Running variations

The variation register and its stages

3 min read · Checked against the product 3 October 2026

Read the register at a glance: draft, active and rejected references, every stage from Potential Variation to Paid, ageing colours, contract clock labels, filters, export and import.

Variations, in the row of tabs, is the register: every variation on every project, with its reference, status, submitted value, what has been paid and how many days it has been outstanding. It is where the commercial team works.

References tell you the lifecycle

References are numbered per project. A variation keeps its D number while it is a draft, even once priced, takes the next V number when it is submitted to the main contractor, and becomes an R number if it is rejected. The icon beside each reference shows where it stands at a glance.

The stages

1. Potential Variation: captured, not yet reviewed.
2. Commercial Review: the QS checks it is genuinely a variation and the evidence is complete. It can be rejected from here.
3. Priced: a price is needed to move here, so build it first.
4. Submitted: sent to the main contractor, normally by email with a review link. The days outstanding start counting.
5. Awaiting Instruction: formally with the contractor. It can be rejected from here.
6. Under Review: the contractor is considering the price or has queried it. You can resubmit with a revised price, record a verbal agreement as Instructed, or withdraw it.
7. Instructed: you have the instruction. Enter an agreed value only if the price really is agreed; left blank, nothing is assumed.
8. Completed: the varied work is done and can go into a valuation.
9. Included in Valuation: linked to a monthly payment application.
10. Paid: settled, by settling a paid valuation or by recording payments that clear the value.

Rejected is the exit, and it is not final: a rejected variation can be brought back to Commercial Review. There is also a route from Priced straight to Completed, for work that went ahead with the contractor aware of the change but no agreement on price, to be valued at final account. Every move asks you to confirm, takes an optional note and is written to the audit trail.

Reading a row

• Days: on Submitted, Awaiting Instruction and Under Review rows the count runs from submission, turning amber at 28 days and red at 42.
• Paid: what has come in, with the balance left shown under a part-paid variation.
• Clock labels: on a project with notice tracking, an NEC row shows its compensation event clock and a JCT row its most urgent notice.
• Record payment: the button at the end of an Instructed, Completed or Included in Valuation row logs money the day it lands.

Filters, export and import

Narrow the list with All, Active, Drafts and Rejected, and by customer, project and status. Export CSV downloads the register you are looking at, and is open to the commercial roles only. Import brings an existing register across from a spreadsheet, one project per file, with a template to download and a preview before anything is written. A variation captured against the wrong project can be moved with “Move project” until it is submitted; it takes a new reference in that project and the move is recorded.

What good looks like

No draft older than a week, nothing red in the Days column without a chase behind it, and every Completed variation in a valuation.

Common mistakes

• Leaving captures in Potential Variation for weeks. Review drafts weekly and reject what is not a variation.
• Typing the asking price as the agreed value at Instructed. Leave it blank until a price is agreed; nothing is assumed in the meantime.
• Leaving dead variations in Submitted, which inflates the outstanding total and the ageing count.