Data inventory for engineering and architecture firms: Deltek, Procore, Bluebeam

What should an A/E firm's data inventory record?#

An A/E firm's data inventory records each system that holds project history, the record families inside it, and the facts needed to decide whether those records can be used. It is a planning spreadsheet that describes records rather than containing them.

Most firms can name their systems from memory. What they rarely have written down is which years each system covers, which records survived past migrations and which projects sit in accounts the firm does not control. Those gaps are what the inventory closes.

An outside reference helps when deciding which columns to keep. The Data & Trust Alliance's Data Provenance Standards list the use facts dataset buyers expect, including confidentiality classification, where consent documentation sits, the license to use and the intended data use. An A/E sheet with ownership, personal data and restriction columns already answers several of them.

• 1System and administrator: the product, its edition or deployment, and the person who runs it.
• 2Record family: time entries, RFIs, submittals, markup sets, model files, calculations or correspondence.
• 3Coverage: the earliest and latest project years still accessible in that system today.
• 4Approximate volume: projects, logs or files, estimated from admin screens or folder listings.
• 5Linking key: the project number or code that connects this row to the others.
• 6Ownership flag: who controls the records under contract, using the flags described below.
• 7Personal data: whether names, contact details, rates or comments about individuals appear.
• 8Export route: native report, API, admin export, database backup or file copy. In cloud Deltek Vantagepoint, for example, list-view exports are scheduled and the .csv arrives through the Notification Center, so note who has the rights to run them.

Pre-filled inventory rows for common A/E systems#

The pre-filled rows below cover the systems most engineering and architecture firms run, with the record types usually found in each. Treat them as a first draft; editions, modules and office habits vary, so confirm every row with the person who administers the system.

Notice the difference between systems the firm owns outright, such as its Deltek database, and shared platforms where the firm is one participant among several. That distinction drives the ownership flag more than any other factor.

How to set client-ownership flags row by row#

Client-ownership flags record who controls a row's records under contract, and they matter more than volume or age. A modest set of RFI logs the firm clearly controls is more usable than a large model archive whose ownership passed to clients.

Set flags from the contracts, not from where the files are stored. Many design agreements treat drawings, specifications and models as the firm's instruments of service with a license to the client; others, often negotiated by developer or institutional clients, transfer ownership or add confidentiality terms. When one row mixes both, split it by client or contract family.

Why Procore and Bluebeam rows need extra care#

Procore and Bluebeam rows need extra care because both are collaboration platforms, and the firm's records often sit inside someone else's account. On many projects the general contractor or owner holds the Procore company account and invites the architect or engineer as a collaborator, so exporting those records may need the account holder's cooperation and fall under its terms.

Bluebeam has a similar split. Markups made in the firm's own Revu files or in Studio Sessions the firm hosted are usually the firm's records, while sessions hosted by a contractor or owner may not be. Record the host for each session and treat hosted-by-others rows as restricted until the rights review says otherwise.

Also note what each platform still holds after a project closes. Archived Procore projects, finished Studio Sessions and the folders of departed staff can all limit what is reachable, so the coverage column should reflect what can be opened today rather than what once existed.

How to estimate coverage and volume without exporting anything#

Coverage and volume can be estimated from admin screens and folder listings, so no records leave their systems during the inventory. The goal is a defensible approximation a fit check can start from, not an exact count.

Write unknowns as unknown. An honest blank is more useful than an optimistic guess, and the fuller inventory that follows a fit check resolves it.

• 1Deltek or BQE: run a project list grouped by start year and note the earliest year with consistent phase codes.
• 2Procore: list projects in the firm's own company account separately from projects where the firm is a collaborator.
• 3Bluebeam: list Studio Sessions the firm hosted and check whether markup summaries were saved to project folders.
• 4Revit: count model files by project folder and note the software version each was last saved in.
• 5File server: list project folders by year and spot-check that calculation and QA/QC subfolders are populated.
• 6Email: ask IT which years the mail archive covers and whether departed staff mailboxes were kept.

The project number test for linked records#

The project number test asks whether one identifier connects the firm's records across systems. When the same number appears in Deltek, in Procore project settings, in Bluebeam file names and in server folders, the inventory describes one connected history instead of separate piles.

Linked history is the quality AI developers look for in A/E records. An RFI in Procore says more when it can be tied to the markup that resolved it, the hours charged to that phase in Deltek and the revised sheet that followed. Record the linking key for each row, and note where numbering changed after a merger, a rebrand or a move from Vision to Vantagepoint.

Illustrative: an architecture and interiors firm builds its first inventory#

Illustrative: a fictional architecture and interiors firm with workplace, hospitality and multifamily studios builds its first inventory after its IT lead learns that the old Deltek Vision database is due for retirement. The managing principal wants to know what the firm actually holds before anything is switched off.

The inventory shows consistent phase codes and time entries across the Vision and Vantagepoint years, internal QA/QC checklists on the file server and Bluebeam markup sets from the firm's own design reviews. It also shows that most construction-phase RFIs and submittals live in Procore accounts held by contractors, and that hospitality projects carry brand confidentiality terms.

The firm flags contractor-hosted Procore projects and hospitality work as restricted, keeps the Vision archive rather than deleting it, and proposes a first scope built from internal review records and project management history it clearly controls.

How SourceX uses an A/E inventory#

SourceX uses the inventory in the Supply step of the SourceX five-step transaction: Supply, Rights, Preparation, Approval and Delivery. The fit check asks for the same metadata the inventory holds, such as system names, years of coverage, record families and known restrictions, and nothing is shared during that initial assessment.

If the firm proceeds, its ownership flags become the starting point for the rights review, and the SourceX Evidence Packet records provenance, licensing rights, permitted use, the privacy record and release authorization for each package. The firm approves every step, and records are licensed rather than sold, so the firm keeps ownership.