Section 2.7: Reviewing Requests with ABRAM

Every project request lands in one queue, Triage, whether it came from an intake form, a client's portal or your own team. Open a request to see the client's answers next to ABRAM's read of them, then quote it, turn it into a project, or reject it with a reason the client sees.

Triage is part of the Studio plan and above, for organizations. Below Studio it is hidden.

1. Who can review requests

You can open and act on requests if you are an organization owner or admin, or a member whose access includes Internal project requests or project management. Everyone else does not see the queue.

2. Open the queue

1. Go to Projects in the sidebar.
2. Next to the search bar, switch from Projects to Triage. The number beside it is how many items are waiting.

The queue lists requests and projects that have no owner yet. Use All, Requests or Unowned projects to narrow it. Older items sit under Older backlog, and Recent only hides them again.

Each row shows Ref, Item, Client / Requester, Due, Read and how long it has been Waiting. The queue stays oldest first. In the board view, items are grouped by how long they have waited: Today, This week, Over a week and Stale.

Requests also appear as rows in your Inbox, and each one opens the same request page.

The Read column

The Read column shows what ABRAM flagged:

• A chip such as Budget or Missing info means that flag wants a look. Hover it for the reason.
• Clear means every flag looks fine.
• Nothing flagged, Reading or Not read tell you where the read stands.

3. What ABRAM reads

On Studio and above, ABRAM reads each request as it arrives and writes a short note beside it. The note is advice. The client's own Description and Answers stay the record.

The Read card at the top of the request shows:

• A one-line summary of what the client is asking for.
• Four flags, each with a one-line reason:
  • Fit: how this compares with the kinds of projects you have run before.
  • Capacity: the hours the work needs against the hours your team has open around the dates asked for.
  • Budget: how the stated budget compares with the scope ABRAM read and with your past projects of the same kind.
  • Missing info: what the client left out.
• The Deliverables ABRAM heard, with a type and quantity.
• A Budget read range with a confidence level, Dates read and Hours read.
• Which attachments it read, and any it could not.

Flags explain themselves one line at a time. They are never added up into a score, and they never reorder the queue.

When a request is not read

Automatic reads use AI credits. A request is left unread when, for example, your workspace is out of credits, AI is switched off, the daily limit for automatic reads is reached, or the request came through a form that is switched off. The Read card says which.

To read it yourself, click Analyze on the Read card. Once a read is done, Analyze again reads it fresh. Only a pending request can be read.

4. The request page

The left side holds the request itself:

• Read: ABRAM's note, above.
• Description: what the client wrote.
• Answers: each answer to your intake questions, with where it will go on the project, such as Budget, Deliverables or Locations.
• Attachments: view or download anything the client sent.

The right side holds the decision:

• Requester: name, email, Client when the request matches one of your portal clients, Submitted, Estimated budget, Start and Due.
• Project owner: who runs the project if you take it on.
• Quote: quote the request before you commit.
• The action buttons: Set up with ABRAM, Approve and Reject.

5. Choose an owner first

Pick someone under Project owner before you approve or set up the project. Until you do, the page shows Choose an owner to approve and both buttons stay off. Every project that comes from a request lands with someone running it.

6. Quote the request

When you want the client to agree a price first:

1. Under Quote, click Quote this. ABRAM drafts a quote from the request and opens it in Quotes.
2. Check the draft and send it from there. Nothing reaches the client until you send it.
3. Back on the request, the Quote card tracks it: Draft, not sent, Waiting on the client, Viewed by the client, then Ready to convert once the client accepts.
4. Click Convert to project. The accepted quote's lines go onto the new project's budget.

If the client declines, or the quote expires or is cancelled, the request goes back to pending and the card shows why. Click Quote again to send a new one.

Quotes need the Pro plan or above. See Section 5.6: Quotes.

7. Approve or set up with ABRAM

With an owner chosen, pick one:

• Approve creates the project from the request as it stands: the title, dates, budget, the answers where they belong, and the deliverables the client asked for.
• Set up with ABRAM creates the project and plans it. ABRAM uses its read of the request to build the work packages, milestones and deliverables, and copies the client's attachments onto the project. This uses AI credits.

Either way you land on the new project, and the request shows Open project from then on. When the request matched a portal client, the project appears in that client's portal.

8. Reject a request

1. Click Reject.
2. Pick a Reason: Outside the work we take on, The dates do not work for us, We are fully booked, The budget does not fit the scope or Other.
3. Add a Note to the client if you want to. With Other, the note is required.
4. Click Reject.

The requester sees the reason and your note. No project is created.

Related

• Section 2.3: Custom Intake Forms
• Section 5.6: Quotes
• Section 6.4: Client Portal