How to stop retyping the same building into every client survey

The short answer: keep one shared record for each building, separate from any one client's survey, and pull from it every time the building fits a new requirement. In SiteMap Survey, every site you or your team puts on a map lands in Global sites. Turn it on from any map, click a building, and you see its rate, size, cover photo, and flyer next to every map it's already on. Click Add to this map, and the new client's pin starts with the team's current numbers instead of a blank.

Good buildings show up on a lot of surveys. The 4,000 SF endcap that works for a dental group this month will probably work for a bank branch next quarter. The problem is that each survey starts from scratch, so you hunt down the flyer again, retype the rate, and hope it's still right.

Why does the same building have different numbers on every survey?

Because each survey is its own file. You typed $28.00 in March. A teammate called the listing broker in May and got $29.50, and put it on their survey. Neither file knows about the other. When the building comes up again, you copy whichever one you find first.

It's not just rates. Square footage, NNN, the cover photo, and the latest flyer all drift the same way.

Here's how the two approaches compare:

	A new spreadsheet or deck per client	Global sites in Survey
Where the building's info lives	Inside last month's survey file	One shared site, used by every map
Starting a new survey	Retype it, or copy from an old file	Add the site; shared values fill in
A teammate updates the rate	You find out on a call, if at all	Their map shows it differs from the global site
Flyer and cover photo	Saved in someone's downloads	Kept on the site with who added it and when
Two people disagree	Nobody notices	Side by side, one column per map

How do I see every map a building is already on?

Open Global sites from any map.

Open a map and click the Global sites switch next to the address search. The map now shows every site your team has on any map. Sites that aren't on this map yet show as faint pins with a plus.
Click a building, on the map or in the list. A drawer opens along the bottom.
Read across. The first column is the Global Map, the building's shared values, with who set each one and when. Every other column is a map the building is on, with that map's own values.

The site drawer for South Lamar Village, with the Global Map column first and one column per map showing asking rate, available SF, NNN, and listing broker, where each map lists a different rate — One building, every map it's on, side by side. Numbers that differ from the global site show in orange (sample data).

A number that differs from the global site shows in a different color, so you know which one is current before you quote it.

On a phone, the same view works as a sheet over the map: search the list, tap a building, and scroll across its maps.

Global Sites View on a phone, with faint candidate pins around Austin and a searchable list of team sites below the map — Every team site on the map, with the ones not on this map shown faint (sample data).

South Lamar Village open on a phone, with Add to this map, Update global site, and the Global Map column showing asking rate and available SF with who set them — The building's shared values on a phone (sample data).

How do I add a building I've already surveyed to a new client's map?

From the new client's map, turn on Global sites, click the building, and click Add to this map. The site lands on the map, and any field on this map that's marked global fills in from the building's shared value. The cover photo and flyer come along too.

To add several buildings at once, or to start a brand new map from them, use the Global Sites page (the sites band at the top of your maps page opens it):

Search or filter the list. You can filter by folder, map, owner, or any shared field.
Click Select several sites and check the buildings you want.
Click Add to map. Pick an Existing map, or choose New map and give it a name.
Leave Bring the shared info checked, then click Create and add.

The Add to a map dialog for two selected sites, with New map chosen, the map name Bakery cafe, Round Rock, and Bring the shared info checked — Starting a new client's map from two buildings the team already knows (sample data).

Nothing on another broker's map changes. Your map gets its own copy of the values, and you can edit them for this client without touching anyone else's survey.

Which fields are shared across maps?

Only the ones you mark Global. Every field starts as Local, meaning it belongs to that map.

Open Map setup and go to the Pin fields tab.
Add a field, or click the scope on an existing one, and set it to Global.
Save. If your team already has a global field that means the same thing ("Asking Rate" and "Rate", for example), Survey suggests using that one so the team doesn't end up with three versions.

Asking rate, NNN, building SF, and the listing broker are good global fields. Things that are about one client, like "Fit for client" or "Tour order", should stay local.

How do I update the global site when I get a new number?

There are three ways, from quickest to most thorough.

From your own map

Open the site and click the pencil to edit it. When a global field differs from the global site, a warning shows next to the field name. Hover over it to see both numbers and who set the global one. Click Use global to take the shared number, or Replace global to make yours the shared number.

The edit panel for South Lamar Village with a Differs from global site card showing this map at $22.50/SF and the global site at $19.99/SF, with Use global and Replace global buttons — Your map says $22.50; the global site still says $19.99 (sample data).

By dragging

In the site drawer, drag a value from any map's column onto the Global Map column. A cover photo can go onto Cover photo, and a flyer onto Files. The confirmation has an Undo.

All at once

Click Update global site…. Survey lines up every shared field and document for that building and shows the new values in green, with the old value underneath. It picks the value most maps agree on, and yours when they don't agree. Click the check next to another map's value to use that one instead, or the × to keep the current value. The bar at the top names everything that will change. Click Confirm (it says how many, like Confirm 6 updates). One Undo reverses the whole batch.

Update global site in progress, with staged values in green in the Global Map column, the old asking rate shown underneath, and a bar listing what will change next to a Confirm 6 updates button — Reviewing every shared value before the update goes through (sample data).

If a teammate changed a value while you were looking at it, Survey skips that one and tells you, rather than writing over their change.

Does my client see the global site?

No. Your client sees your map, through your share link: the sites you picked, with the values on your map. Global sites is for you and your team. Your notes on the building stay on your map, and a teammate's notes from their own map don't show up on your client's link.

Once the building is on the map, the rest of the survey works the same. For setting up suites and a monthly rent formula, see How to compare monthly rent across buildings and suites for a tenant. For the full survey workflow, see Site Surveys.

The reuse checklist

Mark the fields that describe the building as Global: rate, NNN, SF, listing broker.
Keep client-specific fields Local.
Start each new survey from Global sites before you search for flyers.
Leave Bring the shared info checked when you add sites from the Global Sites page.
Fix a stale number on the global site the day you learn it, not just on your map.
Run Update global site on busy buildings once in a while to settle the differences.

Frequently asked questions

What is a global site in SiteMap Survey?

It's the shared record for one building: its location, the values of your team's global fields, its cover photo, flyer, and files. Every map the building is on points back to it.

If I change a number on my map, does it change my teammate's survey?

No. Your edit stays on your map. The global site only changes when someone chooses to update it (or, if it has no value yet, from the first map that fills one in). Even then, other maps keep their own values. If a teammate's map took its number from the global site, they see a warning that it changed, and they decide whether to use the new one.

Can I see who changed a building's rate and when?

Yes. The global value shows who set it and when, so you know whether you're looking at last week's number or last spring's.

What if the same building ends up in the library twice?

Survey flags possible duplicates on the Global Sites page (4 possible duplicates, for example). Click Review, then Combine to merge them into one site, or Keep separate if they really are different buildings.

Can a client or outside collaborator change the global site?

No. Clients only see your share link. Someone you've invited to a single map from outside your team can work on that map, but only your team can change the global site.

The building doesn't change much from one client to the next. Your survey shouldn't make you start over every time it shows up.

To see what else goes into a client survey, visit the Survey product page or compare plans on the pricing page.