Managing Project Variations and Variation Lines

How to create, manage and track project variations and variation lines

Overview

Managing Variations on the Variations Screen

Create a New Project Variation

Variation Statuses

Create a New Variation Line

Viewing Variation Lines in the Cost Code Screen

Overview

The Variations tab within your project is where you can create and manage Project Variations and the variation lines that make up their budgets.

Managing Variations on the Variations Screen

A Project Variation is a group of related variation lines, typically matching how changes are structured and presented on a contract.

For example: You might have a variation agreed with your client that includes both labour and material cost codes. These would be created as two separate variation lines under one project variation.

You can add as many variation lines as needed to build out the full scope of a variation.

Create a New Project Variation

To add a variation:

1. Click Add > Add New Variation
2. In the modal that opens, enter:

• VO # (variation number)
• Description
• Status (see status types below)

3. Click Confirm to add the variation to the list

Once added, you can now create variation lines under this variation.

Variation Statuses

Each variation can have one of the following statuses:

• Approval Not Required
• Draft
• Awaiting Approval
• Approved
• No Longer Required

You can update the status directly from the Variations screen by clicking into the variation.

👉 See how variation statuses impact Head Contract Variations

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Create a New Variation Line

To create a new variation line, “Select add” and “add new variation line”. From the modal that opens, you can give the variation line the following details:

• VO #: assigns the line to a variation. Leave this blank to create an unassigned variation line
• Line Description: often matches the parent variation’s description
• Cost Code: you can select one or multiple to create several lines at once
• Budgeted Amount: the value for this variation line. This amount updates the revised budget for both the cost code and the overall project
• Line Reference: an optional identifier, often the same as the VO #

Once you have set the values for the above fields, you can click the blue “Add” button. A preview of the lines shows in the modal below from where you can do further edits.

Once you are ready to confirm, click the orange “Add variation lines” button. This creates the new variation lines and takes you back to the Variation screen.

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Viewing Variation Lines in the Cost Code Screen

To see how variation lines impact a specific cost code, head to the Cost Codes tab of your project. You can:

• Edit the cost code and click Variation Lines to view and manage existing entries
• Or, click the blue value in the Variations column to open the same view

The total of all variation line amounts is included in the revised budget for that cost code.

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Last updated: 27 March 2025