The RFP says a thousand feet of one code and five hundred of another. Your crews have been entering production against it for three weeks. This solution keeps the three numbers side by side: authorized, to date, and remaining.
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Authorized, to date, remaining: the RFP as the job's baseline
Coming in the explainer series. Until then, the mechanism is written out below.
The RFP or purchase order is the only document that says what the ISP agreed to pay for. It has a codes list and quantities. Most shops read it once, at intake, and then never look at it again until the invoice bounces because a line exceeded the authorized quantity, or until month end reveals that a code was never billed at all.
In between, the crews enter whatever they think they did, in whatever codes they remember. The office translates. The translation is where the billed number drifts from the authorized one, in both directions.
At intake, the RFP's codes and quantities become the job's items. Not a copy in a spreadsheet, the job's own items, with the authorized quantity on each.
When a crew or sub enters production, the code picker shows the RFP's codes and nothing else. A code that is not on the RFP is not selectable. Unbillable work cannot be entered by accident, and the crew is not guessing.
Authorized, to date, remaining. Updated as submittals land. Over is visible before the invoice goes out. Under is visible before the job is closed.
Invoice lines come from the tally, checked against the authorized quantity. A variance is a variance, with a reason, not a surprise on the ISP's side.
The shortage case: a PO with remaining quantity is either work still to do or capacity that can be applied to another job under the same agreement. Either way, you know about it while it can still be used.
The same three numbers are the input to job cost. Quantities to date at the contract rate is revenue on the job. The same quantities at the production rate is the cost of sales. That is a margin per job, per code, while the job is open, instead of a top line number at month end. The job costing solution reads straight from it.
It also removes an argument. When the sub's submitted quantity, the map marks, and the invoice line all come from the same item on the same RFP, there is nothing for the ISP to reconcile against. The package proves the line.
If your rate card uses different names, map them once at intake, not every invoice.
Feet for cable and conduit, each for drops, splices, and locates.
An approved change order adds to authorized. It does not live in an email.
Jobs without an RFP get a standard codes list, so the picker is never blank.
The entry goes in and the code shows over. The office sees it before the invoice, and either gets a change order approved or bills the authorized quantity and carries the rest. The ISP does not find out from a rejected line.
Yes. Jobs that arrive as a work order or ticket without itemized quantities use a standard codes list for that customer. The picker still limits the field to billable codes, and the tracker shows to date per code without an authorized ceiling.
It is part of the job record. The baseline comes from intake through the field approval hub, the entries come from the field, and job costing reads the totals. There is no package to buy; it is scoped in the Operations Audit with the rest of the workflow.
The baseline arrives through the field approval hub. Entries against it are map to invoice, and the margin view is job costing. For subs, see sub invoicing.
Would it be a bad idea to pull up one RFP and compare it to what you have billed, on a 30 minute fit call? No pitch. We will tell you whether an Operations Audit is a fit.
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