What is a master document register?
A master document register, usually shortened to MDR, is the controlled list of every document a project or asset must produce and hold. Each row carries the document number, title, discipline, and type, together with the current revision, the status, the dates the document was planned and actually issued, and the party responsible for producing it.
On a project the register does a second job. It is the deliverables list agreed with the contractor, so it states what the contract requires before any of it exists. Rows are opened for documents nobody has written yet, and each one is tracked from planned, through issued for review, to accepted.
Also called a master document list or document deliverables list · Agreed at contract award · Handed to the owner with the asset
How an MDR works on a project.
On an EPC or capital works job the MDR is written before the work starts. The contract names the documents the contractor owes, and each one takes a row: a number built to the agreed numbering scheme, a title, a discipline, and a planned issue date. Nothing has been drawn yet, so the register begins as a statement of what must exist by the end.
From award to completion it is the tracker both sides read in progress meetings. Planned dates against actual dates show what is late. Status shows what has been issued for review, what came back with comments, and what is accepted. Payment milestones are often tied to it, which is why the numbers in the register and the numbers on the documents have to agree, and why the register belongs in the same engineering document management system that holds the documents themselves.
- 01Document number
The controlled number that identifies the document for the life of the asset.
- 02Title
What the document covers, written the same way it reads on the document itself.
- 03Discipline
The discipline that owns it, such as civil, structural, mechanical, or electrical.
- 04Document type
Drawing, specification, calculation, datasheet, report, manual, or model.
- 05Revision
The current issue of the document, and the one everyone should be working to.
- 06Status
Where it sits, from planned through issued for review and commented to accepted.
- 07Planned issue date
When the contract or programme says the document is due.
- 08Actual issue date
When it was really issued, so slippage is visible against the planned date.
- 09Responsible party
The contractor, consultant, or discipline lead who owes the document.
What sits inside the register, and what sits beside it.
Three records get used as though they were the same thing on most projects. Keeping them apart is what makes the MDR worth reading.
A drawing register lists drawings, the numbered sheets that make up a design. An MDR covers every controlled document the job produces, drawings among them. On most projects the drawing register is a filtered view of the MDR.
A document register records what you hold. An MDR records what you are still owed as well, so a row exists for a specification nobody has written yet. That is the difference between an index of the record and a list of deliverables.
A transmittal is one moment: these documents, at these revisions, issued to this party on this date. The MDR is the living list a transmittal updates. Read the transmittal for what went out, read the MDR for where everything stands today.
Keep the register where the documents live.
An MDR in a spreadsheet is a second copy of the truth, updated by hand and correct only as often as someone remembers. Lunr holds every controlled document under one numbering scheme, so the register is the documents rather than a description of them.
Lunr applies your numbering scheme as each document is booked in, and reads title-block and metadata tags into the record, so the register fills from the document rather than from retyping.
DWG, DGN, RVT, PDF, and IFC sit under revision control alongside Word and Excel, each one a controlled document with a number, a discipline, and a current revision.
Run each document from draft to review to approved through a configurable workflow, with reviewers set per stage, and every transition written to an audit trail.
Build a handover package and validate it against a manifest, so a document the register says is owed and never arrived is caught on upload.
Because every document is numbered, versioned, and workflow-driven in one system, the register and the documents it lists are the same record. The status of a row is the state of the document, and the revision in the register is the revision you open.
Keep reading.
The drawings-only view of the same record, and the register most owners start from.
How the number in the first column of the MDR is built, decoded field by field.
The issue record that moves a row in the register from planned to issued.
One of the deliverables an MDR tracks to the last day of a project, and one of the latest.
Questions about master document registers.
- What does MDR stand for in project management?
- MDR stands for master document register. It is the controlled list of every document a project must produce and hold, recording each document's number, title, discipline, type, revision, status, planned and actual issue dates, and the party responsible for it. On an EPC or capital works project the MDR is also the deliverables list agreed with the contractor, so it records what is owed as well as what has arrived.
- What is the difference between a master document register and a drawing register?
- A drawing register lists drawings, the numbered sheets that make up a design. A master document register covers every controlled document the project produces, including specifications, calculations, datasheets, reports, and O&M manuals, with the drawings among them. On most projects the drawing register is a filtered view of the MDR rather than a separate list kept alongside it.
- Who owns the master document register?
- The document controller owns the MDR and keeps it current, with the project manager and discipline leads feeding it as documents are planned, issued, and accepted. Where the work is contracted out, the contractor maintains an MDR for their own deliverables and reports it against the owner's master. The register only stays reliable while one named person books documents in and records each revision and status change.
- What happens to the master document register at handover?
- At handover the MDR becomes the owner's index of the asset record. Every row should close out as accepted, with the as-constructed drawings, the O&M manuals, and the certificates delivered at their final revision. Owners check the handover package against the MDR, because a row still open at completion is a document that may never arrive. Once the project closes, the register carries on as the operating document register for the asset, and later revisions land against the same numbers.
Run the register where the documents live.
Book a walkthrough with someone who knows what an MDR, a transmittal, and an as-constructed drawing are, and watch Lunr number, version, and track every controlled document in one register.
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- 2026