Getting Started

This guide walks you through setting up CxLens on a new project — from account access through connecting your commissioning checklists to your project schedule.

Step 1: Account Setup

CxLens uses a tenant-based model — your organization gets a dedicated environment configured for your projects.

1. Contact us to have your tenant provisioned. We'll set it up and invite you as the account owner.
2. Accept the invitation sent to your email address.
3. Log in with your OTP — CxLens uses passwordless authentication. Enter your email and we'll send a one-time code. No passwords to manage.
4. Complete your profile with your name and company information.

Step 2: Set Up Your Project

Once logged in, create your first project:

Project Information

• Project Name — Use a clear, consistent naming convention (e.g., Client – Building – Year)
• Location — Job site address, used for program-level reporting
• Timeline — Start date and target substantial completion
• Project Type — Commercial, industrial, data center, healthcare, etc.
• CxAlloy API Key — Enter your CxAlloy API credentials once during setup. CxLens handles all syncing from that point forward.

Project Settings

After initial setup, configure:

• Sync Frequency — How often CxLens pulls updated data from CxAlloy (typically daily automated sync with on-demand refresh available)
• AI Model — Choose between Claude (Anthropic) or OpenAI as the default model for your AI assistant
• Program Information — General project details used for program-level dashboard rollups across multiple projects

Step 3: Invite Your Team

All commissioning team members who need access to dashboards, planning, and the AI assistant should be added to the project.

1. Go to Project Settings → Team Members
2. Click Invite Team Member
3. Enter their email address and assign a role:
   • Admin — Full access including settings, integrations, and user management
   • Member — Access to dashboards, planning, and the AI assistant
   • Viewer — Read-only access to dashboards

Step 4: Upload Your Schedule

CxLens connects your commissioning plan to your project schedule. The first step is getting your schedule into the system.

1. Go to Schedule Upload in your project
2. Select Upload Schedule and choose your file (.xer for Oracle P6, .xml for MS Project)
3. Fill in the schedule details:
   • Issued Date — The date this schedule revision was issued
   • Schedule Type — Indicate whether this schedule is used for Schedule Health analysis, Planning connections, or Both
   • Project Selection — For .xer files: P6 XER exports can contain multiple projects. Select the project you want to import.
4. Click Upload, then click Process on the uploaded file in your list

CxLens will parse the schedule, extract all activity data, and run a Schedule Health analysis. You'll receive an email notification when processing is complete.

Supported formats:

• Oracle P6: .xer (P6 Professional and EPPM)
• MS Project: .xml export (MS Project 2016 and later)

Step 5: Set Your Planning Dates

With your schedule uploaded, you're ready to set commissioning dates in the Planning view. CxLens planning dates are independent of the project schedule — you set them based on actual system readiness, not just schedule logic.

1. Go to Planning in your project
2. Customize your view to match how your team works:
   • Group by system, subsystem, responsible party, or equipment type
   • Show or hide columns based on what's relevant
   • Save multiple named views — different team members can work from different views of the same data
3. Enter your planned commissioning dates for each checklist item

Managed Scripts

For teams with large checklists or complex planning logic, CxLens supports Managed Scripts — repeatable automated actions we configure on your behalf during implementation.

Examples of what Managed Scripts can do:

• Pull dates from the schedule — Automatically populate planning dates from a linked P6 activity, so you're not manually re-entering schedule data
• Apply standard padding — Add a fixed buffer (e.g., +10 days from construction completion) to a set of checklists consistently
• Push dates to TeamUp — Sync planning dates to a TeamUp calendar to drive team scheduling and visualization

If you have a repeatable planning pattern, raise it during your Discovery consultation. We'll assess whether a Managed Script is the right approach for your workflow.

Step 6: Connect Checklists to Schedule Activities

Once planning dates are set, link each checklist to its corresponding P6 activity. This is what enables automatic variance detection — when the schedule changes, CxLens knows which commissioning tasks are affected.

1. Go to the Planning tab in your project
2. Filter and sort your checklists to find the items you want to connect
3. Select the checklists you want to link (multi-select is supported)
4. Click Connect in the top right — a panel will open showing your current schedule
5. Search for your activity by name or WBS code to filter the list and find the right item
6. Click Connect to save the link

Once connected, any change to that P6 activity on future schedule uploads will automatically flag the linked checklist as having a variance and prompt your team to review.

Next Steps

• Dashboards — Explore the analytics views now that your data is connected
• Features — Deep dive into all three core capabilities

Questions? Reach out at hello@cxlens.com