Contract Schedules
Overview:
This tab contains a list of all existing schedules for this contract. You can also create or edit schedules from this screen. Schedules are necessary to make Contract Claims, and must be set up before attempting to create a claim. Usually, schedules are an exact replica of the claiming structure that you have agreed upon with the client, though they can be used flexibly. The schedules that you enter here are what you will see on the contract claim report when sending a claim to the client.
Generally, the sum of all schedules should equal the sum of all Contract Budgets, and the system will produce a warning when saving if this is not true. This imbalance usually signifies that either the budget or the schedule is incorrect; either you are expecting to claim more than you have budgeted to claim, or vice versa. When adding Contract Variations to your budgets, remember to add the corresponding schedule item when the Variation is awarded/confirmed, or to negate the variation via journal entry if it isn't going to proceed.
Screen Guide:
Initial Screen:
The initial screen displays existing schedules sorted by the Schedule Code field. You can click on this code to edit or view the schedule details. You may also create new schedules by clicking on + New Claim Schedule. The Total column displays schedule amounts, totalled by each unique Schedule Code. Please note that the Print button on this screen is shared between all Contract tabs. Schedule-specific reports are available after creating or editing a schedule - see below.
Creating/Editing Screen:
Code is a unique schedule code that you must give this schedule. Your company can decide on whatever naming scheme it finds appropriate, but one recommendation is to use the Level 1 Job Code (which is already unique) followed by O for Original Contracts or V for Variations. Any code will be accepted as long as it is unique, but keep in mind the default display of schedules is alphabetical - in the example given, O comes before V and will display Original Contract first, followed by Variations.
Description should be whatever description you need to distinguish your schedules. If you have multiple Original Contract schedules (for example, two different sets of work with their own list of items) you may wish to name them so that you and your client can easily identify each one.
Schedule Type assists with categorising your schedules and allows you to report on them separately. By default, Original Contract and Variations are the available types, but additional types may be added in Statuses under Schedule Types.
Job will automatically be set to the Level 1 Job of the current contract. This field is not editable.
Default Sales Code defines which Sales Code you would like this schedule to default to for billing purposes.
Sequence is a number used for allow users to determine the order in which Schedules are presented, especially in billing and on claim schedules, and on any custom reports.
Inactive checkbox will, when ticked, cause this schedule to become inactive and no longer usable. This is useful as a double check to ensure a completed portion of work is closed out.
Effective Date is an optional field that defines when this schedule is available to be used.
Currency defaults to the Contract Currency in Contract Settings and is not editable here.
Approved By and subsequently the Approve button are optional steps that some companies choose to utilise. Approving and unapproving a schedule is restricted by the user's Role and therefore it is possible to allow some users to create but not approve schedules, reserving that function for a supervisor. The enforcement of this can be changed in Control Parameters under Schedule Approval Required.
Exclude from Retention prevents the calculation of retention, if enabled in Contract Settings, for this schedule only. This is useful if variations awarded do not attract retentions.
The Hand icon represents a grab point where you can rearrange the order of entered lines. Click and drag the line to the desired location.
Seq and Parent columns appear if the Manual Ordering button is clicked. They show the sequence of each line, as well as the parent for grouping purposes.
Code is a manual entry, generally numerical and/or alphabetical. This code should match your client's expectations for the line being created (1, 1.1, 1.2 / 1a, 1b, 1c / A, B, C / etc.).
Description should also match your client's expectations, and should accurately describe the work you intend on claiming. This field is limited to 50 characters for formating reasons.
Details are limited to 2000 characters and is an optional field for more information about the schedule line if needed. This is displayed as indented subtext in printed reports.
Unit is for the unit of measurement for this line. This could be %, m2, m3, etc.
Sales Code will default from the above Default Sales Code, but can be manually changed if necessary.
Job and Work Centre are optional fields and serve to direct the claimed revenue to specific Jobs or Work Centres.
Rate is the amount per quantity you intend to claim.
Quantity is the number of the unit of measurement you intend to claim. For percentages, 1.00 is equivalent to 100%.
Amount calculates the rate multiplied by the quantity to get the final amount you intend to claim for this line, with a grand total at the bottom.
Sum Qty is a feature used if you want the header rows to add up the Quantity field for all Indented rows under it during Contract Claim sales. The Amount value is already summed in that interface.
The Bin icon allows you to delete one or more lines by ticking each checkbox on the line you wish to delete, then click Save.
For extremely large schedules, this screen will begin to Page, allowing you to use the arrow buttons to move between pages.
Buttons:
Print on this screen will produce a schedule report for the current schedule.
You can also produce an Excel Export, allowing you to more easily manipulate data, for example copying data from existing spreadsheets then using the Import button to bring the data back into Workbench.
Outdent and Indent are used to group schedule lines under header lines, moving them to the left and right respectively. Header lines cannot contain financial data and are used for grouping only. These groupings will be reflected in reports and claims.
Manual Ordering / Drag and Drop switches between drag and drop functionality and manual resequencing using the Seq and Parent columns.
New Line produces a blank line at the bottom of the data entry section.
Approve is an optional feature described above in the Approve By description.
Save must be clicked after you finish entering or changing data. Wait for the green bar to appear at the top of the screen to ensure the data has been committed to the system.
Next Steps:
Now that you have a schedule, you may wish to create more schedules (perhaps to preemptively create a blank variation schedule for future variations). It is also important to ensure that your schedule totals match your budget totals, which can easily be seen in Contract Summary. You can adjust your budgets in Contract Budget.