Add a client contract and its bill of quantities

A project is billed through its client contracts. The contract holds the terms every certificate follows — retention and its cap, the advance and how it is recovered, VAT and withholding tax — and the bill of quantities (BOQ) the work is measured against.

Before you start

• Create the project. See Create and manage projects.

• The client must exist as a customer with a receivable account.

• For VAT, the tax must have a sales tax account. For e-invoicing, see E-invoice progress certificates.

Add the contract

1. Open the project and its Contracts tab, then select New contract.

2. Enter the Code and the Title, and choose the Customer. Add the Client's reference if the client numbered the contract.

3. Enter the Contract value and the dates.

4. Under Billing terms, choose the VAT and what VAT is charged on. Choose the second option only where VAT was charged when the advance was received, as in Saudi Arabia.

5. Enter the Retention %, and the Retention cap % if retention stops at a share of the contract value.

6. Enter the Advance % and how the Advance recovered is taken: in proportion to each certificate, or at a fixed percentage.

7. Optional: the Payment terms (days), the Withholding tax code and Withholding %.

8. Choose how its Revenue recognition works: by certified progress (the default), or by cost-to-cost percentage of completion. See recognise contract revenue at month end.

9. Select Save. The contract opens as a draft.

Enter the bill of quantities

On the Bill of quantities tab, while the contract is a draft:

1. Select Add item. Enter the Item code, the description, the Unit, the Quantity and the Rate. Choose the project Task the item belongs to, so its revenue is reported by task.

2. Tick Heading for a line that only groups items; choose it in Under heading on the items below it.

3. Tick Provisional for an item that may be measured beyond its quantity.

To load a long bill at once, select Template to download the columns, fill them in, then Import the file. Rows with a code already in the bill are reported and skipped.

Activate the contract

Select Activate contract. From then on certificates can be raised, and the bill of quantities changes only through approved variations. See Record variations.

Common questions

Can I change the retention or the client later? Until the first certificate is issued. After that, the billing terms and the client are fixed so every certificate follows the same rules.

The BOQ total differs from the contract value. That is allowed: the contract value is what was signed, the BOQ is what will be measured. The contract page shows both.