Planyard Subcontract management

In this article, you will find extensive information on contracts management in Planyard. This includes both subcontracts and client contract.

Table of contents 

Introduction

Planyard subcontract management introduction video

Create subcontract

Add subcontractor variation (change order) 

Introduction

In the fast-paced world of construction, managing contracts effectively is essential for maintaining control over project finances. Planyard’s Contracts Management feature is designed to give you a comprehensive overview of all active subcontracts related to your project. This tool allows you to see current billing statuses, committed costs, and manage essential aspects such as change orders, retention, and pre-payments with precision.

Additionally, Planyard enables the setup of client contracts. This capability not only tracks income from clients but also facilitates the management of client-related change orders and progress reporting. By centralising this data, Planyard helps you maintain a clear and actionable view of both expenditures and income, ensuring a balanced financial approach to project management.

Through this guide, you’ll learn how to Planyard contract features to their fullest potential, enhancing your ability to oversee and manage contracts efficiently. This will empower you to keep your projects on track and within budget, with all contractual obligations neatly organised and easily accessible.

Planyard subcontract management introduction video

1. Contract name: Name the contract. The contract name will be shown in the list of all your active subcontracts. 

2. Contract reference number: All subcontracts added to Planyard are assigned an automatically generated contract reference number, based on the project number. You can manually change this reference number if desired. If subsequent invoices for a subcontract include the contract reference, Planyard will automatically allocate the invoice to the correct project, link it to the contract, and pre-populate all relevant information, ensuring swift processing of subcontract invoices.

3. Select Supplier or Subcontractor: Find the subcontractor in the contacts list; you can search in the dropdown by typing. If the subcontractor is not added, click 'Add New Company' to the right.

4. Select Supplier or Subcontractor Contact: Select the contact person with the subcontractor; if there is only one contact added for the subcontractor, that person will automatically be selected. If the contact person is missing, click 'Add New Contact' to the right.

5. Days to pay invoices: Add the agreed number of days to pay invoices

6. VAT%: Add VAT percentage, this will be used when calculating retention.

7. Add subcontract retainage: Add the retention for the contract by entering the contract retention name and then specifying the retainage percentage. For every invoice issued for the contract, Planyard will automatically book retention corresponding to the percentage specified.
8. Manually book retention: You can choose to manually book retention, which means you will manually add the retained amount for each invoice processed for the contract. Click the button and add the contract retention name. 

9. Line Items: Connect your contract with your budget items to correctly allocate committed and approved costs. Choose to select line items one by one by clicking the dropdown (you can start typing to search for a line item). Alternatively, click 'Select in bulk' to see a full overview of your project budget. Check the boxes next to the cost headings or line items you want to connect to the contract and click 'Update selection. For each of your selected line-items, the following information will be displayed: 

   
   

   1. Line-item name: Name of the line-item

   2. Unit: Unit of measurement

   3. Quantity: Initially derived from the budget estimate; can be adjusted if the actual quantity differs from the budget estimate.

   4. Unit price: Initially based on the estimated cost in the budget; can be adjusted if the contract price differs from the budget estimate.

   5. Total Cost: Automatically calculated from the quantity and unit price. Alternatively, you can adjust the total price directly.

   6. Red cross: Click this to remove the line item.

   7. Three blue lines with a plus sign: Click this to create an additional breakdown of the line-items. This won't affect the main budget. 

Once you have an active subcontract on the platform, you can add variations (known as 'change orders' in US English) to the contract. Keeping track of variations is crucial for maintaining accurate project financials. This section explores how to add variations to your subcontracts and the subsequent steps once a variation is recorded. To streamline communication, we will use the term 'variations' throughout this guide, aligning with UK English terminology.

To add a variation to one of your subcontracts, navigate to the 'Subcontracts' section and select the desired contract from your list. You will then see an overview of the subcontract, including all related line items. To proceed with adding a variation, scroll down and click 'Add variation' on the right-hand side of your screen. You will now see a new box where you will add information on the variation: 

1. Add a name for the variation.
2. Connect the variation to a line item in your budget.
3. Enter the contracted quantity for the variation.
4. Specify the unit of measurement.
5. Input the contracted price per unit. The contracted cost will be automatically calculated based on the quantity and unit price.
6. Click 'Create change order' to finalise the variation.

Your variation is now created and has been added to your list of variations for the subcontract. The variation will automatically update the committed cost for the connected line-item. When invoices related to the contract arrive, the variation will be visualised so that you can directly allocate costs to the variation.