Commitments and sub invoices
Set up subcontracts and purchase orders with a schedule of values, change them with commitment change orders, and enter sub invoices with retainage.
Partly in the app today. Items marked Planned are not built yet.
A commitment is what you owe someone else on the job: a subcontract or a purchase order. The Commitments tool holds the contract, its schedule of values (SOV), its change orders and the invoices billed against it. Approved commitments are what the Budget shows as Committed Costs. For the concepts, see Subcontracts and commitment changes.
Open it from the project: Tools → Commitments. The tabs are Subcontracts, Purchase Orders and Invoices.
Create a subcontract or PO
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Create
Click Create Subcontract or Create Purchase Order. Pick the Contract Company (a vendor from the directory), a Number and Title.
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Set the terms
For a subcontract: Default Retainage (%), Inclusions, Exclusions and the contract dates (start, estimated completion, signed contract received, execution). For a purchase order: delivery date, ship via, payment terms, ship to and bill to.
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Build the SOV
On the Schedule of Values tab, add line items: Cost Code, Description, Qty, UoM, Unit Cost ($) and Amount ($) (leave it blank to use quantity × unit cost).
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Move it through status
Subcontracts go Draft, Out For Bid, Out For Signature, Approved, Complete (or Terminated or Void). Purchase orders go Draft, Processing, Submitted, Partially Received, Received, Approved, Closed. Set Executed (and the execution date) when it’s signed.
A commitment counts as committed cost once it’s approved (or complete, for a subcontract). Before that, its lines show as Pending Cost Changes in the budget.
Check Private contract under Contract access to keep a contract to the people who need it. Someone without access to the SOV sees the general information only.
Change a commitment
The Change Orders tab shows two lists:
- Approved Change Orders: PCOs against this contract from the Change Orders tool, usually created from the same change event as the owner change.
- Commitment Change Orders: direct changes. Enter a Title, Cost Code and Amount ($) and click Create CCO. CCOs go Draft, Pending, Approved, Rejected or Void.
The Revised Contract card adds them up: Original Contract Amount, Approved PCOs, Approved CCOs, Approved Change Orders and Revised Contract Amount.
Enter a sub invoice
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New Invoice
On the commitment’s Invoices tab, fill in Invoice #, Period Start, Period End and Billing Date.
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Bill against the SOV
The invoice opens with a line for each SOV item: Description of Work, Scheduled Value, From Previous, This Period, Materials Stored, Total Completed & Stored, %, Balance to Finish and Retainage. Enter This Period and Materials Stored; the rest calculates.
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Retainage
Retainage on each line is total completed and stored × the commitment’s retainage rate. The Invoice Summary shows retainage withheld to date.
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Review
Invoice statuses: Draft, Submitted, Under Review, Revise and Resubmit, Approved, Approved as Noted and Pending Owner Approval.
The project-level Invoices tab lists every sub invoice with contract, contract company, billing period, status and amount.
Export
Select rows in a list and use Export CSV. See Export to CSV and PDF.
Keep exploring
Related across os.construction
- DocsSubcontracts and commitment changesHow subcontracts and purchase orders are structured, how commitment change orders follow owner changes, and how sub invoices, retainage and compliance are checked against the commitment.
- BlogThe 3-way match, explained for construction APThe textbook 3-way match is a purchase order, a receiving report and an invoice. Construction AP needs a version that works for subcontracts, progress billing, retainage and lien waivers. Here's what to match, and where it breaks.
- DocsCommitments and change ordersSubcontracts, purchase orders, owner change orders and commitment change orders, and how one change flows from the field to the contract, the commitment and the budget.
- ExplainerBudget, commitments and cost: one ledger for the jobHow budget lines, subcontracts, POs and forecast to complete add up to estimated cost at completion in os.construction, on Riverside sample data.
- GlossaryAccounts payableMoney your company owes to subcontractors, suppliers and vendors for work, materials and services already billed.
- GlossaryThree-way matchAn AP control that checks an invoice against its purchase order and the receiving record before payment is approved.
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