Change, priced and parked correctly

Variations are the part of a UK job where money leaks quietly. An instruction is given, work proceeds, and the valuation of the change trails weeks behind the physical progress. QScope closes that gap by treating every variation as a live entry rather than a note in a diary.

The register, not the memory

Each variation in QScope carries its instruction reference, its date, its status and its value. The status is what does the work: instructed, valued, agreed, disputed. Only agreed and instructed values flow into the gross valuation. Everything else is visible, priced as a best assessment, and clearly held apart from the certified figure.

Valuing on the right basis

The valuation basis follows the contract, and QScope records which one applies to each item.

• Bill rates. Where the varied work is of similar character and conditions, the contract rates apply directly.
• Pro rata rates. Where character is similar but conditions differ, the bill rate is adjusted, and QScope keeps the adjustment visible so it can be defended.
• Fair valuation. Where nothing comparable exists, the item is built up from resources.
• Dayworks. Recorded against signed sheets, with labour, plant and materials at the contract percentages.

JCT valuation rules and NEC4 compensation events

Under JCT the change is a Variation, valued under the valuation rules by the surveyor. Under NEC4 the same physical change is a compensation event, assessed on forecast Defined Cost plus fee, with the programme effect assessed at the same time. These are genuinely different mechanisms, and QScope does not pretend otherwise.

On a JCT job it holds the bill rate build-up. On an NEC4 job it holds the compensation event quotation and the cost and time it carries. The register is the same shape, but the valuation logic behind each entry matches the contract you are actually working under.

Reverse charge and CIS on a variation

A variation is valued net. The VAT domestic reverse charge for construction services and any CIS deduction apply to the payment, not to the measure. QScope keeps the variation value net so the change register reconciles to the valuation before tax treatment is applied downstream.

Why the register earns its place

At final account, the question is never just how much. It is which changes, instructed when, agreed by whom, valued on what basis. A register that has been kept live throughout answers that in an afternoon. A pile of instructions reconciled at the end answers it in a month, and usually in dispute.

QScope keeps the register live so the final account is a closing, not an archaeology project.