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      Planyard Client Contract and Management

      This article provides detailed guidance on managing client contracts in Planyard, along with relevant features.

      Table of contents

      1. Introduction
      2. Client Contract Video Tutorial
      3. Including the Client Budget in the Project Budget
      4. Create Client Contract
      5. Client Prepayment 
      6. Client Change orders (Variations)
      7. Client Progress Report (Valuation)
        1. Include Prepayment to Progress Report (Valuation)
        2. Download Report
      8. Document Income and Income Overview

      Introduction

      Managing client contracts efficiently is crucial for maintaining the financial oversight of construction projects. Planyard's Client Contracts Management feature is designed to streamline the financial interactions within your projects, enabling precise tracking of progress, documentation for payment applications, change orders, retention and pre-payments.

      This centralised approach to client contract management helps keep all financial aspects transparent and manageable, ensuring that every transaction and amendment is recorded and easily accessible.

      This guide will detail how to leverage Planyard's capabilities to enhance your financial management processes, keeping your projects financially sound and aligned with client agreements.

      Client Contract Video Tutorial

      Including Client Budget in the Project Budget

      Before we dive into how to create a client contract in Planyard, let's first understand what you need to have in place.

      In the project budget, you’ll find a column called “Budget submitted to client.” This column shows client prices and allows Planyard calculate project profitability. If your project budget matches the client budget, simply add the client budget to your budget line items. This will allow you to see both cost and income on your budget line-items

      If the client budget is different from your internal project budget, you can add the client’s schedule of values to your project budget to track project income. See the example below:

       

      By setting up the client schedule of values in your budget, you have line items in your budget to track costs and separate line-items to track income. 

      When creating a client contract in Planyard, items will be directly derived from your project budget. Because of this, it's important to understand how the project income will be tracked on the project. 

      Create a client contract

      Let's walk through how to set up a client contract in Planyard. Navigate to your project and click 'Client contract' in the project menu row, then follow these steps:

      1. Start by uploading any legal or other documents related to the contract. Use the 'Browse Files' button on the right side of the screen.
      2. Enter contract details:  
        1. Name the document.
        2. Select the client company from your contacts database. If the company isn't listed, click 'Add New Company' to create a new client entry.
        3. If applicable, manage contract retainage: Click to add contract retainage, name it, and set a retention percentage. Planyard will automatically track this retention. 
        4. To manually book retention for each sales invoice sent to the client, click 'Manually Book Retention' and provide a name for the contract retainage.
        5. Finally, choose the line-items to include in the client contract: Click 'Select in Bulk', then check the box next to the headings or line-items you want to include. After selecting, click 'Update Selection'. The selected line-items will be shown with data from the 'Budget Submitted to Client' column, displaying the client price. If this column is empty, the line-items will appear blank and you can add the information manually.
      3. Once the contract details are added, click 'Submit to create your client contract.  
      You will now be redirected to the overview of your client contracts and you will see the contract that you just created. 

      Create client prepayment

      Once you have an active client contract created on Planyard, you can register client prepayments to simplify tracking and ensure accurate valuations. To do this, navigate to your project, click on the client contract, and follow steps below. This feature helps you easily deduct prepayments from valuated amounts, keeping financial records clear and up-to-date.

      1. Navigate to the client contract.
      2. Scroll down and click 'Add prepayment' on the right side of your screen.
      3. Enter the prepayment details:
        1. The client company, document type (prepayment invoice), and client contract will be filled out automatically.
        2. Input the net amount of the prepayment.
        3. Optionally, add comments.
      4. Upload any relevant documents via the box on the right.
      5. Click 'Submit' to complete the registration.

      Your prepayment is now successfully registered on the client contract.

      Client Change Orders (Variations)

       
      In this section, we'll explore how to manage client variations in Planyard, referred to as change orders in US English. This guide will show you how to effectively create client variations, ensuring you have a full overview of all variations and can track their profitability accurately.  The easiest way to create a new client change order is from the project budget overview. Navigate to the project budget overview and follow these steps: 
      1. Click 'Add Line-Item' at the top right of the screen.
      2. Select 'Add Client Change Order'.
      3. Enter the details for the change order:
        1. If needed, add a cost code.
        2. Name the variation line-item.
        3. Specify the unit of measurement for both the Sales Price and the Target Cost.
        4. Enter the quantity for both the Sales Price and the Target Cost.
        5. Set the unit price for both the Sales Price and the Target Cost.
      4. Click 'Add change order' 
      You have now created a client variation. You can find all variations at the bottom of your budget under the brown-colored heading. These variation line-items function just like other line-items in your budget. You will be able to associate costs and income with them, as well as make revisions as needed.  Under the 'Analytics' tab in the project menu row, you will also be able to track the financial performance of all your variations.   

      Client Progress Report (Valuation)

      Once the client contract has been added to the project, client valuations can be easily created, enabling generating of accurate billing statements swiftly. Once completed, these valuations can be downloaded in XLSX or PDF formats, allowing for straightforward distribution to clients. 

      In order to create a client valuation, navigate to your project and click on "Client Contract" in the project menu row. Follow these steps to create a client valuation:

      1. Select the client contract for which you want to create a valuation.
      2. Click 'Create Valuation' in the top right corner.
      3. You will see the client budget displayed. Begin adding information for the current valuation across the columns:
        1. The first column displays cost headings and line item names. This column is not editable.
        2. The 'Contracted Total' column visualizes the contracted cost, including units of measurement, volume, and unit price. This column is not editable.
        3. Another column shows the committed cost based on previous valuations.
        4. The 'Current Valuation' column, expressed in the project’s currency, is editable.
        5. In the 'Current Volume' column, you can adjust the volume for the ongoing valuation. This column is editable.
        6. 'Current %' displays the percentage completed for the current valuation. You can edit this column.
        7. The system calculates the valuation total by combining the previous and current valuations.
        8. A final column indicates the remaining contracted amount.

      4. Once you are satisfied with the valuation, click 'Create Progress Report' in the top right corner. Select the time span for your report by choosing the start date on the left and the end date on the right. After setting the dates, click 'Create Progress Report' again.

      Now that you've created a progress report, you can also connect a sales invoice to the progress report. 

      Note you can exit the view at any time to save it as a draft.

      Include client prepayment to valuation (progress report) 

      In Planyard, registering prepayments allows you to deduct the prepaid amounts from future invoices during valuations. You can choose to apply the entire prepayment to one invoice or distribute it across multiple valuations, depending on the agreement with your client.

      When preparing the valuation, you will find a box with the current registered prepayments available below the client schedule of values: 

      Here you can choose to add an amount that will be deducted based on the client prepayments done by the client. This will be visualised in the report that can be generated based on the valuation. Add the amount from the prepayment by inputing the number in the 'Current progress report' column. This is what it would look like on the report:   

      Download report

      Download report After the valuation is complete, reports will be available in PDF and XLSX formats. These reports can be downloaded as either a PDF or an XLSX file, which you can use as a billing statement. To download a report, go to the valuation you created and click 'Download PDF' or 'Download XLSX' in the top right corner, depending on the format you need.

      Document Income and Income Overview

      Within the 'Income' tab in the project menu row, you will find all documented income from the project, from here you can also document new income. 

      Processing income in Planyard ensures accurate tracking of your project’s financial progress and simplifies the process of keeping your budget up to date. Income can be processed in two different ways in Planyard. The first option is to register the income when a progress report has been carried out. The second option is to process income by registering a stand alone sales invoice outside the client contract without a related progress report. This means that you are able to document income in Planyard without creating a client contract. All documented income is stored under the 'Income' tab independently of how it was created. 

      Process Document Income via Progress Report 

      To process an income related to a progress report, follow these steps: 

      1. Navigate to the client contract
      2. Click on the ‘Related progress reports’ tab
      3. Click on the progress report for which you would like to document income
      4. In the top right corner, click ‘Create income’. NOTE: This is the same view you will be forwarded to once you have registered a progress report, meaning you can create income immediately after creating a progress report
      5. Fill out the requested information:
         
        1. Select company: This will be preselected based on the contact connected to the client contract
        2. Select document type: This field will be preselected to ‘Sales invoice for a payment application’
        3. Client progress report income name: Name the income.
        4. Select client progress report: This field will be preselected with the progress report from the previous stage.
        5. Comment for the accountant (optional): If you want to add any comments to the income, utilise this textbox.
        6. Below the fields to be filled out you will find the line items from the client contract. All the income will already be added based on the progress report, no adjustments are needed.
      6. Click ‘Submit’ to save the income. Once this is done, the income is registered and the cash flow for the project is automatically updated.
      The same process can be carried out by navigating to the 'Income' and then click 'New Income'. The only difference is that you manually have to add the client, select the document type manually and then select the progress report the income is related to manually. 

      Register Income without Client Contract

      The other option to register income is to process a standalone sales invoice within Planyard. This process is similar to processing a purchase invoice, but instead of tying costs to items in the budget, you tie income to items in the budget. Follow these steps to register a new income on your project:
      1. Navigate to ‘Income’ in the project menu row.
      2. Click ‘New Income’ in the top right corner.
      3. Fill out the requested information:
         
        1. Select company: Select the contact the invoice was sent to.
        2. Select document type: This option will be pre-filled.
        3. Document name: Name the income.
        4. Invoice total amount (optional): If the total amount of the sales invoice is added here, you will get an overview of the amounts that remain when allocating the income to the line items.
        5. Comments for the accountant: Add comments if needed.
      4. Below the information fields, select the line items from the budget you want to tie the income to, use the drop-down to select one or more items, or click ‘Select in bulk’ to get a full overview of the budget and use the checkbox to select which items to include
      5. Click ‘Submit’. Once this is done, the income is registered and the cash flow for the project is automatically updated.