Built Logic

Pricing a variation went from 14 days to 3

At a main contractor in Surrey with 70 staff, building and refurbishing high-end homes for private clients, a variation used to take about 14 days to price. It takes 3 now, and 98% of variation value gets agreed, up from 93%: about £45,000 a year more.

Could this track our variations?

Key results

  • 14 → 3 daysTo price a variation
  • 93% → 98%Of variation value agreed
  • 9 → 3 monthsTo agree the final account
The business
High-end homes
Service
Variation Tracking
Live in
6 weeks
Paid back in
Approx 12 weeks
Size
70 staff

Background

They turn over about £12m a year, mostly through architects on JCT contracts. On high-end homes the client changes their mind a lot, so about £900,000 a year of their work came through as variations, across about 400 changes.

The challenge

Most changes were agreed on site, with the client or the architect, and confirmed in writing later. The site team kept the job moving. The architect’s instruction and the price followed when the QS got to it, often 2 weeks later, with 400 changes a year to work through.

By then the work was done. At final account, the client’s QS asked for the instruction behind each change, and a change with a late or thin record was harder to agree.

14 dayson average to price a variation, across about 400 changes a year

The solution

Code keeps the register, the numbering, the chasing and the deadlines, so every change stays on the register until it’s agreed. AI turns a site manager’s voice note or photo into a written change and a first price, because every change comes in differently.

What we built

  • Captures the change on site. The site manager sends a voice note or photo in Teams. It becomes a numbered change on the variation register.
  • Gets it in writing. It drafts the request for the architect’s instruction, sends it, and chases until it’s back.
  • Prices it. It takes quantities from the drawings and prices them from their own rates and recent quotes. The QS checks it.
  • Watches the programme. It flags any effect on time and the notice deadlines in the contract.
  • Builds the final account. Every change, its instruction and its price, in one pack for the client’s QS.

Tech stack

It runs on their own Microsoft 365 and Azure accounts. It works alongside the tools they already use.

Teams SharePoint Excel Word Power Automate Azure OpenAI Procore Bluebeam Revu Asta Powerproject

The results

  1. 01

    About £45,000 a year more agreed

    98% of variation value submitted was agreed, up from 93%, on about £900,000 of variations a year. Each change is in writing within days, with a photo and an instruction behind it.

  2. 02

    Variations priced in 3 days, not 14

    The QS checks a first price instead of starting from a blank sheet.

  3. 03

    Final accounts agreed within 3 months of completion

    Down from about 9, so the job is settled about 6 months sooner. The client’s QS gets one pack with everything in it.

  4. 04

    300 hours a year back for the QS team

    Mostly from writing up changes and chasing instructions.

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