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What's new: the September 2026 release. Market Area logos on generated PDFs, plus fixes across Progress Billing, Purchase Orders, Scheduling, and the mobile app. August brought Scheduling, Market Areas, and Users and Crew Members.

September release notes August release notes

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

  • Updated

User Personas: Admin | Project Manager | Field User

This is the starting point when something in eSUB Fusion is not behaving the way you expect. It answers the questions that cut across tools, and it points you at the article that owns every other question in the Help Center.

Work top down. Start Here covers the four patterns behind most support tickets: you cannot see something, you cannot delete something, a number is not calculating, or you are not sure which report to open. If your question is more specific, use the area sections below it, and if it is not answered on this page, Find Your Question at the bottom lists every question in the Help Center as a direct link to the article that answers it.

Some answers depend on what your eSUB Admin has enabled for you, so you may need to check with them before you can act on one.

Use the links below to jump to a topic:

Start Here

Four patterns account for most of the questions that reach eSUB Support. Read these first, because the specific answers further down usually turn out to be one of them.

I cannot see a record, a project, or a menu item. Where do I start?

Four separate controls decide what you see, and they are checked in this order. Work down the list rather than guessing.

  1. Your license type. A Crew Basic license grants My Schedule and nothing else. If that is all you see after signing in, an administrator has to change the license type, not the permissions. See Accessing Your eSUB Fusion Account.
  2. Your permissions. Permissions decide what actions you can perform and which tools appear at all. Your eSUB Admin assigns them by permission group. See Set Up User Permissions.
  3. Your project access. Project access decides which projects those actions apply to. A user on Projects access only sees the jobs they have been enabled for. See Set Up User Access Level.
  4. Your market areas. A market area assignment filters data inside a project you can otherwise open, which is why a contact, a crew member or a project can go missing even when access looks correct. See Market Area Visibility: Who Sees What.

If all four check out, the item itself may have been made unavailable. An unavailable record stays on historical documents but stops appearing for selection. See Available and Unavailable Statuses.

Pro Tip Icon.png
 After an administrator changes your access, market areas or license, sign out and back in. A fresh sign-in is the quickest way to rule out a stale session.

Why can I not delete this? Delete, Void and Unavailable

Very little in eSUB Fusion is deleted, and that is deliberate. Anything that has been used on a document is part of the project record, so removing it would break the history. Three mechanisms replace deletion.

Mechanism What it does Where you see it
Void Takes a document out of active use and out of the cost reports, while keeping the record and its number. Projects, Requests For Information, Purchase Orders, Change Order Requests.
Unavailable Stops a database item appearing for selection. Historical documents and analytics keep it exactly as recorded, and it is reversible. Contacts, cost codes, keywords, labor classes and other list items.
Delete Genuinely removes the item. Reserved for something created in error and never used. A duplicate contact caught before use, a Submittal revision, a Pay Application.

Two cases that come up often. A Permission Group assigned to a user cannot be deleted until those users are moved to another group. A Pay Application can be deleted, but doing so affects future automatic numbering, so reusing it is cleaner. See Available and Unavailable Statuses for the three kinds of status and how they differ.

Something is not calculating. Why are there costs with no dollars?

Hours, purchases and change orders only become money once the setup behind them is complete. Check these five in order.

  1. No Rate Template on the project. Hours recorded before a rate template is assigned carry no dollar value. Check the rate template field on Project Info first, because an unassigned template is the most common cause. See Set Up Your Project for Job Cost Reporting.
  2. A Labor Class with no rate. A rate template can exist with one or more classes left blank. Crew hours are then multiplied by zero. See Labor Rates Setup.
  3. No Labor Class on the Crew Member. A crew member with no Primary Labor Class produces hours that cannot be costed. See Create and Manage Users and Crew Members.
  4. A Change Order that is not Approved. A COR does not affect the budget until it is in Approved status with an approved amount recorded. See Manage Budget Adjustments and Track Cost Commitments.
  5. A Purchase Order in the wrong status, or with no cost code. A PO counts as a committed cost only while it is Open, Partial Shipment, Received in Full or Complete, and the line item has to be tied to a cost code. See Purchase Orders.

If costs are there but margin is not, the project Contract Value is almost certainly blank. Margin is calculated against it.

Which report should I use?

Several reports run off the same budget, commitment and change order data, and each is aimed at a different question.

Report Answer it is built for
Job Cost Report Where does this job stand right now against budget, commitments and revenue? The Summary tab is the high-level view and Details breaks it out by cost category and cost code.
Cost to Complete Report Where will this job finish? Set a Through date, regroup the data, and record adjustments where field knowledge beats the math. A global version covers every project you can see.
Labor Reports How is the crew performing against budgeted hours and units? Actual hours come only from crew timecards.

The comparison table under More Reports in the Job Cost Report article covers the full set.

Accounts, Users and Access

What is the difference between a Standard User and a Crew Member?

A User is anyone who needs a login to the eSUB Fusion web and mobile tools. A Crew Member is a field worker tracked for labor hours and scheduling, and does not get a login. If someone needs both a login and labor tracking, create them as a User with the Crew designation rather than creating two records. An existing Crew Member can be converted to a User later. See Create and Manage Users and Crew Members.

Why can I not view, create, edit, or delete a tool or document?

Every user is assigned a permission group by an administrator. If you cannot reach a tool or perform an action, ask your eSUB Admin to confirm which permissions your group holds. They can adjust it. See Set Up User Permissions, and Permission Group Descriptions for what each permission controls.

What is the difference between permissions and project access?

Permissions decide what actions a user can perform. Project access decides which projects those actions apply to. They are set separately, so a user can hold every permission in the system and still see nothing, or see every project and be unable to open a document inside one. See Set Up User Permissions and Set Up User Access Level.

A user has access but still cannot see a project.

Work through the three controls in order. Confirm the access level actually includes that project. Confirm their permissions allow them to view the thing they are looking for, since project access alone does not grant document access. Then check their market areas, because a market area assignment can filter data inside a project they can otherwise reach. See Set Up User Access Level.

On Projects access, a user only picks up projects created after their setup if Add user to all new projects is set to Yes. Otherwise you add them to each new job yourself.

Why do I not see a menu item that a colleague sees?

What appears in the navigation depends on the modules enabled for your organization and on your own permissions. Scheduling, for example, appears only for organizations with the Scheduling module enabled, and the API section needs both the API module and the Integrations API - API Settings permission. See Navigating Through the eSUB Fusion Interface.

I never received the activation email.

Check your spam and quarantine folders for a message from noreply@esubcloud.com. If it is not there, the account may not have been created yet, or it may have been created against a different email address. An administrator in your organization can confirm which address is on the account and resend the invitation. Also confirm your email client is not blocking the domain. See Adding eSUB to your Safe Sender List and Accessing Your eSUB Fusion Account.

Projects and Company Setup

I cannot find my project on the Projects log.

The Projects log defaults to showing projects with Open status only. To see the rest:

  1. Select the filter icon next to the Status column header.
  2. Check the box next to each status you want to display.
  3. Select Apply.

Your filter stays selected while you work, but resets to Open when you sign out. If the project is still missing after clearing the filter, it is an access question rather than a filter question. See I cannot see a record, a project, or a menu item.

How do I delete a project?

A project cannot be deleted. If a project is no longer needed, or was added by mistake, set the project status to Void. If the job is finished rather than unwanted, set it to Complete instead, which marks it closed while leaving its documents and reporting intact. See Create and Manage Projects.

Why do only two of my Project Team contacts appear on mobile?

The mobile app displays the first two contacts listed in each Project Team role. If you add three project managers, only the first two entered appear under Project Information on the app. List your primary contacts in the first two positions so the right people are visible in the field.

ProjectTeamRoleContacts.png
On the web every contact in a Project Team role is listed. On mobile, only the first two in each role appear.

See Manage Projects (Mobile).

Why can I not find a contact or vendor on my project?

Two things filter that list. First, the contact must share a market area with you, and on a project the list narrows again to the project's market area. Check the contact's Market Areas field and either add the project's market area or set the field to All Market Areas. See Market Area Visibility: Who Sees What.

Second, if you are populating the Vendor field on the Purchase Order General Info tab, only contacts with the AP Vendor designation appear. Confirm the vendor exists in your Contact log and that the designation is set.

APVendorDesignation.png
The AP Vendor designation on a contact record is what puts it in the Vendor list on a Purchase Order.

A contact set to unavailable also stops appearing for selection while staying on historical documents. See Create and Manage Contacts and Purchase Orders.

What order should I set things up in?

There is no forced sequence, because permission groups can be created before or after users and permissions can be adjusted at any time. Most administrators work in this order: permissions, then users and crew, then project access, then resources and company settings. See Account Administration: Guide.

Inside a project the order does matter in one place. Cost codes should exist before the budget, because the budget is entered against them, and hours recorded before a rate template is assigned carry no dollar value until it is. See Set Up Your Project for Job Cost Reporting.

What wins, the company setting or the project setting?

The project setting. A company setting is the default applied when a project is created; once a project carries its own value, that is the one used. Retainage is the clearest example: a progress billing takes the project value if one is set, otherwise the company value, otherwise ten percent.

This is also why changing a company setting appears to do nothing. Existing projects keep whatever they were created with, so a change to the Daily Reports edit window in Company Settings only governs jobs added after the change. To adjust a job that is already running, set the edit window at the project level. See Company Settings and Project Settings.

Documents and Document Control

Which fields and forms can we customize?

These fields can be tailored to your company:

  • Daily Reports comment box labels
  • Request for Information PDF instructions
  • Change Order Requests reservation of rights
  • Purchase Orders custom disclaimer

All four are set in Company Settings.

Can I use my own form in eSUB Fusion?

eSUB Fusion does not support custom forms, but any form your team needs can be attached to a document. To keep them available to everyone, upload the form to eSUB Drive or the Project Drive. Users can download it, fill it out, and upload the completed copy back. See eSUB Drive and Project Drive.

I uploaded a file to the wrong folder. Can I move it?

No. Files cannot be moved between folders once they are uploaded. Delete the file and upload it again to the correct folder. There is no recycle bin and no undo on a delete, so read the item count on the confirmation prompt before you confirm.

There is also no template folder structure that applies to every project. That is by design: each Project Drive is built to suit the job it belongs to, so you create the structure that project needs. See eSUB Drive and Project Drive.

How do I download or email multiple documents at once?

You cannot, with one exception: Submittal Items attached to a Submittal Package go out together. To send several documents at once, download each PDF and send them from your own email client. Copy the project email address so the correspondence is still captured against the project. See Emailing Documents.

What you can export in one action is the log itself. Every document log can be exported from Global Documents on the global navigation menu, which covers a document type across every project you are a member of. See How do I export a documents log below, and Global Documents Log.

How do I export a documents log, and can I choose Excel or CSV?

Open the log, select Actions, then Export Log, and pick the format. Both formats are available on every log type, in the project log and in the global log, and that includes Field Notes.

JCReportExport.png
Both Download Excel and Download CSV are offered when you export a log.

Choose Download Excel when you are going to work in the file. The Excel export carries real cell data types and formatting, so currency arrives as currency rather than as text, and where a log needs more than one sheet the export uses linked sheets instead of flattening everything into one. The Field Notes export is the clearest example, since it includes a Media Summary sheet linked to the main log. Choose Download CSV when something downstream needs plain, unformatted data.

The export reflects the log as you have filtered it on screen, so filter first, then export. See Document Downloads and Exports and Global Documents Log.

How do we send out multiple Daily Reports in one email?

Daily Reports are emailed one at a time, on the web and on mobile. To send several at once, download the PDFs and send them from your own email client. To keep that correspondence on the project record, copy the project email address into the Cc line.

To find the address, select Project Info on the project slide-out menu and copy the Project Email Address.

ProjectEmailAddress.png
The project email address is on the Info tab of Project Info.

See Project Mailbox and Emailing Documents.

Why can I not edit my Daily Report?

There are three causes, and they are checked in this order.

  1. You do not hold Daily Reports editing permissions. An eSUB Admin can grant them.
  2. The edit window has been exceeded. The default Daily Report edit window is eight days. To edit beyond it, the project's edit window has to change, which needs Project Admin - Project Settings edit permissions. On the project, select Settings, then Documents, then Daily Reports, select Edit, change the Edit Window field to a number of days or to No Limit, and select Save.
  3. The time record is Approved or Exported. Approving a time record locks both the record and the Daily Report it came from. The record has to be set back to Pending first, which needs Timecard Management - General Permissions edit permissions.

See Daily Reports and Time Management.

My Labor Classes and Rate Templates are assigned. Why are my job costs still not updating?

Because assignments are not retroactive. If the Labor Class or Rate Template was assigned after a Daily Report was created, that report keeps the blank it was saved with. Edit the Daily Report and set the Labor Class Override field on each crew line to the correct class. The job cost reports update once you save.

DRLaborClassOverrideDropdown.png
The Labor Class Override field on the Crew tab of a Daily Report.

If the Labor Class Override field is locked, the setting is switched off. Enable Labor Class Override under Timecard Preferences in Company Settings. See also Daily Reports.

Job Costing and Billing

Why do I not see committed Labor Costs on my project's Job Cost Report?

If the Job Cost Details report shows no committed Labor Costs even though your team is entering crew time in Daily Reports, the cause is almost always an incomplete Labor Class setup. There are two, and the second has two variants.

Cause 1. Missing Labor Rates. A Rate Template exists, but one or more Labor Classes on it have no rate entered. Crew hours are then multiplied by zero, which produces hours with no committed labor cost. See Labor Rates Setup.

MissingRateOnRateTemplate.png
A Labor Class on the Rate Template with no rate entered against it.

Cause 2. Crew Members without assigned Labor Classes. Committed costs do not calculate if a Crew Member has no Labor Class. Blank values in the Labor Class field on the Crew tab of a Daily Report, or in the Timecard Management log, are the first tell.

TimeMgmtBlankLaborClass.png
A blank Labor Class column in the Time Management crew view.
TimeMgmtNoLaborClassAssigned.png
The same gap seen across a full week of timecards in Timecard Management.

It happens for one of two reasons.

2a. The Crew Member profile has no Primary Labor Class. See Create and Manage Users and Crew Members.

CrewNoLaborClassAssigned.png
A Crew Member profile with no Primary Labor Class assigned.

2b. The Rate Template is not assigned to the project. A class that is available company wide still does not appear on a job whose template does not include it. See Labor Rates Setup.

NoRateTemplateAssigned.png
Project Info with no Rate Template assigned to the project.

All of the above must be in place before eSUB Fusion can match a crew member to a pay rate. If Daily Reports were created before the setup was complete, a user with Daily Report edit permissions has to revisit each affected report and set the Labor Class Override on each crew member. The committed labor costs recalculate once the report is saved.

DRLaborOverride.png
Setting the Labor Class Override on a crew line of a Daily Report.
Knowledge.png
 Time records do not have to be approved to pull into the Job Cost Reports. A record only needs a Labor Class with a known pay rate. Approval is a separate payroll step.

See Job Cost Report and Set Up Your Project for Job Cost Reporting.

Scheduling and Time

How do I edit timecard information after the timecards have been exported?

Exported time records are locked, so the record has to go back to Pending before anything can change.

TimeMgmtExportedRecords.png
Time records display as Exported once the export has run.
  1. Locate the crew member and select their summary line to expand the time records.
  2. Select the record, then select Edit.
  3. Change the Status field to Pending.
  4. Edit the data in the associated Daily Report.
  5. Run the export again.

Crew hours are always corrected in the Daily Report rather than on the timecard, because time records are generated from Daily Reports. The Time Management log provides an edit link on the time entry that takes you straight there. See Time Management.

Why can I not see a project or crew member in Scheduling or Time Management?

The project or crew member belongs to a market area you are not assigned to. Ask your eSUB Admin to add that market area to your user record, then sign out and back in, because Scheduling picks up market area changes at the next sign-in.

One related behavior catches people out in Time Management: a crew member in your market area does not bring in their time on projects outside your areas. See Market Area Visibility: Who Sees What.

On Mobile

These are the questions that come up most often in the field. Every mobile article's own FAQ is listed under On Mobile in the index at the bottom of this page.

Do I use the same login on the mobile app?

Yes. The same email address and password work in the mobile app, and a password reset done on either one applies to both. Your account has to be created by an administrator and activated before your first sign-in. See Accessing Your eSUB Fusion Account for Mobile Users.

Does mobile do everything the web does?

No. Mobile is built for speed in the field, and some actions are web only. Adding file attachments is the one people hit first: PDFs and other files are attached on the web and can be viewed on mobile, but not added there. Timecards generated from mobile Daily Reports are also reviewed and approved on the web. See Navigating Through the eSUB Fusion Interface on Mobile.

Which documents can I open with no signal?

The app stores up to 1,000 documents created or modified in the last 90 days on your device. The download symbol on the log shows which ones are available offline. See Daily Reports (Mobile).

Where do I get the app, and can my crew use it in Spanish?

Search for eSUB Fusion on the App Store or Google Play, or scan the QR code for your device. The app supports Android 9 or later and iOS 14 or later; Windows tablets are not supported.

Yes to Spanish. The app follows your device language settings, and the instructions for changing them are published in English and Spanish. See Getting Started on the eSUB Fusion Mobile App.

Basic Troubleshooting

I am having issues when using the eSUB Fusion mobile app.

Start with the app version. Go to the App Store on iOS or Google Play on Android and check whether an update is available. The version you are running is shown at the bottom of the sign-in screen. If the problem continues after updating, contact eSUB Support.

I am having issues downloading the PDF of a document.

Check your pop-up blocker and confirm that pop-ups for esubcloud.com are allowed, then try the download again. If an attachment is missing from the PDF rather than the PDF failing, see Document Downloads and Exports.

How do I contact eSUB Support?

Email support@esub.com or call 1-800-493-3782. Where the answer depends on your permissions, your access level or your market areas, your own eSUB Admin can usually resolve it faster than we can.

Find Your Question in the Article That Answers It

Every FAQ question published across the eSUB Fusion Help Center is listed below, grouped by area and then by article. Each one is a direct link to the answer in the article that owns it, so the answer you land on is always the maintained one.

Accounts, Users and Access

Accessing Your eSUB Fusion Account

Account Administration: Guide

Adding eSUB to your Safe Sender List

Create and Manage Contacts

Create and Manage Users and Crew Members

Navigating Through the eSUB Fusion Interface

Set Up User Access Level

Set Up User Permissions

Update Your User Profile

Projects and Company Setup

Available and Unavailable Statuses

Company Settings

Cost Codes Setup

Create and Manage Projects

Keyword Setup

Labor Rates Setup

Market Area Visibility: Who Sees What

Market Areas

Project Budget Setup

Project Settings

Documents and Document Control

Activity Feed

Applying Keywords and Other Tags to Documents

Daily Reports

Document Downloads and Exports

Document Media & Attachments

Emailing Documents

eSUB Drive and Project Drive

Field Notes

Global Documents Log

Project Mailbox

Requests For Information

Strategic Use of Keywords

Submittals

Time & Material Tickets (T&M)

Job Costing and Billing

Change Order Requests

Cost to Complete Report

Job Cost Report

Labor Reports

Manage Budget Adjustments and Track Cost Commitments

Pay Applications

Purchase Orders

Set Up Your Project for Job Cost Reporting

SOV & Progress Billing

Tracking Field Purchases with a Purchase Order

Drawings, Sheets and Markups

Markups: Annotations, Measurements, Snapshots and Callouts

Sheets: Viewing, Uploading, and Managing

Upload and Manage Project Drawings: Guide

Version Sets: Managing Set Names, Issue Dates, and Bulk Edits

Scheduling and Time

Scheduling

Time Management

Integrations and the Public API

Public API - Document Submission and Locking

Public API - Getting Started

QuickBooks® Online Integration Overview

On Mobile

Accessing Your eSUB Fusion Account for Mobile Users

Daily Reports (Mobile)

Getting Started on the eSUB Fusion Mobile App

Navigating Through the eSUB Fusion Interface on Mobile

Scheduling (Mobile)

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