Get paid for the work
you were told to do
A variation starts as an instruction on site and ends as money you either recovered or wore. Contractable keeps the record between those two points — priced the same way you price everything else, and visible on the same budget.
One project up to AU$1,000,000, with up to 25 tasks and subtasks, unlimited office users and three Mobile users. Full platform. No expiry — free until you start a second project. Consultation first, then we configure the account around your job.
A variation is priced with the estimating module, not a separate form
The variation modal is the same modal you use to build a task, and the same one you use to build a section. That is deliberate. Anything you can estimate, you can vary.
Task-shaped
Most variations. A material allowance, resource lines at a rate against hours, markup over cost. The same arithmetic as the tendered work, so the margin on the variation is comparable with the margin on everything else.
Section-shaped
A variation can take the shape of a whole section rather than a task, with its own subsections and tasks beneath it. That is how a project-sized variation gets priced and tracked without pretending it is a line item.
What sits on a variation
A description that carries the reference
The description field is where the variation names the work it relates to — the level, the riser, the room, the instruction it came from. It does not attach itself to an existing contracted section, because that would move the contracted project value.
Its own number and status
Every variation carries a number and a status of its own, so the register reads as a list of positions rather than a pile of emails.
Cost, sale and markup
Labour at your estimating sale rate, material at its allowance and markup. Profit is shown over cost, the same basis as the rest of the job.
A supply-only switch
Excluding a variation from Field Ops keeps it out of the work breakdown structure, so it cannot be scheduled against a resource or carry timesheeted hours. That is the right shape for a supply-only item with no labour for the business to plan.
There is no partial approval. There is a revision.
A builder who accepts part of a variation has not half-approved it. They have asked for a different one.
Creating a revision produces a new record with its own number, carrying the priced detail across so nothing is rekeyed. The original stays where it is, as the position you actually put. That matters six months later, when the question is not what was agreed but what was asked for and when.
Keeping both is the point. A register that quietly overwrites the first number cannot tell you how far you moved, or how often.
A setting, not an omission
On a fixed-price contract, attaching a variation inside an existing contracted section would conflict with the contracted project value, so it is off by default.
In cost-plus mode that conflict does not exist, and the parent-section behaviour can be switched on in the project settings. Two different commercial shapes, one structure, decided per project rather than argued about per variation.
The timeframe layer
This section describes work that is specified and not yet built. It is on this page so the design can be read in context — it is not a description of the product today.
Bring a variation you are still arguing about
We will build it in the estimating module the way you priced it, revise it the way the builder knocked it back, and show you what the register says afterwards.
One project up to AU$1,000,000, with up to 25 tasks and subtasks, unlimited office users and three Mobile users. Full platform. No expiry — free until you start a second project. Consultation first, then we configure the account around your job.