Workbench Contract Claim Process Enhancement

Overview

The enhancement supports clear distinction of the claim and certification stages with updates to the process, retaining the individual values of each stage, and reflecting these in the associated reports.

This feature is enabled on the ‘BETA FEATURE - Contract Claims’ control parameter. Find the control parameter using Scaffold. Pre-existing claims will reflect as claim values only regardless of their status.

Process

The process remains mostly the same with clear distinction on the use of approval, and claim and certification steps. The key steps of the revised process is depicted below.

Process Step	Status

Process Step	Status
Prepare Claim - Is the initial capture of the claim in Workbench prior to internal review.	Entered
Internal Claim Review - The claim is internally reviewed with the usual Standard or Workflow approval process and their accompanying statuses, typically ending as with Internal Approval. On internal approval a claim certificate is auto generated and attached to the record. It is displayed prompting the user to optionally send to the client at this point.	Ready for Certification
Send Claim - Once internally approved the claim certificate will be sent to the client for assessment, indicated by a Mark as Sent button on the email screen.	Sent for Certification
Client Claim Review - This is the external review by the client and their response of the certified values.
Record Certified - The certified values received from the client are recorded against the initial claim values.	In Certification
Finalise Invoice - When all the certified values are recorded and the invoice is finalised the claim invoice is generated and attached to the record. It is displayed prompting the user to optionally send to the client at this point.	Certified
Send Certified - Once finalised the claim invoice can be sent to the client if required, indicated by a Mark as Sent button on the email screen.	Sent Invoice
Export Batch - Once ready the batch including the invoice can be exported.	Updated

These status have been updated to list screens and filters on:

Job Invoices list
Job Enquiry, Invoicing tab
Job Contract, Claims tab

Claim Get Sales

The main user interface enhancement is on Get Sales to distinguish the claim and certification stages as depicted.

Claim Stage

Prior to internal approval, the familiar ‘Claim To Date’ and ‘This Claim’ sections are available to prepare or edit the claim.
The initial values are based on the certified values of the previous claim + any uncertified values from previous Claims. There are scenarios where a PM (Workbench user) mightbe waiting for certification on multiple past claims.
Any report viewed or printed at this stage reflect the claim values.

Certification Stage

After internal approval the new ‘Certified To Date’ and ‘This Certified’ sections are available to prepare or edit the certification values.
The initial values are based on the certified values of the previous claim.
Ticking a line certifies the claimed value for the line.
Comment and Reason fields added.
Any report viewed or printed at this stage reflects the certified values.

Claim Reports

The report enhancements also relate to the separation of the claim and certification stages. No reports were added; simply the sourcing of values based on the stage was enhanced.

Claim Stage

The Claim Stage is the notable introduction from a report perspective since the certification is essentially an invoice.

Invoice Type has been enhanced to support the specification of a Claim Certificate format to automatically use at internal approval based on the selected invoice type on the claim.
A warning is displayed on the claim if the Invoice Type selected does not have a Claim Certificate format specified.
Any report viewed or printed before the ‘In Certification’ status reflects the claim values.

Certification Stage

This stage essentially remains unchanged as it is equivalent to an invoice.

The Invoice Report Format on the Invoice Type dictates the format used to auto-generate the Claim Invoice when the claim is finalised.
Any report viewed or printed after and including the ‘In Certification’ status reflects the certified values.

Sent To Client

In order to record whether the claim or final invoice has been sent to the client, versus sent to anyone else, the user needs to indicate this action.
This indicator is the option Mark as Sent in the Send Email popup screen.

Contract Claim Accruals

A Contract Claim Accrual batch will include any Contract Claims with a status before Certified.

Migration Process

Find CP ‘BETA FEATURE - Contract Claims’ in SCAFFOLD, and change it to Yes.
Invoice Types: Must populate the Invoice type used for Contract Claims with the default Claim Certificate Format. So on internal approval, the correct Contract Claim is rendered:
Do you have any custom Contract Claim Payment Certificate reports for Contract Claims?
- New Previous Claims section:
  The new section with a list of Previous Claims at the bottom of the standard Contract Claim Payment Certificates will not display in your custom reports unless you add this. This section displays from claim #2, as claim #1 does not have previous claims:
- Each Claim now records Claimed values and Certified values. Custom reports will be missing the new logic on the standard Payment Certificate reports, where based on the new statuses the report will either read Claimed values (Entered, Ready for Certification, or Sent for Certification - Job Outputs Claimed Values), or Certified Values (any status from In Certification and after - Job Outputs Certified Values). This logic will need to be added to your custom report.