Jobs

A Job is a live, awarded contract. Jobs are created automatically when a tender is marked Won, inheriting its client, project, value, priced BoQ, drawings and take-off. From here the job becomes the home for everything commercial: costs, variations, valuations, cashflow and the final account.

The commercial summary

The strip across the top of a job is your at-a-glance P&L. Here's exactly what each figure means:

Figure	How it's calculated
Contract Sum	The awarded value
Approved Variations	Σ agreed variation amounts, with the % drift = (projected − contract) ÷ contract
Variations Outstanding	Σ claimed amounts of open variations/claims (not yet agreed), with a count
Projected Final Account	Contract sum + agreed variations
Certified to Date	Σ certified on payment applications, vs the total applied for

 1Projected final account = Contract sum + agreed variations
 2Anticipated final        = Projected final + outstanding claims (in play)
 3Drift %                  = (Projected final − contract sum) ÷ contract sum × 100

The tabs

Tab	What's there
Details	Contract terms, project overview
Commercial Register	All contractual events — variations, instructions, claims
Variations	Detailed variation management with valuation breakdown
Payment Applications	Interim valuations and certification tracking
Cost Ledger	Actual and committed costs
Documents	Drawings and files, with the take-off tool

The header buttons open the Bill of Quantities, Cost Value Reconciliation, Cashflow Forecast and Final Account.

Contract terms

On the Details tab, set the terms that drive the commercial engine:

Contract sum (seeded from the won tender).
Contract type (JCT, NEC4, SBCC, Standard) — sets payment and notice timescales; see Payment Applications.
Retention % and limit of retention % — see Retention.
Practical completion date and defects liability (months) — schedule retention release.

The Cost Ledger

The Cost Ledger records what the job actually costs. Each entry has a type (Labour, Material, Plant, Subcontract, Prelim, Other) and a status that decides how it counts:

Status	Meaning	Counts as
Committed	Ordered, not yet invoiced	Future spend
Accrued	Work done, not yet invoiced	Cost to date
Invoiced	Invoice received	Cost to date
Paid	Settled	Cost to date

These feed the CVR (where they're compared against the BoQ budget) and the Cashflow Forecast (where they become cash out, 30 days after the cost date).

Where to go next

Bill of Quantities — the priced schedule and cost baseline.
Cost Value Reconciliation — live margin.
Cashflow Forecast — working capital month by month.
Final Account — close-out and settlement.

Tip: Keep the Cost Ledger current as invoices arrive — the CVR, the forecast and your margin are only as accurate as the costs entered.

Bill of Quantities (BoQ)

The Bill of Quantities is the priced schedule of everything the works contain. It's the heart of the estimate at tender stage and the cost baseline once the job is live. Get it right and it drives your pricing, your Cost Value Reconciliation, your Cashflow Forecast and your Final Account — all from one source.

How a BoQ is structured

A BoQ is built in three layers:

Layer	What it is	Example
Section	A heading that groups items	"Roofing", "Preliminaries"
Item	A measured line: quantity × unit rate	"Slate roofing — 250 m²"
Build-up	The cost lines that make an item's rate	Labour + Slates + Battens

Items can be nested under a parent item to create sub-totals. Only the bottom-level (leaf) lines are counted in the BoQ total — parent/heading rows group their children but are never double-counted.

How a line total is calculated

Each item line is simply:

 1Line total = Quantity × Unit rate

Quantities can be typed in, or measured straight off a drawing with the Take-off tool and linked to the item — see the Take-off guide.

How a unit rate is built up

Rather than guessing a rate, you can build it from its components. Each build-up line has a type (Labour, Material, Plant or Subcontract), a quantity and a cost. The item's unit rate is the sum of its build-up lines:

 1Unit rate = Σ (build-up cost × build-up quantity)

Worked example — a roofing rate (per m²):

Labour: 0.4 hr × £28/hr = £11.20

Slates: 1.05 m² × £24/m² = £25.20

Battens & fixings: £3.10

Unit rate = £39.50/m². At 250 m², the line total is £9,875.

Build-up types matter: they let the system analyse your cost by Labour / Material / Plant / Subcontract, which powers the budget column in the CVR and the labour/material uplifts in Adjudication.

The BoQ net cost

 1BoQ net cost = Σ all leaf-item line totals

This is your cost — before any margin. Turning it into a tender price is the job of Adjudication (see that guide).

Working the BoQ

At tender stage the BoQ is worked in three steps, each with its own screen:

Build — set up sections and items (the structure).
Price — apply unit rates and build-ups.
Packages — group items into Trade Packages for subcontractor enquiries (see the Adjudication & Trade Packages guide).

Importing

A BoQ can be imported from a spreadsheet to save re-keying a client's pricing schedule — useful when you're given a blank bill to price.

Tip: Always classify your build-up lines by type. It costs nothing extra at pricing time and unlocks accurate budget-vs-actual analysis later in the CVR.

Take-off & Markup

The Take-off tool lets you measure quantities directly off a PDF drawing — lengths, areas and counts — and feed them straight into your Bill of Quantities. Open any drawing from a tender or job's Documents to start.

The workflow

Open the drawing.
Calibrate the page scale (do this first — measuring is locked until you do).
Measure — draw lines, areas or counts.
Link each measurement to one or more BoQ items.
Export an annotated PDF and a measurement schedule if you need a record.

1. Calibrate the scale

Bidix has to know how many real-world metres a pixel represents. Two ways:

Known dimension — draw a line along something of known length (say a 5 m grid line) and type in the real distance. The scale is then:
```
 1scale factor = real distance ÷ line length in pixels
```
Standard ratio — pick a drawing ratio (1:50, 1:100, …) and the base unit (m/cm/mm); Bidix works the scale out from the page geometry.

The scale is saved per page. If you re-calibrate later, every existing measurement on that page is recalculated automatically from its original geometry — you never have to re-draw.

Measurements are locked until the page is calibrated — a red banner reminds you. This stops accidental "uncalibrated" quantities entering your BoQ.

2. Measurement types and how they're calculated

Tool	Measures	How
Linear / polyline	Length (m, lm)	Sum of segment lengths × scale
Polygon area	Area (m²)	Shoelace formula × scale²
Rectangle	Area (m²)	width × height × scale²
Ellipse	Area (m²)	π × r₁ × r₂ × scale²
Count	Number (nr)	1 per pin placed

Areas scale by the square of the scale factor; lengths scale linearly. Hold Shift while drawing to lock to horizontal/vertical.

3. Modifiers — pitch and depth

Two adjustments handle 3-D reality from a 2-D drawing:

Pitch (for areas) — corrects a plan area to a sloped (true) area:
```
 1true area = plan area ÷ cos(pitch°)
```
A 100 m² roof plan at 30° pitch = 100 ÷ cos 30° = 115.47 m².
Depth/height (for lengths) — turns a length into an area:
```
 1area = length × depth     (unit changes from m to m²)
```
A 20 m wall run at 3 m high = 20 × 3 = 60 m².

4. Deductions (voids)

Mark a measurement as a deduction to subtract it — for openings, voids or omissions. Deductions draw with a dashed outline and are netted off the linked BoQ item (the quantity is never allowed to go below zero).

5. Linking to the BoQ

A measurement can feed one or many BoQ items, and an item can be fed by many measurements — so you can take off guttering (linear metres) plus downpipes, outlets and stop-ends (counts) and roll them into one item, or split one measurement across several.

When measurements are linked, the BoQ item's quantity is recomputed as:

 1quantity = max( 0 , Σ (each measurement, deductions subtracted) )

Worked example — one BoQ item fed by three measurements:

Roof area (polygon): +120 m²

Extra dormer (polygon): +15 m²

Rooflight void (deduction): −4 m²

BoQ quantity = 120 + 15 − 4 = 131 m².

The item adopts the unit from the first non-deduction measurement.

6. Layers and export

Group measurements into layers (e.g. by trade or floor) and toggle their visibility. When you're done, export an annotated PDF with your markups and a measurement schedule for the record.

Tip: Calibrate first, measure second, link last. Because re-calibration recalculates everything automatically, a scale you fix later won't cost you the morning's take-off.

Variations

A Variation is a change to the contracted scope — extra work, an omission, or a change instructed by the client or main contractor. Variations live on the job's Commercial Register and, once agreed, flow into the Projected Final Account and the CVR.

Two ways to raise one

From the job (quick) — open the job's Commercial Register tab and log a change fast with its headline value.
From the job's Variations tab (detailed) — the full form, including a line-by-line valuation breakdown. The job is already set, so you don't re-select it.

Both produce the same record; the detailed form simply captures more.

The valuation breakdown

Rather than entering a single lump sum, you can build the value up line by line:

 1Line amount   = quantity × rate
 2Claimed value = Σ all line amounts        (pre-fills automatically)

Each line has a type (Labour, Material, Plant, Subcontract, Preliminary, Other), a quantity, a unit and a rate. The breakdown total pre-fills the claimed value, which you can still adjust.

Key fields

Field	Purpose
Reference	Your variation number, e.g. `VO-001`
Instructed by	Who originated the change
Title / scope	What the change is
Contract clause	The clause it's claimed under
Claimed vs agreed amount	What you've asked for vs what's been agreed
Programme impact	Extension of time claimed and agreed, in days
Notified / response / resolved dates	The timeline

Status and the final account

Open → Agreed / Rejected → Closed

Important: only variations marked Agreed (with an agreed amount) count towards the Projected Final Account and the CVR. Until then they show as outstanding — visible in the job's commercial summary as claims "in play" but not yet in the forecast value.

Response deadlines — protecting entitlement

Set a notified date and Bidix calculates the response deadline from the contract type and the kind of notice. Typical response windows:

Notice type	NEC4	JCT / SBCC	Standard
Early Warning (EWN)	7 days	—	7 days
Compensation Event (CE)	21 days	—	—
Variation (VAR) / Instruction (AI)	—	14 days	14 days
Extension of time (EOT)	21 days	14 days	14 days

The register colour-codes each deadline so you can act in time:

Colour	Meaning
🟢 On track	More than 3 days to respond
🟠 Due soon	3 days or fewer remaining
🔴 Overdue	Past the response deadline
⚪ Resolved	Agreed, rejected or closed

Tip: Notify early and let the deadline calculate itself. The compliance colours exist to protect your entitlement — a late notice can lose it under the contract.

Payment Applications

A Payment Application is your interim valuation — what you're claiming for work done in a period. Bidix tracks the full cycle the Construction Act expects: what you applied for, what was certified, the notices due, and what was finally paid — and it derives every statutory date for you so nothing becomes time-barred. Find them on the job's Payment Applications tab.

The cycle

Submitted → Certified → Paid (or Overdue if the final date passes)

Field	Meaning
Applied amount	The gross value you're claiming this period
Certified amount	What the payer certifies as due
Retention	Deducted automatically per the job's terms (override if needed)
Paid amount / paid date	Recorded on settlement

The statutory dates

Set the application date and Bidix derives the rest from the job's contract type (you can override any of them). The day counts are:

Contract	Payment due	Final date for payment	Pay-less notice
JCT / SBCC	application + 14 days	due + 17 days	final − 7 days
NEC4	application + 21 days	due + 14 days	final − 7 days
Standard	application + 30 days	due + 14 days	final − 7 days

The payment notice is due 5 days after the payment due date in all cases.

Worked example — JCT, applied 15 Jun 2026:

Payment due: 29 Jun (15 Jun + 14)

Payment notice due: 4 Jul (due + 5)

Pay-less notice due: 9 Jul (final − 7)

Final date for payment: 16 Jul (29 Jun + 17)

The list flags applications overdue against the final date for payment (with the number of days), and warns when one is due soon (within 7 days).

Notices and what's legally payable

This is where the Construction Act bites. Bidix works out the notified sum — the amount that must legally be paid — from the notices served and whether they were served on time:

 1Notified sum =  pay-less notice amount   (if a valid pay-less notice was served)
 2             →  else payment notice amount (if a valid payment notice was served)
 3             →  else the full applied amount   (the payee's right under the Act)

A notice served after its deadline is ineffective, so the amount falls back down the list. From the notified sum:

 1Shortfall    = max(0, applied amount − notified sum)     (what the payer is withholding)
 2Net payable  = max(0, notified sum − retention)          (what's due after retention)
 3Outstanding  = max(0, net payable − paid amount)         (still owed)

Why it matters: if the payer misses both notice deadlines, the full applied amount becomes payable — the "smash-and-grab" right. Bidix tracks those deadlines precisely so you know where you stand.

Cadence

The expected interval between applications is configurable (monthly by default), and Bidix can suggest the next application date from the job's most recent one.

How it feeds the rest of the system

Applied and certified values drive Value Earned in the CVR.
Certification and payment dates feed the Cashflow Forecast.
Retention deducted here flows through to retention release — see the Retention guide.

Tip: Enter the application date and let Bidix calculate the deadlines — then act on the pay-less notice date in particular. For a payer, missing it can mean paying the full claim; for a payee, it's the date your entitlement crystallises.

Retention

Retention is the percentage a payer withholds from each valuation as security, released in two halves — once at practical completion, and once at the end of the defects period. Bidix calculates it automatically on every Payment Application and tracks the running position and release dates for you.

The job's retention terms

Two settings on the job drive everything (set them on the job's Details):

Setting	What it does	Default
Retention %	The percentage withheld from each certified valuation	5%
Limit of retention %	A cap on total retention, as a % of the contract sum	3%
Practical completion date	When the first half is released	—
Defects liability (months)	Months after PC until the second half releases	12

How it's deducted on each application

For each payment application:

 1This application's retention = valued amount × retention %

where the valued amount is the certified figure if entered, otherwise the applied figure. The running total is then capped so total retention never exceeds the limit:

 1Cap (£)        = contract sum × limit %
 2Retention kept = max( 0 , min( this application's retention , cap − already held ) )

Worked example — £500,000 contract, 5% retention, 3% limit:

Cap = £500,000 × 3% = £15,000.

Apps 1–3 would withhold £5k + £9k + £10k = £24k at 5%…

…but the cap stops it at £15,000 total. Once £15k is held, later applications withhold nothing further.

You can always override the retention figure on an individual application if a one-off arrangement applies.

How it's released

Retention is released in two equal halves (moieties):

Release	When	Amount
First half	Practical completion date	Half of total held
Second half	PC + defects liability months	The remaining half

 1Outstanding retention = total held − released so far

If no practical completion date is set, no release is scheduled yet — the full amount stays outstanding.

Continuing the example: £15,000 held → £7,500 released at practical completion, £7,500 at the end of the 12-month defects period.

Where it shows up

The net payable on each payment application is after retention is deducted — see the Payment Applications guide.
The two release tranches appear as cash-in events in the Cashflow Forecast, dated to PC and the end of defects.
Outstanding retention is carried into the Final Account settlement.

Tip: Set the practical completion date as soon as it's known. It's what schedules your retention release — and a meaningful sum of cash usually rides on it.

Cost Value Reconciliation (CVR)

The CVR answers the most important question on any job: are we making the margin we expected? It brings the value you've earned and the cost you've incurred together in one place, so profitability is visible at any point — not just at the end. Open it from the Cost Value Reconciliation button on a job.

The four headline figures

Card	What it shows
Final Account	Contract sum + agreed variations
Value Earned	% complete, with applied and certified to date
Cost to Date	Incurred cost, plus committed cost not yet invoiced
Margin to Date	£ and %, against budget and forecast margins

How each figure is calculated

Value

 1Final account  = Contract sum + agreed variations
 2Value earned   = Σ (certified amount, or applied amount where not yet certified)
 3% complete     = Value earned ÷ final account     (capped at 100%)

Only variations marked Agreed are included. A claimed-but-unagreed variation does not lift the final account until it's agreed.

Cost

Costs come from the Cost Ledger, and their status decides how they count:

Cost status	Counts as
Accrued, Invoiced, Paid	Cost to date (incurred)
Committed	Committed (shown separately — future spend)

 1Cost to date = Σ costs with status accrued / invoiced / paid
 2Committed    = Σ costs with status committed

Margin

 1Margin to date   = Value earned − cost to date
 2Margin %         = Margin to date ÷ value earned × 100
 3
 4Budget margin %  = (Final account − BoQ budget cost) ÷ final account × 100

The budget cost is the BoQ net cost analysed by type (Labour, Material, Plant, Subcontract) — see the Bill of Quantities guide.

Forecast

Bidix extrapolates the likely out-turn from your run-rate so far:

 1Forecast cost   = Cost to date ÷ % complete          (once > ~2% complete)
 2                  — but never less than cost to date + committed
 3Forecast profit = Final account − forecast cost

Early in a job (under ~2% complete) the forecast falls back to the BoQ budget, because a run-rate from almost no data would be meaningless.

Worked example — £500k contract, £50k agreed variations:

Figure Value

Final account £550,000

Value earned (certified) £480,000 → 87% complete

Cost to date £140,000

Committed £40,000

Margin to date £480k − £140k = £340,000 (70.8%)

Budget margin (£550k − £380k) ÷ £550k = 30.9%

Forecast cost max(£140k ÷ 0.87, £140k + £40k) = £180,000

Forecast profit £550k − £180k = £370,000 (67.3%)

Figure	Value
Final account	£550,000
Value earned (certified)	£480,000 → 87% complete
Cost to date	£140,000
Committed	£40,000
Margin to date	£480k − £140k = £340,000 (70.8%)
Budget margin	(£550k − £380k) ÷ £550k = 30.9%
Forecast cost	max(£140k ÷ 0.87, £140k + £40k) = £180,000
Forecast profit	£550k − £180k = £370,000 (67.3%)

Cost analysis: budget vs actual

A table breaks cost down by type — Labour, Material, Plant, Subcontract, Prelim, Other — comparing the BoQ budget against actual and committed cost, so you can see exactly where margin is being won or lost. Each type expands to its individual resources (e.g. "Scaffold hire", "Insulation").

Snapshots

Freeze a CVR at a period end to keep a record. Frozen snapshots build a history of value, cost and margin period by period — ideal for monthly reporting and spotting whether margin is trending up or down. The CVR also exports to PDF.

Keeping it accurate

The CVR is a read-only view of data entered elsewhere. To change the numbers:

add or update costs in the Cost Ledger;
mark variations Agreed (only agreed variations count); and
record certified amounts on your Payment Applications.

Tip: Freeze a snapshot at each month end. Comparing snapshots is the quickest way to see whether margin is improving or eroding — and the forecast column gives you early warning long before the final account.

Cashflow Forecast

The Cashflow Forecast projects money in against money out, month by month, so you can see your working-capital position before it becomes a problem. It combines what's already happened with a forecast of what's to come, and flags the lowest point — the month you'll need the most cash.

Open it from the Cashflow Forecast button on a job.

The timeline

The forecast runs across a rolling window — roughly two months back and the next nine ahead — with an opening balance carried in from everything before the window starts. Each month shows cash in, cash out, the net, and the running cumulative balance.

What counts as cash IN

Source	Amount	Dated to
Payments received	What was actually banked	The paid date
Outstanding valuations	Net payable still owed on unpaid applications	Final date for payment (or now, if overdue)
Retention release	Each half of retention held	Practical completion / end of defects
Run-rate (open jobs)	Projected future valuations to complete the job	Through the full payment cycle

The run-rate fills in the future: for a job that isn't finished, Bidix estimates the remaining turnover (final account − applied to date) and spreads it forward at your recent application rate, dating each receipt to the end of its payment cycle.

What counts as cash OUT

Source	Amount	Dated to
Incurred costs	Accrued, invoiced and paid costs from the Cost Ledger	Cost date + 30 days (payment lag)
Committed costs	Orders placed but not yet invoiced	Cost date + 30 days

The 30-day lag reflects that you typically pay suppliers a month after the cost is booked.

Reading the forecast

Cumulative balance — your projected cash position at each month end.
Lowest balance / lowest month — the trough, and when it falls. This is the figure to plan facilities around.
Actual vs forecast — each month separates money already banked/spent from projected amounts, so you can see how much of the picture is committed.

Worked example (simplified):

Month In Out Net Cumulative

Apr £95k (paid) £60k +£35k £35k

May £171k (paid) £45k +£126k £161k

Jun £200k (forecast) £75k +£125k £286k

Oct £7.5k (retention) — +£7.5k …

The cumulative line is what tells you whether you can fund the next stage.

Month	In	Out	Net	Cumulative
Apr	£95k (paid)	£60k	+£35k	£35k
May	£171k (paid)	£45k	+£126k	£161k
Jun	£200k (forecast)	£75k	+£125k	£286k
Oct	£7.5k (retention)	—	+£7.5k	…

Keeping it accurate

The forecast is only as good as the data behind it. To sharpen it:

keep the Cost Ledger current (drives cash out);
record paid dates on settled applications (turns forecast into actual);
set the practical completion date (schedules retention release).

Tip: Watch the lowest month, not just the closing balance. A healthy end position can still hide a mid-job dip that needs funding.

Final Account

The Final Account is the close-out statement: the agreed total value of the works, what's been received, what's still owed, and the final margin. It pulls everything together — contract, variations, claims, payments and retention — so you can settle the job cleanly and lock the result.

Open it from the Final Account button on a job.

How the final account total is built

 1Final account total
 2  =  Contract sum
 3  +  Agreed variations          (only variations marked "Agreed")
 4  +  Remeasurement adjustment   (final measured quantities vs contract)
 5  +  Loss & expense             (agreed claims)
 6  −  Contra-charges             (deductions / back-charges, entered positive)

Worked example:

Contract sum £500,000

Agreed variations +£50,000

Remeasurement +£8,000

Loss & expense +£6,000

Contra-charges −£3,000

Final account total = £561,000.

The settlement position

Alongside the value, the statement reconciles what's actually changed hands:

Figure	Meaning
Applied to date	Total you've applied for across all valuations
Certified to date	Total certified (or applied, where not yet certified)
Paid to date	Cash actually received
Retention held / released / outstanding	From your retention position
Received to date	Paid + retention already released
Outstanding total	Final account total − received to date
Final payment due	Outstanding total − retention still to be released

The split between outstanding total and final payment due matters: it separates what's payable now from the retention that only falls due at the end of the defects period.

Margin reconciliation

The statement closes the loop against your CVR forecast:

 1Final margin    = Final account total − forecast cost at completion
 2Final margin %  = Final margin ÷ final account total × 100
 3Variance        = Final account total − forecast value   (the remeasure + claims uplift)

This tells you whether the job landed where the CVR predicted, and how much the final value moved beyond the agreed contract-plus-variations figure.

Freezing the account

When the account is settled, agree it. This:

marks the final account Agreed;
stores the agreed total and a full snapshot of the statement; and
records who agreed it and when.

The frozen statement is a permanent record for audit and dispute purposes.

Before you close out

For an accurate final account, make sure:

every variation is marked Agreed with its agreed value (see Variations);
the remeasurement, loss & expense and contra-charges are entered;
paid dates are recorded on all applications; and
the practical completion date is set so retention is reconciled correctly.

Tip: The final account is a statement, not a data-entry screen — it reads from the job. Tidy the variations, costs and payments first and the close-out falls into place.

Core Commercials

Retention

Document Vault