Dan Stine, Director of Design Technology, shares practical insights on email & file management strategies for AE firms.
Tracking project emails and shared files is often overlooked—until it becomes a problem. However, with the right tools and practices in place, AEC teams can prevent common documentation headaches and stay focused on delivering great work.
In AEC firms, email is more than communication—it's documentation. Whether it’s a client’s approval or a decision that affects budget and schedule, email often serves as the project record. Unfortunately, organizing those emails tends to fall to the bottom of everyone’s to-do list. This only gets worse when people leave a project or the firm.
Similarly, files shared externally—like drawings or specifications—are often stored in multiple places and formats, making it difficult to verify what was sent, when, and to whom. In both cases, inconsistent practices can lead to delays, miscommunication, or legal risk.
This article outlines two main strategies for email management in AEC firms—brute force or purpose-built tools—and shows how platforms like TonicDM can streamline both email and file management.
Most teams wait until the end of a project—or worse, the end of the year—to clean up their inboxes. Others don’t organize at all. Then, someone needs to confirm an approval or explain a costly decision, and the hunt begins.
To manage project email, AEC firms generally rely on one of two approaches: a manual “brute force” method or a dedicated AEC-specific platform.
Many firms use Outlook to drag emails into project folders on their server manually. While this might work for small teams or short projects, it’s not scalable. Emails get duplicated, attachments are hard to search, and there’s no visibility into whether others have filed their correspondence.
This method creates confusion, especially when team members try to piece together conversation threads or locate critical attachments later on. It’s not built for collaboration, and it lacks the reliability AEC projects demand.
AEC-focused tools like TonicDM solve these issues by integrating directly into existing workflows—most notably, Outlook.
At Lake|Flato, we implemented TonicDM to streamline email management. Once connected, it becomes part of the Outlook interface across devices, with no separate installation needed. Users can file emails individually or in batches, search across all projects (even attachments), and access content through a secure online portal.
Even better, email filing is collaborative. If one person files an email, others on the thread will see it’s already filed (thanks to a visual marker). This “crowdsourced” system keeps teams aligned and ensures that important project emails are safely stored and accessible in the cloud.
TonicDM also integrates with tools like Deltek Vision and Vantagepoint. When your finance team creates a new project, it automatically appears in TonicDM—reducing setup time and keeping systems in sync.
Compared to email, external file sharing is even more fragmented. Files are sent via email, shared from personal OneDrives, or linked through platforms like Dropbox or Google Drive. This makes it hard to track who received what—and when.
A common scenario: a contractor claims they received a CAD file with an error. With no central record of the file version that was shared, the design team may be left without a defense. But if a firm can produce the original, properly dated file, they can avoid unnecessary disputes.
TonicDM simplifies this, too. Files too large (or too important) to send via email can be uploaded to the project space and shared directly with external collaborators. Once uploaded, files are locked—read-only and timestamped. You can even see who accessed them. This kind of transparency is invaluable for managing risk and maintaining project clarity.
Email and file management might not be exciting—but it’s critical. Poor practices create confusion, waste time, and open firms up to risk. On the other hand, tools like TonicDM bring structure, visibility, and confidence to project communication.
By adopting smarter systems that integrate with your workflow, AEC teams can stop wasting time searching and start focusing on what they do best—designing and delivering great work.
Daniel Stine
Director of Design Technology at Lake|Flato Architects
Connect with Dan on LinkedIn
