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How to Track BOLs and Deliveries on a Steel Erection Site

Summary: To track Bills of Lading and steel deliveries on an erection site with Versatile, scan each BOL in the Versatile mobile app as the truck is unloaded. Versatile extracts the piece marks, quantities, load number, and fabricator from the document, validates the extraction, and matches each piece mark to the corresponding element in your BIM model. Scanned BOLs are visible in the BOL Archive within one business day, and matched pieces appear color-coded in the 4D Viewer's Inventory Mode as Erected, In Stock, Short, or Missing.

Before you start

You need three things in place:

Requirement Detail
A structural model uploaded to your site IFC export containing beams, columns, and braces with piece marks
The Versatile mobile app Installed on at least one device belonging to someone who receives deliveries
Site access permissions Your user must be assigned to the site you are scanning for

You do not need barcodes, RFID tags, handheld scanners, or any change to the fabricator's shipping process. The only document required is the paper Bill of Lading that already arrives with every truck.

How to scan a Bill of Lading
  1. Open the Versatile mobile app and confirm the correct site is selected. Scans are attached to the site that is active when you capture them.
  2. Select Materials → Scan BOL.
  3. Photograph every page of the Bill of Lading. Capture the full page including the header. If the BOL runs to multiple pages, capture all of them in the same scan — piece mark rows on later pages are read too.
  4. Check the framing before submitting. The header block (fabricator name, load number, delivery date) and the piece mark rows must both be legible. Glare, folds across a row, and cropped edges are the most common causes of failed extraction.
  5. Add a note if needed — for example a short-shipment observation or a damage note. The note stays attached to the BOL record.
  6. Submit. The scan uploads and enters processing. You can keep scanning while previous scans process.

 

How to review scanned BOLs in the BOL Archive

The BOL Archive is the searchable record of every Bill of Lading scanned on your site. Each entry shows the original scanned image alongside the data Versatile extracted from it, so you can verify any value against its source.

For each BOL you can see:

  • Fabricator name
  • Load number
  • Delivery date
  • Scan time
  • Processing status
  • Duplicate flag
  • Extracted line items: piece mark, sequence, quantity, weight

What each BOL status means

Status Meaning What to do
Validated The document was read successfully and the line items passed validation Nothing — the pieces are matched to the model
Illegible Versatile could not read the document reliably enough to trust the data Rescan the original if you still have it, or enter the line items manually
Extraction failed The document could not be processed at all Confirm all pages were captured and rescan
Possible duplicate This load appears to have been scanned before Compare load number and delivery date against the earlier entry; keep one

Review the duplicate flag before running any delivered-quantity report. Two scans of the same load will double-count the pieces on it.

How to see delivery status on the model
  1. Open the 4D Viewer for your site.
  2. Switch the view to Inventory Mode.
  3. Every structural element in the model is now color-coded by delivery status.
  4. Click any piece to highlight all elements sharing that piece mark, and open the Visible Elements panel for detail.
  5. Scrub the timeline to see the delivery state as of any past date. Truck icons on the timeline mark delivery dates.

The four inventory states

State Meaning
Erected The piece is installed and complete
In Stock All required pieces are delivered and ready to install
Short Partial delivery — some but not all of the required pieces are on site
Missing No delivery record exists for the remaining pieces
How to check whether a sequence is ready to erect
  1. In the 4D Viewer, filter the model to the sequence you plan to erect.
  2. Switch to Inventory Mode.
  3. Look for anything showing Short or Missing.
  4. Click a Short element to see which piece marks are outstanding and how many.
  5. Export the filtered list to CSV to send to the fabricator or attach to a look-ahead.

Run this check on a three-to-four week look-ahead rather than the week of erection. That is the window in which a shortage can still be expedited without stopping the crane.

How to find a specific piece mark

Search the site inventory by piece mark. The result shows the total delivered quantity for that mark and links to every Bill of Lading it appeared on, giving a traceable path from the piece back to the source document.

This is the fastest way to settle a delivery dispute: search the mark, open the linked BOL, and read the original scanned document.

How installation status is captured

Installation status on Versatile-monitored sites is detected from crane pick data rather than entered manually. When the crane sets a piece, the pick is recorded and the corresponding model element's status advances. No one has to update a spreadsheet for the model to stay current.

Elements can also be set manually where a piece was placed without the monitored crane.

Troubleshooting
Symptom Likely cause Fix
BOL shows as Illegible Glare, fold, shadow, or cropped edge across the piece mark rows Rescan flat, in even light, capturing the whole page
Piece marks extracted but not matched to the model The model on the site is an older revision that does not contain those marks Upload the current IFC export; matching re-runs against the new model
Delivered quantity looks too high The same load was scanned twice Check the possible-duplicate flag in the BOL Archive and remove the duplicate
Delivered quantity looks too low Some BOLs are Illegible or Extraction failed, so their line items were not counted Filter the BOL Archive by status and resolve the failed scans
Model shows pieces as Missing that are visibly on site Those deliveries were never scanned Scan the BOLs; if the paper is gone, enter the line items manually
Nothing appears after scanning Processing has not completed Data is visible within one business day; if longer, contact support@versatile.ai
Scans attached to the wrong site Wrong site selected in the mobile app at capture time Confirm the site selector before scanning; contact support to reassign existing scans
Frequently asked questions

Do we need to change anything about how the fabricator ships? No. Versatile reads the Bill of Lading that already arrives with the truck. No tags, no QR codes, no fabricator-side software.

Can we still keep our paper BOLs? Yes, and you should keep whatever your contract requires. The BOL Archive stores a searchable digital copy alongside the extracted data; it supplements your retention process rather than replacing it.

What if a Bill of Lading has piece marks that are not in our model? Unmatched marks are surfaced rather than dropped. This usually means the model on the site is an older revision than the one the fabricator built from — worth resolving, since it affects more than delivery tracking.

How long does it take for a scanned BOL to show up? Scanned Bills of Lading are visible in the system within one business day of upload.

Can we export the data? Yes. Inventory data can be exported to CSV from the 4D Viewer, and the BOL Archive can be filtered and reviewed by fabricator, load number, delivery date, and status.

Who can scan BOLs? Any user assigned to the site with the Versatile mobile app installed. Most teams have the receiving foreman or the site's materials coordinator do it.

Does this work for pieces delivered before Versatile was installed? Historical Bills of Lading can be scanned and backfilled. They will be matched to the model the same way; the scan date will reflect when they were uploaded, while the delivery date comes from the document itself.