How to use Plars

Sign in

1. Go to plars.ae and choose Sign in.
2. Use the email address your invitation was sent to — an invitation only works from that address.
3. Forgotten it? Use Forgot password. The link lasts one hour.

Anyone with an account

Start a project

1. On My Projects, choose New project.
2. Give it a name and address, and choose your own role on it — owner, consultant or contractor.
3. You become the project admin and can invite everyone else.

Anyone with a plan

Whoever starts the project pays. Everyone they invite uses it free, for as long as the project lasts.

Invite your consultant and contractor

1. Open Members, then Invite.
2. Enter their email, choose their role, and decide whether they administer the project too.
3. They receive an email. It expires in seven days and only works from that address.
4. A pending invitation also shows on their My Projects page, so a lost email is not a problem.

Project admin

Add someone who should only watch

1. Invite them with the role Guest.
2. They see everything on the project and can change nothing at all.

Project admin

For a bank financing the build, a quantity surveyor, an auditor, or the owner’s husband or wife.

Upload a drawing

1. Open Documents and choose the category.
2. Choose Upload, pick the file, and give it a clear title.
3. For shop drawings, also choose the discipline: mechanical, electrical, plumbing or fire fighting.

Anyone on the project except a guest

Your name and the date are recorded automatically. You never have to sign a file.

Issue a revision

1. Find the drawing being replaced.
2. Upload the new version against it, rather than as a separate document.
3. The old one is marked superseded and stays readable for good.

Anyone on the project except a guest

The list shows current drawings by default — so nobody builds from a superseded layout, which is the expensive mistake this exists to stop.

Find something

1. Use the search box at the top of the project.
2. It covers drawings, approvals, permits, meetings and photo sets. Questions, money and the programme are not searched yet — open those sections directly.
3. It only ever returns what you are already allowed to see.

Everyone, including guests

Submit something for approval

1. Open Approvals, then New submission — or Request a change if you are the owner.
2. Choose Material Submittal or Variation, write the detail, and attach the files.
3. Choose the track. The form explains both with examples.

Contractor — or the owner, for a variation only

An owner-instructed change is the commonest variation there is, so an owner can raise one without telephoning the contractor to type it in for them.

Decide an approval

1. Open the item. Under Your decision, choose one of three.
2. Approve — accepted as submitted.
3. Needs Rectification — the contractor can fix it and resubmit as a new revision.
4. Disapprove — rejected, and cannot be resubmitted without being reopened.
5. Add a comment. This is the reason that stands in the record, so write it for someone reading it in a year.

Consultant for Technical · Owner for Selections

Nobody can decide their own submission — not the contractor, not the owner, not the project admin.

Fix and resubmit

1. An item sent back shows as Needs Rectification, with the reason.
2. Correct it and resubmit. It becomes Revision 2, and revision 1 stays visible with its decision.
3. The approver decides again on the new revision.

Contractor

Move a mis-filed item

1. Open the item and use Move to Technical, or Move to Selection or finish.
2. The decision moves with it — the previous approver loses the buttons on that item.

Either approver

Withdraw something sent by mistake

1. While it is still Pending, open it and choose Withdraw.
2. Both other parties are told, so nobody wastes time reviewing it.

The contractor who submitted it

It stays in the record as withdrawn. Nothing is ever deleted.

Raise an RFI

1. Open RFIs, then Ask a question.
2. Write the question and the date you need it by.
3. It shows as Waiting. If that date passes unanswered it turns Overdue on its own.

Any member except a guest

A dated question log is the main evidence in a delay claim — asked on the 3rd, answered on the 28th, twenty-five days you could not pour.

Answer a question

1. Open it and write the answer in plain words.
2. It is stamped with your name and the date, and the days waiting are counted.

Consultant — or owner if there is no consultant

Ask for an inspection

1. Open Inspections, then Request inspection.
2. Say what is ready, where it is, and the date and time it will be ready.
3. Whoever approves on this project is told straight away.

Any member except a guest

The time is the point. Naming it is what turns “nobody came” from an argument into a record.

Pass or fail it

1. Open the inspection and choose Passed, or Failed with the reason.
2. A failure needs a reason — it is what the contractor puts right.
3. To re-inspect after a fix, raise a new request. The first one stays visible.

Consultant — or owner if there is no consultant

Nobody can inspect their own request, even if they normally approve. The same rule as approvals: you do not sign off your own work.

Record that nobody came

1. Once the time you asked for has passed, the Nobody came button appears.
2. Say what you did — “waited until 11am, poured to avoid a cold joint”.
3. It is stamped and everyone who approves is told at once.

Only whoever asked for the inspection

This is the moment that becomes a dispute months later. Written down on the day, with a time on it, it stops being one.

Add snags while you walk

1. Open Snags, then Add snag.
2. Say where it is and what is wrong, and take a photo.
3. The box stays open and keeps the room, so you can list four things in one bathroom without reopening it.

Any member except a guest

Where it is matters as much as what it is. Two hundred rows saying “paint touch-up” help nobody; “master bathroom” does.

Mark one fixed

1. Open the snag and choose Mark fixed.
2. Say what you did, and photograph the finished work.
3. It moves to “Fixed, not checked” — it is not closed yet.

Any member except a guest — in practice the contractor

The photo of the fix is what proves the work was done on a day nobody came to look.

Verify it, or send it back

1. Choose Verify to accept it, or Not fixed to send it back with a reason.
2. A snag sent back shows how many times it has returned.

Consultant — or owner if there is no consultant

Only the approver can close a snag. If the person who fixed it could also accept it, the list would close itself and handover would mean nothing.

Set the budget

1. Open Invoice tracking, then Edit budget, and enter the contract value.

Owner

Remaining is measured against money actually paid, not invoiced — and it is allowed to go negative, because overpayment is real and hiding it hides the number that matters.

Raise an invoice

1. Open Invoice tracking, then Record invoice.
2. Enter the reference, amount and what it is for, and attach the invoice itself.

Contractor — or whoever keeps the ledger

The person expected to pay is emailed, because this is one of the few things that genuinely needs them.

Certify what is actually due

1. Open the invoice and choose Certify.
2. Enter the amount genuinely due, and the reason for any difference from what was claimed.
3. To change it later, issue another certificate. The earlier one stays visible.

Consultant — or owner if there is no consultant

Without this, a record showing “claimed 500,000, paid 380,000” reads as an owner who underpaid. The certificate is the fact that explains the gap.

Record a payment

1. Open Invoice tracking, then Record payment.
2. Enter the amount, date and method, and attach the receipt.
3. Link it to an invoice if it belongs to one, or leave it standalone for a deposit or a direct purchase.
4. Part payments are fine — the invoice shows the balance left.

Owner

Fix or remove a money record

1. Find the invoice or payment in the list and use Edit or Remove.
2. An invoice with payments recorded against it cannot be removed — remove those payments first.

Only the person who recorded it

Not even a project admin can change someone else’s financial record. If the wrong person entered it, they have to correct it — which is what stops a money trail being quietly rewritten.

Set the dates

1. Open Schedule, then Edit dates, and set the start and the target completion.
2. If you move the target later, the original stays on screen beside it.

Consultant — or owner if there is no consultant

That is deliberate. Slippage should be visible, not quietly rewritten.

Add milestones and report progress

1. Add a milestone with a title and a planned date.
2. As work moves, set it to In progress or Done, and give the actual date.
3. On time or Delayed is worked out from those two dates every time the page loads, so it is never out of date.

Contractor — or whoever manages the programme (consultant, else owner)

Deleting a milestone is for whoever manages the programme. Anyone can comment on the programme, but only the author can delete their own comment.

Issue the programme

1. Open Schedule and use Issue programme.
2. Attach the programme file with a revision label and a short note on what changed.
3. Every earlier revision stays there and can still be opened.

Contractor or consultant

The milestones are the summary everyone reads; the issued programme is the document itself. Keeping every revision is what lets you show which one was current on a given date.

Track a permit

1. Open Authorities, then Add permit, and attach the submission documents.
2. Change the status as it moves: Not started, Submitted, Approved or Rejected.

Anyone except a guest

Every status change is written to a history automatically — nobody has to remember to record it, and nobody can rewrite it afterwards.

Minute a meeting

1. Open Meetings, then Log meeting.
2. Date, attendees, and what was discussed and decided. Attach any supporting file.

Anyone except a guest

Post site photographs

1. Open Photos, then New set, with a title like “Second fix, block B, 14 March”.
2. Upload the photographs into that set.

Anyone except a guest

One notification per set, never one per photograph — so forty photographs are one message, not forty.

Download everything

1. Open Handover, then Download handover package.
2. You get one package: documents, the full approval history, money, programme, permits, meetings, photographs and the audit trail — readable pages plus every original file.
3. Then mark the project complete or archived.

Project admin

Remove someone from the project

1. Open Members, remove them, and write a reason. It is required.
2. Everyone still on the project is told, by name, with the reason.
3. The person removed keeps read-only access for 90 days so they can download their own record.

Project admin

Plars never approves or blocks a removal — that would make us a party to your building contract. We only make it impossible to do quietly.

Leave a project yourself

1. Open Members and use Leave project.
2. A written reason is required, and everyone on the project is told you have gone.
3. Everything you added stays, still in your name.

Any member

Unlike being removed, this is your own decision — so you do not keep read-only access afterwards. Download anything you need first.

Your name and phone

1. Tap your own name at the top right of any page. On a narrow phone screen it is hidden — go straight to plars.ae/account instead.
2. Set your name and phone number. The phone is how people reach you from the Members page.

Everyone

Your name travels with every drawing, decision and payment you touch, so it is worth setting once.

Notifications and email

1. Open Notifications from the bell at the top of any page.
2. The switch is there: “Email me when something needs me” — Turn off, or Turn on.
3. Mark all read clears the list. Turning email off changes nothing in the app itself.

Everyone

You are emailed only when something genuinely needs you. A new photo set emails nobody.