Projects
Projects for contractors: set up each job and its tasks, charge costs to it, bill the client by progress certificates under each contract, and follow what each job has earned, cost and is still owed.
33 articles
Setting up projects
Create and manage projects
Set up a project for each job you carry out, move it from draft to closed, and see at a glance what every job has earned and cost so far.Create a project from a won award
Turn an approved award into the project you will cost and bill, with its customer, value, dates, retention and advance copied over, or link it to a project you already have.Break a project into tasks
Add the work breakdown or cost codes of a project, up to three levels, so costs and revenue can be charged and reported task by task.Set up the project accounts
Choose the detail accounts that contract billing, retention, advances, project costs and subcontracts will post to, for the whole company or for one branch.
Project costs and figures
Charge costs and revenue to a project
Choose the project, and optionally the task, on your everyday documents so every cost and sale of the job reaches its figures without a separate entry.Follow a project's figures and cost ledger
See what a project has earned and cost, its margin, the figures by task, and every ledger line charged to it.Budget a project and compare it with actual cost
Plan a project's revenue and cost by account and task in a project budget, and compare it with what has actually been charged to the project so far.See what a project has committed on open orders
Next to the cost already posted, each task shows the value of purchase orders charged to it and not yet received, so you see what is coming before it reaches the ledger.
Contracts and billing
Add a client contract and its bill of quantities
Record the contract you signed for a project — its value, retention, advance, VAT and withholding terms — and enter or import its bill of quantities, ready to bill by certificates.Record variations to a contract
Change the quantity or rate of BOQ items, or add new items, through a variation that someone else approves; the approved change is applied to the bill of quantities.Prepare, approve and issue a progress certificate
Bill the client for the work measured to date, less what was already billed, retention, advance recovery and penalties, then approve and issue it to post it and file it with the tax authority.Record advance payments and release retention
Record the advance the client pays under a contract, see how certificates recover it, and release the retention the client holds when the job is handed over.Collect certificate payments and follow withholding tax
Record what the client pays against each certificate, including the tax they withhold, and follow what every contract still owes and the tax withheld in a quarter.E-invoice progress certificates
File issued progress certificates with the tax authority in Egypt or Saudi Arabia as tax invoices, with retention, advance recovery, penalties and withholding tax shown the way each regime expects.
Materials on site
Request materials for a project
Ask for the materials a site needs, have someone else approve the request, and follow how much has been issued from stock, ordered from suppliers and is still to supply.Issue materials to a project
Issue material from a store to a project and task; it leaves at its average cost, which is charged to the project's material cost.Return unused material from site
Bring material that was not used back to the store against the issue it went out on, at the same cost, so the project's cost goes down by exactly that value.
Subcontractors
Set up a subcontract
Record the agreement with a subcontractor on a project, its terms and its bill of quantities, typed in or copied from the client contract at the subcontractor's rates.Measure and issue a subcontractor certificate
Measure the subcontractor's work to date, deduct retention, advance recovery, penalties, back-charges and withholding tax, then approve and issue it to add what you owe to the subcontractor's account.Pay subcontractors and their advances
Pay an advance to a subcontractor, pay its issued certificates, and follow what you owe it on its supplier statement and in aged payables.Release retention to a subcontractor
When the subcontractor's work is accepted, release the retention held from its certificates; it becomes payable and is added to its supplier account.
Labour, equipment and site cash
Record the hours worked on projects
Record each employee's hours on a project and task, a whole crew's day at once, send them for approval and approve or reject them, so the month's labour can be charged to the projects.Set up crews and pay daily workers
Group employees into crews under a foreman so a day's hours go in at once, and pay daily workers for their approved days through the next payroll run.Record equipment use on projects
Mark the assets that work on sites with an hourly or daily rate, record the hours or days each machine worked on a project and its fuel, and let the monthly costing charge it.Charge labour and equipment to projects
Each month, charge the approved hours and equipment use to the projects and tasks they worked on, preview the figures first, and run a month again when late hours are approved.Give site staff cash custody and settle it
Open a cash custody for an employee with a limit, top it up, let the employee settle the expenses with receipts and charge them to projects, and take back the cash left.Post the cash margin of bank guarantees
When the bank holds a cash margin against a guarantee, post it out of the bank account on issue, back on release or expiry, and to a loss account when the guarantee is called.
Results: forecast, revenue and reporting
Revise a project's estimate at completion
Each month, enter what every task still needs to finish, see the cost and margin the project will end with, and have someone else approve the revision so revenue and reports use it.Recognise contract revenue at month end
Recognise each contract's revenue at month end by certified progress or cost-to-cost percentage of completion, with the contract asset or liability and a provision for loss-making projects.Read the WIP schedule
See every contract at a month end with its % complete, revenue earned against billed, and whether it is under-billed or billed in excess, and export it for the auditors.Read a project's profit and loss
See a project's revenue, cost and margin from its ledger, the margin it will end with, and each task's cost against budget and estimate at completion.Follow all projects in the portfolio
See every project's value, billing, backlog, margin and what clients owe in one list, with the projects heading for a loss flagged, and age what each contract is owed.Keep the site diary
Record each day on site, with the weather, manpower, equipment, work done by task, issues, delays, visitors and photos — have it approved, and print it for the consultant.
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