Variation Management
Keep change connected to the day it was worked.
Foras records variations where they actually happen — in the daily Site Diary — so every change carries its own labour, plant and materials evidence into the commercial position and, once agreed, into Approved Budget and the forecast.
Built for commercial teams who assess change — and site teams who live it.
Northgate Logistics Park — Phase 2 · Demo data
V-012 · Additional retaining-wall drainage
Raised from a Site Diary note · recorded in the Vars step
| Day worked | Recorded in Vars | Captured cost |
|---|---|---|
| Tue 11 Aug | Vars — 2 operatives, 7.5 hrs · 1 excavator, 4 hrs | £1,148 |
| Wed 12 Aug | Vars — 2 operatives, 9.0 hrs · materials from register | £1,462 |
| Thu 13 Aug | Vars — 1 operative, 4.5 hrs · note & photos attached | £514 |
| Captured to date | Labour, plant and materials at project rates | £3,124 |
Once agreed, an Approved Variation increases Approved Budget — and its captured cost is already in the position. Open a day to see the diary record behind a line.
The problem
Change is usually worked long before it is commercially recorded.
- Change worked before it is agreed
- The instruction comes verbally, the work happens that week, and the commercial record starts months later from memory.
- Evidence scattered across the site
- Labour, plant and materials for a variation sit in diary notes, photos and messages — reassembled by hand at valuation time.
- No captured cost to argue from
- Without a record of what the change actually used, assessment starts from estimates rather than evidence.
- Agreed values disappear into the budget
- Once a variation is approved, its effect on the budget and forecast is hard to see separately from the original scope.
The cost of a variation is rarely lost in one moment. It leaks away day by day, while the work is done and nothing is written down against it.
Capture at source
A variation starts as a day on site — record it there.
Vars is the Variations step of the same eight-step Site Diary the site team already uses. There is no separate change-logging process to remember.
- 01Raise it from the dayVariation flags, issue notes and photos in the Site Diary Notes step mean the event is recorded where it happened, while it happened.
- 02Record the work in VarsThe Vars step records the variations worked on that day, and Allocate can put people and plant hours against a variation — so change carries its own labour and plant record.
- 03Cost it from project ratesCaptured variation cost is priced from the same roles, plant and material register rates as the rest of the project — not a separate estimate built later.
Where the project uses a WBS, variation work can also carry Work Item detail — but WBS is optional per project, and the Vars step works the same either way.
The evidence chain
From the day it happened to the number you argue from.
A variation recorded in Vars accumulates its own captured cost day by day — labour from Roles and hours, plant from recorded usage, materials at register rates. That cost lands in the project cost position like any other captured work.
When the commercial team comes to assess the change, the record already exists: which days it was worked, what it used, and the notes and photos from those days. The discussion starts from evidence, not recollection.
The strongest position in a variation discussion is a cost you can trace to a day.
Northgate Logistics Park — Phase 2 · Demo data
V-012 · Additional retaining-wall drainage
Raised from a Site Diary note · recorded in the Vars step
| Day worked | Recorded in Vars | Captured cost |
|---|---|---|
| Tue 11 Aug | Vars — 2 operatives, 7.5 hrs · 1 excavator, 4 hrs | £1,148 |
| Wed 12 Aug | Vars — 2 operatives, 9.0 hrs · materials from register | £1,462 |
| Thu 13 Aug | Vars — 1 operative, 4.5 hrs · note & photos attached | £514 |
| Captured to date | Labour, plant and materials at project rates | £3,124 |
Once agreed, an Approved Variation increases Approved Budget — and its captured cost is already in the position. Open a day to see the diary record behind a line.
Commercial assessment
Evidence in Foras. Valuation in your process.
Foras does not replace your contractual valuation and agreement process — it makes sure that process starts from a complete, traceable record.
- Evidence stays attached
- Each variation line traces back to the diary days, notes and photos that created it, so the commercial review starts from the record rather than a reconstruction.
- Your valuation process stays yours
- Foras keeps the evidence and the captured cost; the contractual submission, negotiation and agreement of variations stay in your existing commercial process.
- Approval has a visible effect
- Approved Variations are a distinct part of the commercial model: Approved Budget = Original Budget + Approved Variations, so agreed change is never silently absorbed.
Forecast impact
Agreed change has a visible effect on the final position.
Approved Variations are explicit in the commercial model, so you can see the budget move — and see unrecovered change in the variance before it becomes a surprise.
How variations flow through the forecast · Northgate Logistics Park — Phase 2 · Demo data
- Approved Budget
- Original Budget + Approved Variations
- Adjusted CTD
- Captured cost to date, including variation work, reconciled to Finance
- Forecast Final Cost
- Adj CTD + Cost to Complete
- Forecast Variance
- Forecast Final Cost vs Approved Budget, £ and %
Worked-but-unagreed change is where margin quietly goes. Because variation cost is captured as it happens, the gap between what change has cost and what has been agreed is visible while there is still time to act on it.
Who it's for
Site records the change. Commercial recovers it.
Site Delivery Lead / Engineer
Flag the event, record the day in Vars, and attach the note and photos while the detail is fresh.
See which changes are being worked, what they have used so far, and whether agreed change is keeping pace with work done.
Assess change with the captured cost and day-by-day evidence in hand, and track agreed values through Approved Variations into the forecast.
Related solutions
Bring a variation you are still arguing about.
We’ll show you how it would have been recorded in the Site Diary, what its captured cost would look like, and how an agreed value moves Approved Budget and the forecast.