Set up your firm

This guide is for the person who sets Circulate up for a consulting firm and runs its reviews. It takes you from an empty account to a closed review with its record, in about half an hour. You need an email address at your firm.

1. Sign in

1. Go to getcirculate.ca and choose Sign in.
2. Type your work email in Email and choose Send sign-in link. You see "Check your email — we sent a sign-in link to …".
3. Open the mail and follow its link, then choose Continue. You are signed in and see the Projects page.

There is no password. Once your organisation has set up Microsoft sign-in, you and your colleagues can use Sign in with Microsoft instead.

2. Create your organisation

1. On the Projects page, find the New organisation form. If you came from "Start free trial" on our website, the cursor is already in it.
2. Type your firm's name in Organisation name and choose Create organisation. Your organisation appears on the page, with a form for its first project and a link to Organisation settings.

As an admin of the organisation you also see a Getting started list under its name, with the five steps of this guide: each one links to where it is done and is marked done as you go. It goes away once all five are done, or when you choose Hide this guide; only you stop seeing it, and it never creates anything for you.

On getcirculate.ca, a new organisation starts with a 30-day free trial: up to 5 seats and 3 active projects, no card needed. A seat is one person in your organisation; guests never take one.

3. Create a project

1. Under your organisation, type a Project name (for example the street or the file number) and choose Create project. The project's page opens. It has four parts: Revisions, Stages, Members and Guests.

You are the project's owner: you upload drawings, invite people and open and close review stages.

4. Upload a drawing set

Each upload is a revision of the project: the first submission, the resubmission after comments, and so on.

1. Under Revisions, give it a Revision label such as "Rev 0 – first submission" (leave it empty to use the file name).
2. Choose the PDF under PDF file, then Upload. You see Uploading…, then the revision appears in the list. Circulate splits it into sheets in the background; when it is ready you see a thumbnail of each sheet.

A drawing set can be one PDF with many sheets, up to 2 GB. No drawings at hand? Use our sample drawing set.

5. Invite your colleagues

1. Under Members, type a colleague's Member email.
2. Pick a Member role: owner (runs the project, like you), reviewer (marks up and replies) or viewer (reads only).
3. Pick their Member discipline, such as water, drainage or transportation. A reviewer can change and set the status of their own discipline's comments; they can add and reply anywhere.
4. Choose Invite member. They appear in the list. Tell them to sign in at getcirculate.ca with that same address; the project is waiting for them.

Inviting someone who is not yet in your organisation adds them to it, and so takes a seat.

6. Invite city reviewers and the applicant as guests

Guests are people outside your firm. They are always free, never take a seat and need no account.

1. Under Guests, type the Guest email and, if you like, a Guest name.
2. Pick a Guest role: reviewer (marks up and replies) or viewer-reply (reads and replies, but adds no markups), and a Guest discipline if it helps.
3. Set Link valid for (days), then choose Invite guest. You see "Send this link to the guest. It is shown only once", with the link.
4. Choose Copy link and send the link to your guest yourself, by email.

The link is the guest's way in, so send it only to that person. You can revoke it from the list at any time.

7. Open a review stage

A review stage sends one revision to your reviewers with a due date.

1. Under Stages, type a Stage name such as "First review".
2. Pick the Revision and set the Deadline.
3. Choose Open stage. The stage's review screen opens. Everyone you invited can now open the stage from the project.

When an earlier stage of the project is closed, the form offers to carry its unsettled comments into the new one, so nothing is lost between rounds.

8. Watch the review

• The project page lists each stage with its state and due date.
• In the review screen, the Markups list along the bottom shows every comment. Use Filter by status to see what is still open, and All sheets to see the whole set.
• People here shows who else has the stage open, and on which sheet.

Everyone is told about new comments by email, right away or in a daily summary, as each person chooses under Notifications.

9. Close the stage and issue the record

A stage closes when every comment has a status other than Open.

1. In the review screen, open the Review tab and choose Close stage…. Circulate checks the comments. Anything that blocks closing is listed with Zoom to, so you can settle it.
2. When it says "Nothing blocks closing.", choose Close stage. The stage becomes read-only for good, and Circulate writes its record.
3. Choose Stage record (on the Review tab) to see the record's files: the review letter, the comment list in Excel and CSV, and every sheet with its markups, both as PDF annotations and drawn into the page.
4. To send it, choose Issue by email…. The project's guests are already listed; use Add recipient for anyone else, write a message, and choose Send. Each recipient gets the letter and comment lists attached, and their own link to download the whole record.

Billing

Billing lives under Organisation settings, then Billing, and only your organisation's admins see it. When you are ready to pay, choose the plan, per seat or per active project, and Subscribe; you pay by card through Stripe. Manage billing changes the card or cancels. Prices are on the pricing page, and the pricing questions explain what happens if a payment fails (nothing is lost).