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Variations on site: agree them before the work starts

Hardly any job runs exactly as priced. A wall comes open and the pipework behind it has had it, the customer decides they want another socket after all, the floor needs levelling first. Extra work is not the exception, it is the normal run of things. What costs you money is rarely the work itself — it is the point at which it gets written down. Raise it on the final invoice and you are having an argument you could have won on site.

Keep the four cases apart

Everything that turns up mid-job tends to get lumped together as "extras". It bills very differently depending on which of these it actually is:

• A genuine variation: the customer wants something different or more than was agreed.
• An unforeseen condition: something nobody could see at the survey.
• A provisional sum coming in higher than allowed for.
• Putting right your own mistake — not chargeable, and saying so plainly buys you credit.
• Work that has dropped out. Credit it back; it costs you little and it is remembered.

Write it down while you are standing there

A text message saying "did a bit extra today" is not a record. A variation sheet is, as long as it is filled in on site rather than from memory that evening. At a minimum it wants:

• Which job it belongs to
• What is being done, in plain words
• Why: customer request, or what you found
• Estimated hours, materials and the figure
• Date, who raised it, and the customer signing it off
• At least one photo of what you found

The photo does most of the work. A rotten pipe on camera settles a conversation about four hundred in ten seconds. If the photo and the signature hang off the job automatically, you can still find them weeks later when the invoice is queried.

Show your working

A round number invites negotiation. Hours times rate, materials at cost plus your mark-up, plus a call-out where it applies, does not. Customers rarely argue with a rate they can see the shape of.

Where the money actually goes missing

The sheet gets signed and then never reaches the invoice. That happens the moment variations live in their own folder instead of alongside the hours and materials for the same job. Attach the lines to the job and they are already waiting when you invoice — and you can see at a glance what was priced against what it actually took.

Half of it is won in the original quote

Most variation arguments can be headed off before anyone starts. Say what is not included. Give provisional sums a clear figure and state that they are measured on completion. And put in writing that changes are confirmed in writing before they are carried out. If those lines sit in every quote by default, it no longer depends on who wrote it that day. More on what belongs in one in quotes that get accepted.