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Keep the changed work separate in your costs

Timesheets that mix changed work with base scope kill the claim before it is made, because nobody can later split the hours. Book labour, plant and materials to the variation reference every day, while the people who know are still on the job.

Updated: . By Jack Butler-Kettle, Construction Claims Consultant.

Why it matters

A variation valued on cost needs the cost. That cost lives on timesheets written by people who had no reason to split it. The gang did 8 hours on Tuesday, half on the change and half on the base scope, and the sheet just says 8. A month later nobody can say which half was which.

Your main contractor sees a claim for hours that could have gone on work already paid for, and refuses it. You cannot rebuild the split, because the only people who knew have forgotten. One extra column with a reference number, filled in daily, is the only way those hours ever get tied to the change.

How to do it

  1. Add a reference column to the timesheet, the plant sheet and the materials order, and make it compulsory.
  2. Tell your supervisors the reference on the day a variation is confirmed, and which work belongs to it.
  3. Book the hours, plant and materials to the reference daily, and have the supervisor initial the sheet.
  4. Check the variation bookings weekly against the job total, so you catch a missed day while you can still correct it.

Example

Illustrative example. The scenario and figures are invented.

The facts

A subcontractor is instructed to install fire stopping to 60 extra penetrations, reference V09, alongside its base scope on the same floors. The same gang does both. The work runs for 3 weeks.

What happens

  1. The supervisor is given the reference on the Monday, and the timesheet gets a column headed V09.
  2. Each day the gang books its hours by penetration count: base scope hours on one line, V09 hours on another.
  3. After 3 weeks, the sheets show 168 hours to V09, initialled daily, and 312 hours to the base scope.

The outcome

The variation is valued at 168 hours plus materials, and agreed. Had the hours been booked as one figure, the main contractor could have replied that half were for work already paid for.

To have this set up for you, see our Unpaid Variation Prevention service.