Commercial & Planning
Variations
The full variation lifecycle, with cost impact, supporting documents and approval chains tracked throughout.
Overview
Instruction to valuation to agreement
Variations follows each change from instruction through valuation to agreement. Status, cost impact, supporting documentation and approval chain are held together on one record.
The commercial exposure across all open variations is visible at any point, rather than being assembled at month end from several people’s spreadsheets that rarely reconcile.
Managing the volume of project changes, analysing their consequences and defending the contractual position is among the hardest parts of running a construction project. It is also where margin is most often lost — not through a single bad decision but through dozens of variations that were instructed, executed and never properly valued or agreed.
- Instruction to agreement
- Cost impact
- Supporting documents
- Approval chains
How it works
The variation lifecycle
Instruction recorded
The instruction is captured with its source — a letter, a drawing revision, a meeting minute — attached.
Cost and time impact assessed
The commercial and programme consequence is recorded against the variation as it is understood.
Submitted and negotiated
Supporting documentation travels with the submission, and the negotiation history stays on the record.
Agreed and closed
The agreed value and the approval chain that reached it are held together.
Why it matters
On a live project
Exposure is always current
Open variation value is a live figure, which changes the quality of the cost conversation.
Supporting documents attached
The instruction, the correspondence and the valuation sit together on one record.
Approval chains enforced
Sign-off follows the chain it is supposed to, and the log shows who approved what.
Use cases
Where it is used
Monthly cost reporting
Open variation exposure is a live figure rather than a month-end assembly exercise.
Final account
Preparation starts from a complete record rather than a reconstruction.
Client reporting
Owners see the change position without waiting for it to be compiled.
Questions
Frequently asked about Variations
Yes. Potential and anticipated changes can be tracked before instruction, which is often where the commercial risk sits.
Yes, multi-step approval is configured to your delegation of authority, and the log records each approval.
Yes, open and agreed variation value can be broken down by package, discipline or area.
Yes, variations link to the activities they affect, which supports EOT substantiation.
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