Special order windows and doors, checked from the manufacturer's quote to its acknowledgment.

A builder's window package starts as a schedule on the plans. Someone on your desk rebuilds each opening in the manufacturer's software, choosing size, operation, handing, glass, grilles, finish and hardware, then keys the special order into your ERP and sends the PO. Days later the acknowledgment arrives, and the same person reads it line by line against the quote.

For the test, AI reads copies of those quotes, POs and acknowledgments and drafts two things: the special order lines your ERP needed, and a check sheet marking every acknowledgment line that differs from the quote, with the field and both values. Nothing is ordered, changed or sent. Your reviewer compares the check sheet with what your desk flagged at the time, and with any unit that later arrived wrong.

Three sizes for one opening. Andersen's A-Series double-hung tables give each size a call number such as ADH2830, a window dimension measured outside frame to frame, and a minimum rough opening three quarters of an inch wider than the window. In ADH2830 the 28 and 30 are that rough opening, 2 feet 8 inches by 3 feet, so the window itself is smaller, and custom sizes come in eighth-inch steps. A plan schedule may list rough openings, the quote call numbers and the acknowledgment frame sizes. The draft converts every line to one convention before comparing, and marks any opening where the three disagree.

Left and right depend on where you stand. Andersen hands all its windows and patio doors from the exterior of the home. Marvin labels outswing casements FCL or FCR, from the curb left or right, also read from outside. A builder's schedule or a superintendent's markup is often read from inside the room, so one casement can be called left on the plan and right on the quote. The draft states each unit's handing in the manufacturer's own terms and marks any line where schedule, quote and acknowledgment don't agree.

Glass changes more than glass. Andersen marks which A-Series double-hung sizes meet a clear opening of 5.7 square feet, 20 inches wide and 24 inches high, and warns that triple-pane or art glass can limit sash travel, so a glass upgrade on a bedroom window can shrink its clear opening. Local egress handouts built on the residential code use those minimums, with 5 square feet allowed at grade floor and a sill no higher than 44 inches. Glass beside a door is another trigger: Boulder County's safety glazing guide requires it where glazing sits within 24 inches of a door and less than 60 inches above the floor. The draft marks every bedroom unit whose glass or size changed and every lite the schedule calls tempered. Whether a unit meets code stays with your people.

Doors come as kits or as units. Epicor's BisTrack page for door and millwork shops, pre-hung door fabricators among them, describes tracking door slabs, jambs and hardware kits as separate components. A prehung exterior door is commonly ordered with a 4-9/16 inch jamb for a 2x4 wall or 6-9/16 for a 2x6 wall, and a jamb that doesn't match the plan's framing means extension jambs or a remake. Some systems take factory quotes straight in: DMSi says Agility interfaces with suppliers such as Ellison, Andersen and Marvin and with configurators such as Millwork Development, and can give each custom item its own number. Either way, the draft keeps the manufacturer's line and option codes beside your item number, so your reviewer can trace every line.

The acknowledgment is the deal. Kolbe's published terms of sale, effective March 1, 2019, say its order acknowledgment is its acceptance of the purchase order, and that after acceptance it may charge for changes to completed drawings or special work, and for materials already bought. That makes this check the last cheap moment. Your reviewer, usually the window and door desk lead or the millwork manager, watches handing, sizes in mixed conventions, glass and tempered lites, jamb widths, interior and exterior finishes, grille patterns, and ship dates that slip past the builder's schedule.

Once your reviewer says yes against the success criteria, the same job runs on new quotes and acknowledgments for about 30 days.

A person on your desk approves every special order before it goes to a manufacturer and decides what to do about each flagged acknowledgment line. Code questions still go to the person your owner named.

The live run's price is fixed before you sign, and any next job is priced on its own.