Work a warranty callback — log it, fix it, keep the lesson

January. A crack over a door. The district's facilities lead calls the GC, the GC calls me. It's a warranty item, not a fire drill: I know it's ours because the one-year clock is on the project, I know who's going and when, and by Thursday it's closed with a cause on the record. Here's the whole thing, start to finish.

Log the item

1. Open the project → Warranty. The Warranty Period banner at the top reads the SC date, the expiry, and the days remaining — that's the clock, and every callback sits under it.
2. Callbacks → + New Callback. Describe the problem ("Hairline crack in the Level 4 finish above door C-104"), set the Priority, the Reported Date, and Reported By. Log Callback. It gets a number: WC-001.

Send someone out

1. Click the callback to expand it → + Add Visit. Date, then Who's Going — the list is your Roster (every active worker, with their classification) and below it your Members, so Okafor goes on the visit whether or not he has a login. Hours and cost. What to bring and what you found go in Notes: "V-cut, mesh tape, two coats, sand, prime. Header corner had no tape under the finish."
2. Set the visit status — Resolved, More Visits Needed, or Awaiting Part — and Add Visit. The visit shows on the log with the date and the name you picked. Before-and-after photos go on the project's Photos tab, same as any day on the job — the Photos link on the visit form and the visit log takes you straight there.
3. Close Callback. Pick the Root Cause (Installation Defect, Material Defect, Design Defect, Owner Misuse, Normal Wear), tick Manufacturer covered if it is, and write the Prevention Recommendation — the one line you'd want the next foreman to read. Close Callback.
4. The History tab now shows WC-001: issue, root cause, reported, closed. Two days, on the record.

File the lesson

1. Same project → Closeout → Lessons Learned → + Add Lesson. Category, severity, the one-line takeaway ("tape every header before finish"), and the details. Save.
2. Warranty in the sidebar (/warranty) is the shop-wide view: Open Callbacks, Projects in Warranty, what's Expiring in 30 Days. Its Lessons Learned tab is the library — every lesson from every job, with the project and the GC's name on the row. That's what the estimator opens at the next Hargrove bid.

What this connects to

The lesson is in the library, not yet in an estimate. Carrying it forward is still a hand on the assembly or the finish checklist — but the record now lives where the estimator already works, under the GC's name, instead of in somebody's memory. That's the whole loop, and it's short.

Common mistakes

• Fixing it without logging it. Three hours and a pail of mud is cheap. Twelve of them across a year, unlogged, is a pattern you will never see.
• Closing without a root cause. "Fixed" tells the next job nothing. The cause and the prevention line are the point of the form.
• Letting the clock be a guess. The warranty period runs from the SC date you issued at closeout. No SC certificate, no banner, no clock — go back and issue it.

See also

• E18 · Closeout
• E20 · Quarterly
• Closing the loop — warranty callbacks become next year's contingency
• Dispatch board basics