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Valuations, retention, variations and dayworks

Value the cumulative work on a contract for a period, hold retention, and roll in variations and dayworks.

A valuation is the interim position on a contract for a period: everything done to date, what is new since the last one, the retention held back, and the amount you are applying for. It is how work under a contract with retention is claimed period by period. The document you send the client is an application for payment raised from the valuation — see Applications for payment.

Valuations, variations and dayworks need Manage commercial, and are on the Crew plan and above. A workspace already using them keeps them, and valuations already raised stay readable on any plan.

Raising a valuation

Open Commercial › Valuations and choose New valuation. Pick the Contract and the Period start and Period end. The summary shows the contract's currency and retention, which the valuation applies. Choose Create.

The valuation gathers everything approved on that contract that has not been valued or invoiced yet:

  • Measures whose last measured day falls on or before the period end. A run still being measured at the cut-off waits for the period it finishes in.
  • Variations that have been approved.
  • Daywork sheets that have been approved and are dated on or before the period end.

If there is nothing to value, Maliru says so rather than creating an empty valuation.

A valuation: gross to date, previously valued, this period, retention held and the amount applied, with its lines

The figures:

  • Gross to date — the cumulative value on the contract, this valuation included.
  • Previously valued — the gross to date on the last valuation.
  • This period — what is new: measures, plus approved additions, minus approved omissions, plus dayworks.
  • Retention held (5%) — the contract's retention percentage of the gross to date, with this period's share of it in brackets.
  • Applied this period — this period's gross minus this period's retention.

Every measure it covers is stamped Applied and every variation and daywork sheet is marked as valued, so none can be claimed twice. The valuation keeps its own copy of every line (Kind, Description, Quantity, Rate, Amount), so a later change to a rate or a measure does not alter it. Valuations are numbered per contract — VAL-12-001, Valuation 1 — and the register lists them newest first, with a Contract filter and the gross this period, applied, certified and due figures. Valuations, Variations and Dayworks each have View: at the head of the toolbar for saved views — see Saved views.

Retention is the contract's percentage of the gross to date. The contract form has no retention cap.

Submit, certify, paid

A new valuation is a Draft. The buttons along its foot move it on:

  1. Submit — you have sent your figures. It becomes Submitted.
  2. Certify — the client has certified the valuation. The Certify valuation dialog shows the amount applied and asks for the Certified amount: "Leave as applied unless the client certifies a different amount." The due date is set from the contract's payment terms, counted from the day you certify. It becomes Certified.
  3. Mark paid — asks Record £… as paid? and marks the valuation Paid.

Marking a valuation paid changes its status and the Overview figures. It does not settle the application for payment document: if you raised one, mark that paid on the Invoices tab as well, so your client statement and accounting export agree.

On Commercial's Overview, Applications for payment shows what was applied, certified and paid in the period, how many valuations are still awaiting certification, and the retention held on each contract's latest certified valuation, with the next amount due back. The Contracts tab shows the retention held on each contract. See The Commercial overview. The dashboard has Certified and Awaiting certification cards.

Variations

Variations are change orders: extra work instructed, or work taken out. They live under Commercial › Variations.

New variation asks for the Contract (its currency is shown), a Title, the Kind — Addition, which adds value, or Omission, which takes it away — the Value, a Code / reference and a Description.

A new variation is Proposed. Decide it from its row with Approve or Reject. Both ask first: an approved variation "goes into the next valuation on this contract. Nothing offers the decision again once it is made." An approved variation is valued once; an omission shows on the board with a minus sign and reduces the valuation.

The Variations tab: an approved addition, an approved omission and a proposed variation with Approve and Reject on its row

Dayworks

Daywork sheets are time-and-materials records for work that was not measured against the rate card. They sit on the Dayworks sub-tab of Variations, and New daywork is on both sub-tabs.

A sheet takes the Contract, an optional Job, the Work date, a Code / reference and a Description, then lines of type Labour, Plant or Material, each with a description, quantity and rate. Add line adds another.

Pull logged hours saves re-keying: with a job and work date chosen, it brings the hours clocked on that job that day in as a labour line. You add the rate. If nobody clocked on, it says No logged hours for this job and work date.

A new sheet is a Draft. Open it and choose Approve or Reject; approving asks first — "The next valuation on this contract picks it up. Nothing offers the decision again once it is made."