As-Built Drawings: What They Are, Why They Matter and How to Keep Them Current after Handover

What are as-built drawings?

As-built drawings record a plant or site as it was actually constructed. They differ from the drawings issued for construction, which show the design before field work began. Changes made in the field, through change orders and in response to site conditions can make the finished work differ from those original drawings.

Most as-builts start as contractor redlines. On many projects, the contractor keeps a marked-up set of drawings during construction. The general conditions published by the American Institute of Architects (AIA), document A201-2017, call for this in section 3.11, which requires an updated set that serves as a record of the work as constructed. At closeout, those markups become the basis for the final as-built set.

Terminology varies by contract and organization. Some organizations use as-built drawings and record drawings interchangeably, and others distinguish them. Check how your contract defines each term before you accept a package.

What an as-built set includes

Contents vary by project and contract, but a typical set covers:

• Architectural and structural layouts
• Mechanical and electrical systems
• Underground piping and process utility lines
• Equipment locations and tags
• Piping and instrument diagrams and single-line diagrams

Why as-built drawings matter after handover

Construction ends, but the drawings keep working. Technicians use them to locate equipment, shutoffs and concealed utilities before they open a line or dig. Engineers use them to plan renovations and expansions. Emergency response and safety planning depend on them too. A dedicated engineering document management system (EDMS) helps teams find and trust the current version, and our overview explains why a purpose-built EDMS matters.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Process Safety Management standard lists piping and instrument diagrams as required process safety information for covered processes and requires employers to update that information when a change affects it. The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) publishes NFPA 70E, a standard for electrical safety in the workplace, which calls for single-line diagrams, where provided, to be kept legible and current. These examples show why currency matters. They are not compliance guidance, so confirm which requirements apply to your site with your safety and compliance teams.

Why as-builts go out of date

Drawings drift because sites keep changing and the paperwork does not always keep pace. Common causes include:

• Small maintenance changes that never get redlined
• Paper markups that stay in the field
• Duplicate copies on shared drives
• Overlapping projects that edit the same drawing
• Incomplete or poorly indexed handover packages

Each gap looks minor alone. Together, they erode trust in the set, and technicians who doubt a drawing may stop relying on it. A strong engineering document handover reduces the problem at the start. Treat the handover package as the first revision of a living record, not the last.

How to keep as-built drawings current after handover

Accurate drawings come from a repeatable process rather than a one-time cleanup. Five practices form the core of that process.

Maintain one master as-built set

Designate a single master set as the source of truth and keep it separate from the working copies that projects edit. A drawing under revision then cannot be mistaken for the approved record. When a project closes, merge its approved changes into the master and retire the working copy.

Tie every change to a drawing update

Connect drawing updates to the procedures that already govern change. A management of change (MOC) procedure and work order closeout can each require a redline whenever work alters what a drawing shows. When a work order cannot close until someone confirms the drawing is updated or unaffected, updates stop depending on memory.

Capture redlines in the field

Technicians are more likely to record a change when they can mark up the current drawing where the work happens. A mobile device lets them annotate the current revision, attach a photo and submit the markup for review before the details fade.

Control revisions and approvals

Check-in and check-out prevent two people from editing the same drawing at once. Review workflows route each redline to an engineer for approval, and an audit trail records who changed what and when. Together, these controls keep unapproved changes out of the master set. Teams that run several projects at once also benefit from concurrent engineering, which gives visibility into revisions across projects.

Connect drawings to assets and work orders

Link each drawing to the matching asset record in an enterprise asset management (EAM) or computerized maintenance management system (CMMS). Technicians who open a work order then reach the current drawing directly instead of searching shared drives.

How Accruent supports as-built documentation

Accruent offers two EDMS products that support these practices. Accruent RedEye is a cloud-based EDMS that automatically surfaces the current revision of a drawing. Field teams can find, mark up and share documents through iOS and Android apps, and users can open native CAD files without a CAD license.

Accruent Meridian provides a centralized repository with version management, configurable review and approval workflows, markup tools and audit trails. It supports concurrent engineering and keeps master data under control while change work runs in dedicated project areas, which maps directly to the master set practice above. Meridian integrates with EAM, enterprise resource planning (ERP) and computer-aided design (CAD) systems.

Accruent customers in more than 75 countries use these products, and the two products offer an integration for teams that want to use both. To see either one in action, request a demo.

Keep your as-builts accurate with Accruent

As-builts are most valuable while they stay accurate. That takes an ongoing process and a system to support it, not a one-time deliverable. To see how RedEye and Meridian fit that process, book a demo of our engineering document management software and we will walk you through it.