Approvals & Activity History
Darwin keeps more than outputs. It keeps context through two complementary mechanisms: approvals and activity history.
Approvals
Section titled “Approvals”Approvals formalize important project and estimating decisions. The approval decision set includes:
- Approved — the estimate becomes the active baseline for cost tracking
- Rejected — the estimate remains editable; no baseline is created
- Preliminary Approval — creates a preliminary baseline without locking the estimation
- Revert — reverses a previous approval (only when no actuals or commitments exist)
- Rebaseline — a new approval replaces the previous active baseline
Each approval decision is recorded with who made it, when, and the outcome. See Approvals Workflow for the full details.
Activity History
Section titled “Activity History”Activity history helps teams understand:
- What changed
- Who changed it
- When it changed
- What supporting workflow or documents were involved
Every significant action in a project — estimate creation, price updates, IFC imports, module changes, approval decisions — is recorded in the activity feed.
Why This Matters
Section titled “Why This Matters”Without approval context and history, teams may know the latest number but not the reasoning behind it. Darwin’s audit trail preserves the decision narrative, enabling:
- Post-project reviews
- Variance analysis and attribution
- Continuous improvement of estimating practices
- Compliance and governance requirements
Best Practices
Section titled “Best Practices”- Review activity logs regularly to stay informed of project changes
- Use the activity feed to confirm who changed what and when
- Keep approval decisions documented with clear context
- Reference approval history during variance analysis to understand baseline changes