Running a selection with the client

The appointment goes better when the schedule is already built and every allowance is visible. This is what to do during and after it.

The client can work through it themselves

Selections also appear on the client’s portal, so they can see what is outstanding and what they have chosen between appointments rather than waiting for you to send a schedule. See Client portal.

Record as you go

Enter each choice as it is made — product, colour, finish, size, price.

Not afterwards from notes. A schedule filled in from memory the next day is where the matt-versus-gloss problem comes from.

Each row has its own buttons on the right:

Button	What it does
Thumbs up	Marks the selection as approved by the client
House	Assigns the item to rooms
Box	Opens the product picker to change the client’s choice - from the item’s own products or the price list’s. It does not change the estimate
Pen	Edits the item’s details
Bin	Removes the item from the schedule

Two things are edited straight in the row: the quantity, and the internal note underneath the item name (click it to type). Neither needs a form.

Status at a glance

Every row carries a chip for its state, so the schedule reads at a glance and still reads when printed in black and white:

• Approved — the client has confirmed this selection. The row is also marked teal.
• Ordered — the item is on a sent purchase order. Nothing about the selection can change any more.
• Over allowance — the chosen product costs more than the contract carried, by the amount shown in the Difference column.
• In estimate — the BOQ item and the unsent orders carry this selection. Estimate not updated is its opposite on an approved row: see Updating the estimate.

Un-approving resets the selection

Taking an approval off an item also puts its product and quantity back to what the estimate had. You are asked to confirm before it happens.

Several items at once

Tick the box at the start of each row (or the one in the heading for everything shown, or the one on a category heading for that category) and a bar appears with the actions that apply to all of them: approve, un-approve, add to or remove from rooms, move to another category, update the estimate, remove from the schedule. Ordered items are skipped by approve and un-approve; approved items are skipped by remove.

When an allowance is exceeded

This is the conversation that matters, and it goes best at the moment of choosing.

1. Show them the allowance and what their choice costs.
2. Say plainly that the difference will be a variation.
3. Record the choice with both numbers visible.
4. Raise the variation promptly — not at the end of the job.

Creating the variation from the schedule

The ⋮ menu on the schedule has Create variation from selections. It lists every selection that differs from its allowance — allowance, chosen product, quantity and the difference — with each one ticked, and makes one variation with a line per selection: Provide ‘chosen’ in lieu of ‘allowance’, priced at the difference.

Anything already on a variation is shown underneath and left out, whether it went on through this button or was raised by hand, so running it again after new selections only picks up the new ones. Give it the client and a markup structure, and it opens the variation for you to check and send.

The menu item only appears for users who have the Variations module.

Worked example

The client chooses tapware at $1,900 against a $1,200 allowance.

Line	Value
Tapware selected by client	$1,900.00
Less PC allowance in contract	−$1,200.00
Net cost	$700.00
Margin 12%	$84.00
Variation, ex GST	$784.00

Showing the allowance as a credit is what makes this readable. A client who sees they are paying the difference accepts it; one who sees a $862 charge for tapware they thought was included does not.

Never let selections above allowance accumulate silently

A client who agrees to eleven small upgrades without seeing a variation for any of them gets a $9,000 surprise at the final claim. Each one was reasonable; the aggregate is what they react to. Raise them as you go.

Selections below allowance

They happen, and they are credits.

Raise them the same way. A documented credit keeps the contract sum accurate, and a client who sees you passing savings back trusts the ones going the other way.

Chasing outstanding selections

Undecided selections hold up the job. The order cannot be raised, and the trade cannot be booked.

Review them weekly against the schedule:

• Anything with a long lead time gets chased first
• Anything the programme needs soon gets chased next
• Anything holding up an order gets chased today

Tell the client what a delay costs in programme terms, at the time. A client who is told “we need the tile choice by Friday or the tiler moves to another job” usually decides. One who is told nothing assumes there is no hurry, quite reasonably.

Record the delay — see Calendar and delays. A client-caused delay is often a compensable one, and the record is what supports it.

Sign-off

Get the completed schedule signed.

Print it or export it, send it to the client, and ask them to confirm. Their confirmation is what settles a disagreement about what was chosen — and it makes the schedule the document everyone works from.

Send an updated copy whenever selections change.

After sign-off

1. Raise the variations for anything above or below allowance.
2. Update the estimate — one button copies the approved selections into the BOQ items and onto any order not yet sent, after showing you what the estimate will change by.
3. Raise the purchase orders — the product SKU goes on the order, which is what prevents substitution.
4. Confirm lead times against the schedule.