Capturing variations

Capturing from the office: the web form, Site Capture and email-in

3 min read · Checked against the product 3 October 2026

Three more ways into the register: the New Variation form on the web, the Site Capture page for a shared tablet, and the project’s forwarding address for instructions that arrive by email.

Not every variation starts on site. Instructions arrive by email, a QS takes a call, a drawing revision lands in the office. VariationFlow gives the office three ways to capture, and every one of them lands in the same register as a draft, with the same evidence trail as a capture from the app.

The New Variation form

Choose “New Variation” in the header. The form asks what changed, the project, who requested it and the location, with photos, a voice note of up to 30 seconds, a signature pad for the requester and the same “Work has already started” switch as the app. It adds two things the phone does not have:

• Documents. Attach the paper trail at the moment of capture: a PDF drawing, an email, a spreadsheet.
• Estimated value. It is optional and best left blank. A guess at capture is a placeholder; the QS sets the real price when the variation is priced.

When it saves you get the new reference, with options to view the variation, capture another or go back to the register.

Site Capture for a shared tablet

Site Capture, in the row of tabs, is the same form as a full-screen page made for a tablet in the site cabin. Add it to the tablet’s home screen and it opens straight into capture. It keeps working without signal: captures, photos included, are saved on the device, a banner says so, and “Sync now” sends them when you are back online.

Email-in: forward the instruction

Every project has its own private forwarding address, shown on the project page under “Email-in capture” with a Copy button. Forward any site email to it, such as an instruction, a “can you also” from the client or a drawing change, and it lands in the register as a draft variation. The subject line becomes the description, and the email and its attachments are filed as evidence.

• Only emails from your own team’s addresses are accepted. Mail from anyone else is dropped, so forward from the address you were invited on.
• Up to ten attachments, each up to 10 MB, come across with the email.
• Nothing goes to the client automatically. The draft waits for pricing like any other capture.
• Requested By is filled with the name of whoever forwarded the email. Change it to the person who actually gave the instruction.
• If the card shows “Coming online soon”, forwarding is not yet switched on for your account.

What good looks like

• Every instruction email forwarded the day it arrives, so the email itself sits in the evidence package.
• Drafts reviewed within the week and either priced or rejected.
• A project’s documents attached to the variation they belong to, not left in a shared drive.

Common mistakes

• Forwarding from a personal address the system does not know, so the email is turned away.
• Typing an estimated value at capture and letting it stand as the price.
• Leaving the forwarder’s name in Requested By, which records the wrong person as the source of the instruction.