for us to find it.
• Privacy and data requests: legal@flowmanual.com.
• Security issues: report them to security@flowmanual.com. Our disclosure contact is also published at /.well-known/security.txt.