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Commitments - Overview

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 Budget - Overview

Commitments - Overview 

The Project Manager/Estimator will create Commitment(s) with Sub-contractor(s) and/or Vendor(s) which is an agreement to provide services, equipment, labor, materials etc.  to deliver the project. 

Note* A Commitment is the agreement between whomever is managing the work and whomever is delivering the work. In most cases the person managing the work is a Project Manager or Estimator and whomever is delivering the work is the Vendor or Subcontractor. The Project Manager or Estimator is usually considered the General Contractor, however, the Organization running JobPlanner could also be a Specialty Contractor or Sub Contractor. Throughout the help, a General Contractor, Specialty Contractor or Sub Contractor is referred to as the Project Manager/Estimator.

The Commitment is also referenced as an Accounts Payable (as payments need to be paid).

Note* In industry the term Contract may apply to the legal agreement between the Client/Owner and the General Contractor OR the General Contractor and the Subcontractors. In JobPlanner, the legal agreement between the Client/Owner is referred to as a Contract. The legal agreement between the General Contractor and the Subcontractors is referred to as Subcontract to differentiate the two. (For more information on Contracts, see Contracts – Overview). 

Commitments are recorded in the system in the form of:

  • Subcontracts – usually involves a written contract where the work, equipment, materials etc. is delivered over a period of time and may be invoiced and billed for in increments
  • Purchase Orders – usually a one-off delivery of labor, material or equipment that is fully paid for at one time. 

When referring to Commitments in the system, it refers to both Subcontracts and Purchase Orders. 

Commitments are tracked and managed for budgeting, cash flow management and estimating purposes as well as the overall management of whether a Commitment was fulfilled and its status. 

Maintain only Purchase Orders, only Subcontracts or Both

The System Administrator can set whether or not

  • Both Purchase Orders and Subcontracts are enabled
  • Just Purchase Orders are enabled
  • Just Subcontracts are enabled

The Commitments functionality will appear slightly differently depending on the setting (see Settings - Commitments - Commitment Settings for more information).

Commitment Information

For Commitments, there are Core Fields that are prebuilt into the application.

Some Commitment Core Fields apply to both Purchase Orders and Subcontracts and some apply only to a Purchase or only to a Subcontract.

Some of the Core Fields are required for each Commitment such as the Status and the Contracted Company.

For most of the other Commitment Core Fields, the System Administrator can:

  • Turn on or off the display and use of the Core Field
  • If displayed, it the Core Field can be set as required or not

In addition, the System Administrator can setup Custom Fields that are specific to the organization (and can be set as required or not).

This ensures Commitment are tailored to an organization to capture the information they require.

See Settings - Commitments - Commitment Settings for more information.

General Information

Each Subcontract or Purchase Order includes General information that displays on the General Component. The information displayed will depend on the Core Field Settings and Custom Fields (see above).

Schedule Of Values

Each Subcontract or Purchase Order has a Schedule of Values.

The Schedule of Values defines in detail what the scope of work is along with the costs of that work.

For example, the scope of work includes things like:

  • Work to be performed
  • Services to be delivered
  • Materials or equipment to be used
  • Resources to be supplied etc.

This scope of work will be documented in detail as individual Line Items on the Schedule of Values.

A Tax Code can be set for each line item, to automatically calculate taxes as well.

See Commitment - Schedule of Values - Overview for more information.

Financial Markups

Financial Markups can optionally be set to automatically apply to line items on the Schedule of Values. These can also be used to setup taxes (if not one standard tax rate is applied). See Commitment - Financial Markups - Overview for more information.

Sub Jobs

Sub Jobs can be turned on for a project and then the Line Items on the Schedule of Values can be assigned to the Parent Job or the Sub Jobs. See Sub Jobs - Overview for more information.

Automatically setup on Budgets

As soon as a Line Item is added to a Commitment Schedule of Values, a corresponding Line Item is created on the Budget OR if the Line Item already exists on the Budget its added into the amounts for that Budget row and in the associated column.

For more information, see Subcontract - Budget and/or Purchase Order - Budgets.

Status

There are pre-defined statuses that can be assigned to a Subcontract and a Purchase Order. These statuses can be used to manage the life cycle of the Subcontract and a Purchase Order. They can also be used to filter and report on Commitments (both Subcontracts and Purchase Orders). In addition, some functionality can only be performed for those Subcontracts/Purchase Orders in certain statuses.

See Subcontract – Status or Purchase Order - Status for more information.

PDFs and Emailing

A PDF of a Purchase Order can be created (see Purchase Order - View/Edit - Export) and optionally the PDF can be emailed to Project Contacts as required (see Purchase Order - View/Edit - Email).

A PDF of a Subcontract can be created (see Subcontract - View/Edit - Export)and optionally the PDF can be emailed to Project Contacts as required (see Subcontract - View/Edit - Email).

Sync to ERP

If it is an approved Commitment and if the option to sync to the ERP is enabled, there will be a button to sync to the ERP system.

Other Functions

Change Requests

If Change Requests are used to pre-approve changes with the Client/Owner, the Change Request Schedule of Values Line Items can be:

  • Automatically created on Commitments or Commitment Change Orders
  • Associated with a Commitment/Company

Depending on the view applicable to the organization (see Change Requests - Multiple Lists and Views for the view applicable), see the following for more information:

Grouped List View

Create Change Request Line Items on Commitments (Grouped List View)

Associate Change Request Line Items to Commitments and/or Companies (Grouped List View)

Simple List View

Create Change Request Line Items on Contract Change Orders (Simple List View)

Associate Change Request Line Items to Commitments (Simple List View)

Invoices and Payments

Invoice(s) from a Subcontractor or Vendor can be recorded for any Subcontract or Purchase Order that has an Approved status. 

Payments to the Subcontractor/Vendor can be tracked. Note* Management of payment of a subcontract or purchase is done through the Accounting System.

This is viewable by the Project Manager to manage the overall financial picture.

For more information see Commitment Invoices - Overview and Commitment Payments - Overview.

Change Orders

Change Orders may also be created for Commitments and tracked and managed. Change Orders detail changes in scope to the project and once approved, these will be executed, invoiced and paid. See Commitment - Change Orders - Overview for more information.

Reporting

There are various ways Commitments can be reported on:

Next Steps 

See Commitments List - Accessing.

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