FAQ
The software
Section titled “The software”What is KI?
Section titled “What is KI?”Kinetic Intelligence. It is the ERP — enterprise resource planning — system the business runs on, and it handles a job from first contact through design, contracting, construction and final billing. Nearly every page here describes some part of it.
It is one product that two companies run separately — Story and Bristlecone Construction each have their own copy, their own database and their own QuickBooks company, and nothing crosses between them.
Within a company it is several interfaces rather than a single application: the Admin Portal, Legacy KI, the Client Portal, the Vendor Portal, and the Field App. They all read and write that company’s one database. See the software.
Which interface should I be in?
Section titled “Which interface should I be in?”Depends on the job. Most work happens in the Admin Portal. Construction pricing proposals, Admin Setup and all of Accounting are still in Legacy KI. Field teams work in the Field App. Clients and vendors have their own portals.
If you are on the Bristlecone side, the answer is Legacy KI for almost everything. Switch the header control to Bristlecone and the pages will say so.
Is Legacy KI going away?
Section titled “Is Legacy KI going away?”Eventually, module by module. It is not switched off and it is not an archive — it points at the same database as every other interface your company uses, so work done there is live data. The new Admin Portal is being ported from it, and the release notes say when a module moves.
What is Story Design Studio?
Section titled “What is Story Design Studio?”AI-powered design inspiration on the public website. A prospective client uploads photos of a room, describes what they want, and gets design concepts back before talking to anyone.
It is deliberately narrow, it belongs to Story only, and it is the one thing documented here that is not part of KI. It touches no projects, cost codes or money, and creates nothing in KI. A lead from it enters through the CRM — our customer relationship management system — like any other.
The two entities
Section titled “The two entities”What’s the difference between Story and Bristlecone Construction?
Section titled “What’s the difference between Story and Bristlecone Construction?”They are sibling companies, not one company with two brands, and they do not do the same work. Story renovates and remodels homes, design first. Bristlecone Construction builds across a broader range — commercial, institutional and multifamily work, from small repairs to eight-figure jobs — and runs it as separate lines of business, general contracting and self-perform concrete, each its own Division.
Each runs its own instance of KI, with its own database, its own configuration and its own QuickBooks company. Work done in one does not appear in the other. The two instances started from the same product and have drifted since, so a feature one has is not evidence the other has it — the feature matrix is the place to check.
Do they have the same features?
Section titled “Do they have the same features?”No, and the differences are substantial. Bristlecone commits subcontractors through Commitments where Story issues Purchase Orders; Bristlecone prices a change as a Change Estimate before it becomes a Change Order; Submittals, RFIs and the Punch List are on Bristlecone’s menu and off Story’s; Bristlecone runs no design phase and does its field work in Autodesk.
The feature matrix lists them area by area.
Which entity do these pages describe?
Section titled “Which entity do these pages describe?”Whichever one is selected in the header switch. Story is the default.
Most of these pages exist twice, once per company, and the switch decides which you get — so you read about the software you actually open rather than a shared page hedged for both. Areas that do not apply to you are not in your navigation at all. Switching while you are on a page takes you to your company’s version of it, or to the nearest section index if there is no version for you.
The name
Section titled “The name”Why does an older name still turn up?
Section titled “Why does an older name still turn up?”KI originally stood for Knotty Iron, after Knotty Iron Trading Company of Denver — the older entity behind the business. That application ran real work for over a decade and settled the definitions everything else is built on: what a project is, how cost is classified, how money is committed and spent, how work gets billed. Those definitions were carried forward rather than replaced, which is why the system still behaves the way it does in places.
The letters now stand for Kinetic Intelligence, and that is the expansion to use — in code, in the interface, and in prose.
The old name has not finished leaving. It still appears in some emails, page
footers and login screens; proposals go out from proposals@knottyiron.com;
the design showroom carries it in places. It is the same company and the same
work.
Is “Knotty Iron” the same thing as “Legacy KI”?
Section titled “Is “Knotty Iron” the same thing as “Legacy KI”?”No, and the difference matters. Knotty Iron is a former name. Legacy KI is a live interface that several modules still run in. Treating the second as a fading label leaves somebody unable to find the screen they need.
Terminology
Section titled “Terminology”I’ve heard two different words for the same thing. Which is right?
Section titled “I’ve heard two different words for the same thing. Which is right?”Usually both — the two interfaces name some things differently, and the older words still surface in documents and older records.
| You may also hear | In KI | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Estimate, Bid, Quote | Estimate or Proposal | Two different objects. The priced build-up is an Estimate; the client-facing PDF is a Proposal |
| Schedule of Values | Billing Items | The contract broken into billable line items |
| Draw | Pay Application | A progress billing against the Billing Items |
| Request for Information, RFI | Issue | A tracked question on a project. Bristlecone keeps RFIs as their own module |
| Daily Log | Project Update | The dated site record |
| Schematic Design, Design Development | — | Architectural stages, not KI phases. The sequence is Project Proposal → Visioning → Final Design → Build |
Three renames are traps rather than synonyms, because the old word and the new word describe different things: a Legacy Lead is a Project Record, a Legacy Project is a Contract, a Legacy Proposal is an Estimate. See §4.1.
The glossary defines the rest of the vocabulary, and says which terms belong to only one of the two instances.
Working on a project
Section titled “Working on a project”What does a project cover?
Section titled “What does a project cover?”Depends on the scope it is engaged under. Story supports six — Design Build, Design Only, Build Only, Interiors Only, Furniture Only and Story Select — and a project only exercises the areas its scope calls for.
A full Design Build project moves through four phases: Project Proposal → Visioning → Final Design → Build. Each ends at a gate that must close before the next begins. Bristlecone runs no design phase at all; a job there goes from won bid to construction. Part 3 walks the whole sequence.
What does the client see?
Section titled “What does the client see?”Their project as it stands, in the Client Portal: contracts and change orders, invoices, the schedule, project updates with photos, and the documents shared with them. They sign change orders there, and pay invoices there.
Client visibility on documents is set document by document, so they see a chosen set rather than everything the team has accumulated. Access is by invitation from the project team.
What does a vendor see?
Section titled “What does a vendor see?”Their own purchase order — the lines addressed to them, the quantities and prices agreed, and the attachments. Not the project budget, not the client’s contract, and not another vendor’s pricing.
That is all the Vendor Portal does today. Treat anything beyond purchase orders and their changes as not built.
Still have a question?
Section titled “Still have a question?”Something here is wrong or unclear. What do I do?
Section titled “Something here is wrong or unclear. What do I do?”Tell us. If a page contradicts what is on your screen, the software is right and the page is wrong — highlight the passage and leave a comment, and it reaches the team as a suggested edit.
Pages describing how a process should run are a different matter. Where those diverge from what your team actually does, that is worth a conversation rather than an edit.