NEW  About transmittals

A transmittal is a set of documents that is sent to another organization, often to fulfill the requirements of a contract between the sending and receiving organizations. Transmittals are typically used in the architecture, engineering, and construction industry as well as other industries to exchange documents in progress. Besides documents, a transmittal usually includes a transmittal sheet that lists the documents and their revision numbers being sent and also the name, telephone number, and address of the sending and receiving parties. The sender of a transmittal may include a message or instructions on the transmittal sheet that describe the purpose of the transmittal, a response request, and sometimes, a due date.

Hardcopy transmittals are sent to the receiver using a courier, expedited shipping provider, plan service bureau, personal delivery, or similar means. Meridian Project Portal can be used to create transmittals that contain electronic documents using compressed archive (.zip) files. The transmittals can then be sent as email messages.

The recipient of a transmittal may be required to return documents to the sender that have been changed according to the instructions in the transmittal sheet. The metadata file can be edited by the recipient to reflect the changes made to the documents. When returned to the sender, it can be used to update Meridian Project Portal. The package of returned documents, which may include additional documents, is known as a submittal.

In Meridian Project Portal, transmittals can have a workflow status similar to that of documents. This status can help you to track the progress and disposition of transmittals. The status of transmittals that have been sent but have not been replied to is open. Transmittals that have been replied to and for which processing has completed are considered closed.

The typical steps in the life cycle of a transmittal and submittal are listed below beneath the responsible persons in the following figure. You can use the hyperlinks to jump to the corresponding chapter in this guide.

Sender	Recipient
NEW Creating a transmittal NEW Viewing and editing a transmittal NEW Understanding the Workroom view
	Receive a transmittal Extract documents Create revisions or new documents Update the metadata file Create a submittal package Send the submittal package
Receive submittal package NEW Closing a transmittal

Transmittal management is the performance of these steps throughout the life cycle of transmittals. Meridian Project Portal automates many of these tasks.

Note    Technically, Meridian Project Portal manages transmittals and submittals nearly identically. In the remainder of this guide, the term transmittal is used to refer to transmittals and submittals synonymously.