Most construction software tracks variations. ClaimStack manages them.
That sounds like a slogan, so let's be specific about the difference. A variation register is a list: number, description, amount, status. Someone types the status in. Someone else types the amount into the claim. When the subbie revises it, you get a new line, or someone overwrites the old one. Eighteen months later, at final account, nobody can say for certain what Variation 47 said when it was approved, who approved it, or whether it was claimed twice.
Variation management is controlling that whole life: who can raise it, who can answer it, what happens when it's revised, what gets locked and when, and how it lands in the claim without anyone re-keying a number. That's what we've built, and this is the full write-up of what it does.
Where something needs a particular plan, we say so at the point we mention it.
Every side of the contract, one record
Variations in ClaimStack live on head contracts, subcontracts and consultant contracts, at any depth of the chain. A developer can assess the builder's variations, the builder can assess its subbies', and the subbie can raise its own, all on the same platform.
The important bit is that it's one record, not two copies. When a subbie submits a variation to you, you're both looking at the same variation. When you approve it, their status says approved because it's the same record. There's no "our register" and "their register" to reconcile at the end of the month.
What it costs to take part: nothing. Anyone invited onto a project can submit, review and sign variations on our free Collaborator plan. Running your own projects, with your own variation workflows and approval chains, starts on Claims at $70 per seat per month.
Raising a variation
The party doing the work raises the variation, either as a draft to finish later or straight to the other side.
Each variation carries:
- A line-by-line breakdown, which can be nested and include margin and overhead rows
- Supporting documents attached at submission
- The contract clause it's made under and a correspondence reference
- A category
Line items can be imported from Excel, so a subbie pricing a big variation in a spreadsheet doesn't have to retype it.
The paying side can raise them too. Backcharges, contra charges, scope deletions, defect rectification and value management all run through the same process. The builder raises it against the subbie, and the subbie agrees or disputes it. That way the deductions sit in the same register, under the same rules, as the additions.
On contracts with an agreed schedule of rates, priced lines are checked against those rates. The check is advisory, and both the person pricing the variation and the person assessing it can see it.
Internal approval before it leaves your office
Before a variation goes to the other side, you can require it to clear your own internal review. A reviewer can approve it, edit it and submit it, reject it, or send it back for revision, and every review comment is kept.
Approval chains are set up the way your business actually signs things off:
- Multiple levels, each with a dollar band. Gaps between bands aren't allowed, so nothing falls through unapproved.
- Approvers by name, by role, or by project role. The project roles are Contract Administrator, Project Manager, Quantity Surveyor, Assessor and Project Administrator, filled per project.
- Per project, or a company default.
- Separate chains for head contract variations, for downstream variations when they're created, and for downstream variations when they're assessed, which is the moment your subcontract sum actually moves.
Clients get their own chain too. A client-side decision can be held at pending approval until their approver agrees, so it doesn't count before it's signed off.
Setting up your own chains is on Claims, Procurement, Commercial OS and Enterprise. Downstream and client-side chains are on Claims, Commercial OS and Enterprise. Taking part in someone else's chain is free.
The right person answers it, not anyone with access
Once a variation is submitted, the other party can approve it, assess it, reject it, ask for more information or send it back for revision.
A few controls stop the usual "who moved this to approved?" mystery:
- You can't approve your own variation. A company can never approve or assess a variation it submitted. Approving is limited to the responding party on the contract.
- Only the responding party answers. And only while the variation is actually submitted or under review.
- The submitter can withdraw it, but only before it's answered.
Assessing it properly
Assessment happens line by line, not just as one number at the bottom.
- For each line, the assessor can set a quantity, rate, amount and comment.
- The assessor can add lines: scope, margin, overhead, adjustments or credits.
- The line totals have to reconcile to the assessed figure. A breakdown that doesn't add up can't be saved.
- Partial approval is supported: anywhere from $0 up to the amount submitted, never more.
- Every line the assessor changes needs a reason, and approving through assessment requires a clause reference.
- Comments can also sit against the variation as a whole.
When it's done, there's an assessment PDF and an approval letter showing how the contract sum moves.
Revisions that don't wreck your register
This is where spreadsheets and most registers fall over.
When a variation is revised in ClaimStack, the revision keeps the same variation number, takes the next version, and links back to the one it replaces. The previous version is marked superseded. It's not deleted and not overwritten.
- Registers and the claim builder show only the latest version. A subbie can revise a variation four times and your register still shows one line, not four near-duplicates.
- Every earlier version stays readable in the revision history.
- Anything already claimed carries across the revision, so nothing is claimed twice.
- Only the latest version can be answered or revised, so nobody approves a superseded one by accident.
A variation can be revised from submitted, under review, assessed, rejected or withdrawn. Approved variations can't be revised.
Locked means locked
While a variation is a draft, or has been sent back for revision, it can be edited. Once it's submitted, it can only be withdrawn or revised.
Once a variation is approved, assessed, rejected or superseded, its title, description, submitted amount, assessed amount, forecast amount, category and clause are locked at the record itself, not just greyed out on screen. Only its status can still change.
On top of that:
- Drafts are the only variations that can be deleted.
- A variation used in a submitted claim can't be deleted at all.
- When a claim is submitted, the variation details it relied on are snapshotted with it. The claim shows what the variation said at the time it was claimed, permanently, even if the variation moves on later.
That's what matters at final account. What Variation 47 said when it was approved isn't an argument; it's a lookup.
Signed, if you want it signed
The approving side can send an approved variation out for signature. The side that raised it signs first, the approver countersigns, and both get the signed copy. It's built-in e-signing, with nothing extra to buy.
Into the claim, without re-keying
This is the part that closes the loop.
Variations appear in the claim builder ready to claim. You choose what you're claiming this period and nobody types a variation amount into a claim.
The amounts are controlled:
- A submitted variation can be claimed before it's approved, up to its submitted amount. On Australian jobs that's often how it works in practice: the variation is in dispute or awaiting an answer, and the claimant includes it in the payment claim anyway.
- Once it's approved, the ceiling drops to the approved figure. Where the assessor priced it line by line, each line is capped at its assessed amount.
- Partial claiming over several periods is supported. Each claim can take no more than what's left.
- If a variation is withdrawn, anything already claimed has to be credited back. If it's rejected, nothing more can be claimed against it.
That means the claimed-to-date figure on a variation can't drift past what's been agreed, and a withdrawn variation can't quietly stay in the claim.
Head contract to subcontract: following the money
Most variations on a job aren't standalone. The client approves a head contract variation, and three trades each carry a piece of it.
In ClaimStack, an approved head contract variation can be linked to the subcontract and consultant variations underneath it, each with an amount. So you can see what you got approved upstream against what it cost you downstream, variation by variation. The subcontractor or consultant can see the links that involve them.
Linking a head contract variation to purchase orders as well needs Commercial OS, since that's where POs live.
And because ClaimStack also runs your head contract claim to the principal, upstream and downstream variations sit in the same system as the claims they feed. More on that in our payment claims write-up.
Reporting and forecasting
Every report uses the same rule for what a variation is worth:
- Approved and assessed variations count at the assessed amount.
- Pending variations count at the amount submitted.
- Drafts aren't counted.
- Superseded versions are never counted twice.
You get:
- A variation register, grouped by status, as a PDF
- Bulk download: a ZIP of every submission PDF and attachment, organised by variation and revision. That's handy when a dispute starts, or an auditor asks.
- Notifications with the PDF attached, the sender's own team copied, and in-app alerts
On Commercial OS, variations also feed the commercial picture:
- A forecast position for each variation. Forecast at the submitted amount, the assessed amount or your own figure.
- Cost-to-complete, risk and opportunity lines on head contract variations
- A variation forecast position report and an approved-variation trend
- Budget allocations. Variations can be allocated to budget lines, and labour hours on timesheets can be tagged to a variation.
What it doesn't do (yet)
It's better to hear this from us:
- No extension of time field on variations. A variation can be approved at $0 for time only, but EOTs are managed as their own correspondence type, not as part of the variation.
- Supplier purchase orders don't have variations. POs are revised instead.
The short version
- One shared record on both sides of every contract, from developer to subbie
- Free for invited parties to submit, review and sign
- Internal approval chains with dollar bands and the right approvers
- No self-approval, and only the responding party can answer
- Line-by-line assessment that has to reconcile
- Revisions that supersede instead of duplicating
- Locked once approved, assessed, rejected or superseded
- Built-in signing
- Straight into the claim, capped at what's been agreed
- Head contract variations linked to the subcontract variations underneath
An approved variation you have to re-key into a claim is still admin. Here it's control.
See variation management on ClaimStack →
Frequently asked questions
Can a subcontractor claim a variation before it's approved in ClaimStack?
Yes. A submitted variation can be included in a payment claim before it's approved, up to its submitted amount. Once it's approved, the claimable amount is capped at the approved figure. If it's withdrawn, anything already claimed must be credited back, and if it's rejected, nothing more can be claimed against it.
Can a variation be edited after it's approved?
No. Once a variation is approved, assessed, rejected or superseded, its title, description, amounts, category and clause are locked. Changes are made by raising a revision, which supersedes the previous version and keeps the full history.
Can the party that submitted a variation approve it?
No. A company can never approve or assess a variation it submitted. Only the responding party on the contract can answer it.
Do subcontractors pay to submit variations on ClaimStack?
No. Anyone invited onto a project can submit, review and sign variations on the free Collaborator plan. The party running the project pays: Claims is $70 per seat per month (AUD, ex GST).
Can ClaimStack link head contract variations to subcontract variations?
Yes. An approved head contract variation can be linked to the subcontract and consultant variations underneath it, each with an amount, so you can compare what was approved upstream with what it cost downstream. Linking to purchase orders needs Commercial OS.
Does ClaimStack handle backcharges and contra charges?
Yes. The paying side can raise backcharges, contra charges, scope deletions, defect rectification and value management variations, and the other party agrees or disputes them through the same process as any other variation.