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Construction projects: margin tracking, financial statements and retention of title

The Projects module tracks a works contract from the signed quotation through to final invoicing: fixed budget, actual (time, purchases, expenses), real-time margin, progress-based invoicing (progress reports), retention, amendments, final general statement of account (DGD), and a public portal to keep the client informed.

What it is for

A construction project is not invoiced in the same way as a standard sale: a contract is signed, progress is made in stages (work progress reports), a retention is held against each payment, unplanned work is sometimes added (amendments), and the whole project is settled with a final general statement of account. This module covers this entire cycle. Upon creation, the signed quotation becomes the fixed reference budget (quantities, selling prices, and projected expenditure per line item and per category). Thereafter, all actual costs incurred on site are recorded automatically or via manual entry: hours clocked by your employees (valued at the employee’s hourly rate or the site’s default rate), supplier invoices, expense claims, and outstanding supplier orders (ordered but not yet invoiced). A dashboard continuously displays the theoretical margin (that of the budget) and the margin to date (that of actual expenditure), with an alert if actual expenditure exceeds a threshold for projected outgoings. To invoice, you create work statements: each approved statement becomes a numbered invoice, with automatic calculation of the retention and the advance payment already deducted. Retention money is tracked separately and released once final acceptance permits. Additional works identified during the project (particularly via the field app) become proposed amendments, which you cost and then mark as signed so that they are incorporated into the budget. Once all progress reports have been approved, you generate the final general statement (DGD), which is the contract’s closing invoice. For projects involving multiple contractors, a pro-rata account allocates the shared costs collected amongst the contractors. Finally, a client portal (a public link accessible without a password) allows you to share progress updates and photos from the site log that you choose to make visible.