Project Overview Tab
The Overview tab is the first thing you see when you open a project. It is designed to answer one question in under five seconds: how is this project doing right now? Instead of clicking through multiple tabs, you get a single-screen summary of task progress, budget health, change orders, daily logs, punch list status, and the weather forecast.
Task Progress Card
The Task Progress card shows a donut-style progress graphic with a count of tasks broken down by status: Not Started, In Progress, Blocked, Approval Requested, and Complete. The completion percentage is displayed prominently in the center of the donut.
Click "View Tasks" to jump directly to the Tasks tab with all tasks visible. If you notice a high number of blocked tasks, one click takes you to the problem.
Budget Card
The Budget card shows your estimated budget alongside the actual costs recorded so far, with the variance calculated automatically. A positive variance means you are under budget; a negative variance means you are over.
The card displays dollar figures for total estimated, total actual, and the variance. Click any of these numbers to navigate to the Budget tab for a detailed cost breakdown by category.
Change Orders Card
The Change Orders card shows the total number of COs for the project and their net financial impact — the sum of all approved change order deltas. This tells you at a glance how much the project scope has shifted from the original contract.
Click the card to go to the Changes tab and review individual COs.
Daily Logs Card
The Daily Logs card shows the count of recent log entries. This is a quick consistency check — if you see gaps in your logging, you know there are days to catch up on.
Click the card to open the Logs tab.
Punch List Card
If the Punch List feature is enabled and your project has punch list items, a summary card appears showing the total item count and how many are complete. This is especially useful during the closeout phase when clearing the punch list is the primary focus.
Click the card to jump to the Punch List tab.
Weather Forecast Card
The Weather Forecast card shows a 5-day outlook for your project location, pulled from the Open-Meteo API. Each day displays the condition (clear, cloudy, rain, snow), high temperature, and low temperature.
This helps with short-term scheduling decisions: if rain is forecast for Thursday, you might push exterior painting to the following week. If temperatures are dropping below freezing, you know to protect freshly poured concrete.
Information to Action
Every element on the Overview tab is clickable. This follows Baulit's design principle of connecting information to action in the fewest possible clicks:
- Cost figures navigate to the Budget tab.
- Task counts navigate to the Tasks tab.
- Change order totals navigate to the Changes tab.
- Log counts navigate to the Logs tab.
- Punch list numbers navigate to the Punch List tab.
The Overview tab is read-only — you cannot edit data here. It is purely a navigation hub that shows you where attention is needed and takes you there with one click.
What Makes a Good Overview Check
Make the Overview tab part of your daily routine. A 30-second glance tells you:
- Are tasks progressing? If the completion percentage has not moved in days, something is stalled.
- Is the budget on track? A growing negative variance means costs are running ahead of plan.
- Are change orders piling up? A high CO count relative to project size can signal scope creep.
- Am I logging consistently? Missing daily logs create gaps in your project record.
- What is the weather doing? Plan your week around the forecast rather than reacting to it.