Approve a subcontract variation

Review and approve (or reject) a variation against an existing subcontract, with full delta context — original contract value, prior approved variations, and the specific change up for approval — and let the system amend the linked Purchase Order automatically.

When to use this

When a subcontractor (or your own project manager) raises a change against an existing subcontract — additional scope, scope reduction, rate change, or defect-driven adjustment — and the variation is now sitting in Pending Approval waiting for your decision.

Prerequisites

  • Subcontract in Signed, Active, PC, or DLP status (variations can't be raised against Draft or Closed) — see Subcontract states
  • The Variation has been created and submitted for approval — variations can come from three places:
    • The New FC PF Subcontract Variation button on the Subcontract's Variations subtab — see Raise a subcontract variation
    • An approved variation cost estimate (fan-out from the estimating side)
    • Cloning an existing variation as a template
  • Permission to approve variations for this subcontract's subsidiary

Walkthrough

Walkthrough coming

A step-by-step Scribe walkthrough for this task is being recorded. Track its status in the Scribe register (internal).

  1. Open the Variation record in Pending Approval status (from the dashboard reminder, an email notification, or the Subcontract's Variations subtab, which lists each variation's ID, Description, Variation Type, Value (Signed) and Status).
  2. Review the Summary box at the top right of the form. It shows:
    • Original Contract Value — the subcontract value at award
    • Approved Variations — the total of variations already approved
    • Contract Value Before — the contract value before this variation
    • Additions, Deductions and This Variation — the change in front of you. This Variation is the same as the variation's Value (Signed), the total of its lines
    • Revised If Approved — what the contract will become if you approve
  3. On the Schedule of Values subtab, review the variation lines — what scope is being added or removed, its Item, Cost Centre and Phase, and the Varies Line each one changes. Every deduction varies a specific line; an addition with no Varies Line is a new item.
  4. Click Edit, set Status to Approved, and click Save.

On approval, the system:

  • Checks every line again, because another variation may have been approved against the same line in the meantime. A deduction that would now take a line below $0 stops the approval
  • Amends the linked Purchase Order automatically (no manual PO edit) so it holds the net position of each line: a deduction reduces the line it varies (for example, Tiling 1 × $32,000.00 less $5,000.00 becomes 0.84375 × $32,000.00, which is $27,000.00), an addition that varies a line increases it, and a new item becomes its own PO line — see What happens on approval
  • Updates the Subcontract's Revised Contract Value, and moves the variation's lines into Revised Contract Value (approved) on the subcontract's Schedule of Values
  • Makes the variation's lines claimable. On the subcontract's claims, they're listed on the Items → Variations subtab, separately from the original contract lines (see Assess a subcontractor claim)
  • If the variation is flagged as Pass-Through to Prime, the approval is blocked until the linked customer variation is itself approved

From now on the variation's lines are read only, and its Variation Estimate is no longer updated from it.

Rejecting a variation

There's no Reject button. To reject a variation:

  1. Open it and click Edit.
  2. Set Status to Rejected.
  3. Click Save.

A rejected variation stays on the subcontract's Variations subtab with the status Rejected, but it drops off the Schedule of Values and doesn't count towards either total. Its lines become read only. Its Variation Estimate has its lines removed and is made inactive, unless the estimate is already in a contract, in which case it's left alone.

What success looks like

  • Variation status changes to Approved, and its Summary box now shows Revised Contract Value.
  • The Subcontract's Variations subtab shows the variation with its new status, and its Schedule of Values subtab lists its lines as Approved, included in Revised Contract Value (approved).
  • The Purchase Order linked to the subcontract has been amended to the new net position of each line.
  • The Subcontract's Revised Contract Value has updated automatically, and matches the purchase order total.

Gotchas

  • Approval is blocked if the linked customer variation isn't yet Approved (Pass-Through to Prime variations only).
  • Nothing blocks a deduction that takes a line below what has already been claimed and paid. A line can't go below $0, but there is no check against the claimed-to-date amount — check the claimed-to-date position before approving a large negative variation.
  • Pre-qualification is not checked at variation approval. The prequal gate applies when the subcontract moves from Awarded to Signed, not to variations raised afterwards.
  • Rejected variations aren't deleted. They stay on the subcontract's Variations subtab in Rejected status, with read-only lines. If the change is needed after all, raise a new variation.
  • Post-approval reversal isn't supported directly. If an approved variation needs to be undone, raise an offsetting variation with a negative value — see Raise a back-charge for the same pattern applied to recoveries.
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