Managing Variations on Your Head Contract

How to create and manage variations on your head contract

Overview

How to Add a Head Contract Variation 

Assigning Unassigned Variation Lines

View Variations from the Project

Overview

Contract variations let you capture agreed changes or additions to your Head Contract — whether that’s extra work, price changes or updates to the scope. Variations can have either a positive or negative value and are managed directly from the Variations tab within your Head Contract.

Here’s how to add and manage variations step by step.

How to Add a Head Contract Variation 

When you create a new variation, you’ll add the variation details first, then the variation lines that make up the budget for that variation.

Step 1: Create a New Contract Variation

To get started:

1. Head to the Variations tab within your Head Contract.
2. Click Add Variation.

In the modal that opens, you’ll enter the variation details:

• VO #: Lentune suggests a number automatically, but you can customise it.
• Variation description: Add the details of what’s being changed.
• Section: Group this variation with others if needed.
• Customer reference: Optional, but helpful if your customer uses a specific reference.
• Contract type: This will default to the contract type set on your Head Contract.
• Variation amount: Enter the agreed amount with your customer.
• Submittal status: Choose from a list of statuses (see more on this below).
• You can also choose to hide the variation from your customer if needed.

Variation Statuses

Each variation can have one of the following statuses:

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

You can change the submittal status at any time — until the variation is marked Approved and a claim has been made against it. At that point, the status is locked unless you roll back the claim to Draft.

To review the status of a variation, head to the Variations tab in the Project.

Step 2: Add Variation Lines

Each variation line includes the following:

• Line Description
• Cost Code
• Budgeted Amount
• Line Reference (optional)

By default, the line description will pull through from the variation description, and the line reference will match the customer reference. You can update either as needed.

To add multiple variation lines at once:

1. Click the magnifying glass icon in the cost code field.
2. Select the cost codes you want to use.
3. Click Add, and Lentune will generate a variation line for each selected cost code.
4. Update the budgeted amount for each line.

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Assigning Unassigned Variation Lines

You can create variation lines in your Project before they’re ready to be added to the Head Contract. This is useful if you want to budget for a variation ahead of time.

To assign existing variation lines to a Head Contract variation:

1. Open the Assign Unallocated Variation Lines modal.
2. Select the lines you want to assign.
3. Use the toggle to Show both assigned and unassigned lines if you want to reallocate a variation line.

👉 Learn how to create unassigned variation lines

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View Variations from the Project

For a full view of all variations linked to your Head Contract, head to the Variations tab within the Project. This gives you a project-level view of what’s been added, claimed and approved.

👉 Learn how to view variations from the Project

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Last updated: 27 March 2025