Variations

Variations are instructed changes to the works, quantities or conditions after contract — added, omitted or altered — valued under the contract\'s variation machinery and adjusted against the contract sum.

The variation is where the design meets the money. Valuation follows the contract\'s hierarchy — bill rates first, then analogous rates, then fair rates plus reasonable profit — and the arguments cluster where the change is unlike anything the bills priced. Instruction first, valuation after: work ordered verbally and valued in hindsight is a claim wearing a different name.

Cumulative variations are the quiet budget killer. Each one priced reasonably, the total drifts beyond the cost plan\'s tolerance, and nobody decided to let it. A variation register with a running total against the contingency is not bureaucracy; it is the only honest way to know where the budget stands this week.

Related: final account · dayworks · provisional sum