2025 News Archive

December 19, 2025

As the year wraps up, we want to thank you for being part of our community and helping us grow. Behind the scenes, our team of “tech elves” has been hard at work crafting exciting new updates to make your experience even better in the year ahead! In this holiday edition, you’ll find helpful tips and the latest news. So, grab a cup of cocoa, settle in, and let’s celebrate the season of progress and possibilities together.

Happy Holidays from the Construction Technology Team!

Announcements

• FieldNet Outage – Both CAS and FieldNet will be unavailable starting at 2:00 pm on January 8th, but will be back up and available no later than start of business on Friday, January 9th. The outage is due to server upgrades.

System Configurations

• FieldManager Contractor Read Only File Process – The scheduled process that creates the FieldManager Contractor Read Only files for AASHTOWare Project contracts has been re-schedule to run every Thursday morning.

• Personnel Fields on The Contract General Tab – Minor updates have been completed to a few fields that were not functioning the same as the other fields. All personnel fields on the general tab should now function the same.

Guidance Updates

• Change Order Approvals Guidance Reminder – Managing offices are reminded that, per policy, contractors have 21 days to review and approve each change order. AASHTOWare Project automatically applies the correct approval workflow for most change orders, so office technicians generally do not need to manually add approval groups to each change order. Updated charts and guidance are available on the AASHTOWare Project wiki—see Appendix A on the Change Order page for details. When the correct change order type is selected on the General tab of the change order, the system assigns the appropriate workflow upon submission. If the contractor does not approve within 21 days, the system sends an email notification to the office technician, who may then approve the change order on the contractor’s behalf.

Did you know?...

That if you get a new computer you may have to adjust some Microsoft Word and Edge settings that you previously changed for AASHTOWare Project. These settings can affect the way reports open and how text is copied and pasted from Microsoft Word. You can review directions on updating these settings on the Special Topics page.

November 3, 2025

Hopefully we all survived National “How Do I Change the Clock on my Microwave” Day!

A big thank you to everyone for completing all of the year end estimates in a timely manner.

System Configurations

This Month, there were no System Configurations/ Updates, due in part to year end reporting and the DBE and Small Business Program updates that are required due to new federal rules. This has pulled resources that typically are allocated for system configurations/ updates.

Other Announcements

• There is new section in our APCM Wiki that focuses on Shadow Contracts. Please refer to this section to learn about shadow contracts and how to request one.
• Sunday, November 16th, the Server Team will apply the OS patches to the MDOT Production servers from 8:00am – 12:00pm. Servers and databases will not be available during this process.
• We also would like you to know we are currently working closely with DTMB & InfoTech in regards to payment estimate processing times. We understand that system slowness on estimate days is consuming value time and resources.

Did you know?...

We often get the question 'Can I change a system generated pay estimate exception that is auto populated as overridden?' The answer is no. If a user changes the system generated override, an error will occur when trying to save the changes, which will then prohibit the user from processing the pay estimate. If this error occurs, the user will need to delete the pay estimate and regenerate a new estimate, in order to address the pay estimate exceptions correctly.

So, what should Office Technicians do with an auto-overridden exception from a double whammy? The auto-overridden exception is auto locked by the system and cannot be changed. The exception will show as overridden with a system populated comment and should be left alone. Do not change the status or comment. Process all other exceptions as you normally would, but there is no action needed on the auto-overridden exceptions.

September 26, 2025

Fall is finally here!!! Hopefully everyone can experience some of Michigan’s beautiful color canvases as we move around the state, during these next few months. Just remember, leaves falling from trees may create slick road surfaces on our highways and local roads. We can also enjoy the latest updates we have been working on within APCM.

System Configurations

• Hide Contract Level Estimates Adjustments – Once a pay estimate has been generated, users were able to make Contract level adjustments, which in turn caused issues with Sigma and other interfaces, when trying to process payment vouchers, etc. Therefore, the contract level pay estimates adjustments area has been removed from users. If a user needs to make an adjustment on a pay estimate, the adjustment will have to be done using the Item Adjustment tab.

Did you know?...

Fiscal year-end directions have been issued by the Contractor Payments Unit. Please refer to these directions when preparing your year-end estimates.

Year End Instructions FY25 - FieldManager

Year End Instructions FY25 - APCM

September 10, 2025

Fiscal year-end directions have been issued by the Contractor Payments Unit. Please refer to these directions when preparing your year-end estimates.

Year End Instructions FY25 - FieldManager

Year End Instructions FY25 - APCM

August 22, 2025

We can finally say goodbye to the dog days of summer, traditionally spanning from July 3rd to August 11th. These days are often associated with the hottest and most humid weather of the year. So, let’s celebrate and enjoy the unofficial end of summer, that is just around the corner, Labor Day weekend! But wait!! Just before we celebrate, here are the latest updates our team has been working on within APCM.

System Configurations

• Unattached Items – When adding an Unattached Item, the dropdown window when selecting the new item, now also includes the item units.

• Contract User Role Authority – Updated logic to deactivate user when the expiration date field is populated with a date.

• Mobile Inspector Error 403 – This error has been fixed and will no longer expire users when an auto expire process runs.

• MDOT_CONSTRENGR Role Update – This role will now be able to access DWRs from the Contract Progress Summary Screen.

Did you know?...

To fix an incorrect material posting on a locked DWR, the user will need to back-out the entire item and material posting by posting negative item quantity and negative material quantity postings for all materials with the same material sources that were originally used. Then create a new posting with the item with the positive item quantity and positive material quantities as well with the correct material sources. These steps will reset the system to accept the correct item / material /source posting.

Tip: When posting materials within a DWR, the materials that are not being posted to typically will have a 0.00 in the qty field. We advise deleting the 0.00 to clear the qty. field entirely. APCM does look at 0.00 as a legitimate qty. which in some cases creates exceptions when processing a pay estimate.

July 25, 2025

Navigating Michigan's roads in the summer can be particularly challenging due to road construction, traffic delays and extreme heat. Situations like this can raise a person’s anxiety and stress, thus affecting a person’s body's core temperature, sometimes causing it to rise. This phenomenon is often referred to as Psychological Stress-Induced Hyperthermia. So, let’s take a deep breath and practice some mindful breathing to help relax and stay calm knowing these system updates below will help save some time.

Report Updates

• Materials by Item Report has been updated – The report will now generate results without erroring out, when all materials selected within a contract, rather than only 200 materials at a time.

System Configurations

• Allow Change Order New Item Negative Price – This update will allow a user to create a change order for a new item and post a Negative Price for that item.

Did you know?...

Sometimes the system will automatically override payment exceptions to prevent underpayment to contractors. When an item has both an overrun and insufficient material exception on a payment estimate, the system determines which exception holds back the least amount of payment and auto overrides it, leaving the other exception in place. If both exceptions were left in place, the system would "double dip" from the contractor and sometimes hold back an amount greater than the item was worth. The help desk generally refers to this scenario as a “double whammy.”

So, what should Office Technicians do with an auto-overridden exception from a double whammy? The auto-overridden exception is auto locked by the system and cannot be changed. The exception will show as overridden with a system populated comment and should be left alone. Do not change the status or comment. Process all other exceptions as you normally would, but there is no action needed on the auto-overridden exceptions in a “double whammy” scenario.

June 30, 2025

Summer is officially here, and Orange Barrel Season is in full swing! This means beautiful weather and maybe sneaking in a vacation or two all while navigating a few detours and delays. Realizing, this is a bit frustrating at times, all this road construction is a vital investment in the state's infrastructure, to ensure safer and more efficient travel for years to come. Which also is true as we continue to enrich our user experiences within APCM.

Report Updates

• Material History to Date Report has been updated – The Reported Material Quantity field has been updated to reflect only the Approved and Pending DWR material posting quantities. Furthermore, the following fields have been temporally hidden - Approved & Available Material Quantity due to conflicting data results.

• DWR Report has been updated to include all attachments within – As a user, when generating a DWR report (pdf) the attachment summary area will now populate all of the attachments that have been attached to the DWR.

Did you know?...

As a user, if you are having an issue deleting a draft pay estimate, this is likely caused by the system cache accumulating. Clearing the system cache will typically resolve this issue. To clear your system cache, simply use the following key sequence ( Control + Shift + Delete) you will then be prompted to select what cache/history files to clean up.

To view previous news articles, visit the Construction Technology News Archive.

May 22, 2025

Promise and possibility define the next few summery months in Michigan, with the sun shining endlessly, making our Great Lakes glisten and sparkle, some of our best journeys are when we take unexpected detours. So switch over to a read only role within APCM, make a few new clicks, generate a few new reports, and see where the journey takes you.

System Configurations and Guidance Updates

• New Home Dashboards for Estimate and Change Order Approvers – The home screen has been updated for roles that approve estimates and change orders. The home screen for these roles now show a section for Estimates and Change Orders needing approval that are ready for that role's approval (contractors should only see change orders ready for contractor approval, construction engineers see only ones ready for the construction engineer approval, etc.)

• A New Role Established For MDOT LAP Designated Reps – A new role has been created for those MDOT users who are responsible for overseeing local agency contracts with APCM, the new role is: “MDOT_CONSTRDESGREP.” This role will allow the user to update certain aspects of the contract data, along with receive notifications when an LAP Change Order is submitted for Approval, an LAP Estimate is submitted for Approval, an LAP Change Order is submitted for Review (as part of review tracking). The user access request form has been update to include this new addition. Please follow the link MDOT AASHTOWare Project Construction & Materials User Account Request Form to request this role.

Did you know?...

You now can easily, print the page you are viewing in APCM, by simply pressing the CTRL + P on your keyboard. This printing keyboard shortcut brings up the Print dialogue, where you can set how you want to print. In the past when trying to print the screen you were viewing within APCM the system would overlap text and data fields, which made it nearly impossible to read.

April 25, 2025

Spring is in full bloom and with it comes warmer days, blossoming landscapes, and the unmistakable sounds of construction season kicking into high gear. As the world outside transforms, we are also rolling out some exciting updates to enhance your user experience.

Report Updates

• Several Report Generation Errors – An issue was found after the 5.02 upgrade where several reports would not generate due to some coding issues. These have been resolved, and all reports should now be able to be generated without error.

System Configurations and Guidance Updates

• MDOT Approved Date on Subcontracts – The MDOT Approved Date is now a required field when entering subcontracts into the system. This date controlled the ability to post to items and was sometimes being left blank. We have made it required to reduce confusion.

• Recovery Date for Stockpiles – When adding a stockpile to a contract, the Recovery Date field is now automatically populated with the Letting Date of the contract. There was confusion regarding this date. It is recommended that unless you specifically need to exclude certain DWRs from stockpile calculations, it is best to leave the field unchanged and set to the contract's letting date.

Did you know?...

You can create a single pdf report of multiple DWRs, or other documents in the system. Simply follow the steps for Generating A Report, and in step 3, select the DWRs you want to be part of the report. You can even select all the DWRs if you want. This feature works for DWRs, Change Orders, Estimates, and several other types of reports.

March 20, 2025

Happy first day of Spring! Below are the updates made as part of this month’s release train.

Report Updates

• Contract Item Status Report XLS – The authorized quantity field on the report has been corrected.

System Configurations and Guidance Updates

• Designating Major Items – A new process has been created that when a new contract is let, the items of work will be designated correctly as major/minor items based on section 101.03 of the spec book.

• Effective Dates on Person Qualifications – When adding a qualification to a person record, the effective date is now required.

Did you know?...

If you are an Office Tech, you may be able to save time by using the copy sample record feature. If you need to make another sample record that is close to one of your existing sample records, use the copy feature and then edit what you need to without having to enter everything by hand.

To view previous news articles, visit the Construction Technology News Archive.

February 15, 2025

AASHTOWare Project 5.02 is here! On February 15th MDOT upgraded to the 5.02 version of AASHTOWare Project software. By upgrading from version 5.00 to 5.02, MDOT is now able to take advantage of the more than 296 fixes and enhancements that were added across the system. Many of the fixes were behind the scenes and won’t be directly apparent to you as a user. However, there were a few that we would like to point out that will show up in the new version. We have compiled the list below with some matching updates to this manual.

• Provide Method To Print A Page - Users can now use standard print functionality of supported browsers to print pages of the system. Additionally, users can update their My Settings to allow for multiple expandable record rows to be expanded at a time, so that more content can be printed at once. See updated guidance here: Updating My Settings for Expanding Multiple Rows

• Provide More Precise Control Over What Is Copied on a DWR – When copying information from an existing DWR to a new DWR, the system now provides construction users with greater flexibility regarding the types of information they can copy. On the Copy Contract Daily Work Report component, users can change the selection options which are: Weather, Remarks, Contractors, Postings, and Comments. See updated guidance here: Copying a Daily Work Report

• Calendar Time Adjustment Time Units available for update on a Draft Change Order - For contract times with a time type of Calendar Time on draft change orders, construction users can now update the Adjustment Time Units field. When users click Save, the system auto calculates the Adjustment Completion Date field.

Delayed Features

The following fixes and enhancements were delayed due to further testing or extra intra-departmental coordination being needed to ensure no bugs exist or are introduced in the MDOT data network, these will be activated and implemented in a future monthly update.

• Make Lump Sum Item Estimate Payments for a Specific Dollar Amount or a Specific Quantity - This required more coordination with the Development area and Preconstruction as it requires the flagging of specific pay items this feature affects.

• Allow User-Generated Quantity-Based Item Pay Estimate Adjustments To Be Made Permanent – This requires more testing and coordination with Finance to ensure this does not introduce payment errors.

Other Announcements

• Infotech will be taking over the webinars for the Contractor training. They use zoom which is like Microsoft teams. You can sign up for their trainings here: Michigan APCM for Contractors. The link has been added to the Contractor Corner page and provided in the Course description on our Microsoft Bookings Page.

• We are also happy to announce a new feature in the monthly Construction Technology Newsletter called “Did You Know…?”. This section will showcase some of the advanced features within the system that users may not be aware of and will provide an area to announce and share best business practices that are being used by others within the system.

Did You Know…?

Did you know that you can have more than one window of AASHTOWare Project Open at a time?

When you are already in the system, simply right click on any link and select “Open link in new window.” This will allow you to have two windows open simultaneously.

Review a Change Order while viewing the associated Daily Work Reports, or review estimate items while looking at subcontracts, the combinations are endless!

February 10, 2025

AASHTOWare Project will be upgraded this week to version 5.02. The system will be taken down Thursday, February 13th, at 3 PM. Please complete all work and exit the system by this time. The upgrade will take a few days and should be back up and running by Sunday, February 16, at 6 PM, at the latest.

January 23, 2025

Happy New Year to all. We are happy to announce the following updates for the first release train of 2025.

Announcements

Please remember, a required technical upgrade is coming to FieldNet January 24, 2025 (tomorrow). The upgrade will occur January 24th, from 3:00pm to 6:00pm. The update requires a new agency configuration file to be loaded along with a few other steps. Detailed directions and the new configuration file are at the links provided here:

FieldNet Upgrade Directions for MDOT Offices

FieldNet Upgrade Directions for Local, Consultant, Contractor

Agency Configuration File - Release 5.3 2025 Update

Report Updates

• Pay Estimate for Contractor Report – Item sorting was updated on the report to list pay items in order by proposal line number.

System Configurations and Guidance Updates

• Change Order Reviewer Notifications – When adding a reviewer to the review tracking portion of a change order, a notification is now sent to the added reviewer.
• Daily Work Report Overview Search Update – The search box on the Daily Work Report Overview screen was updated to include the ability to search within DWR remarks.