Contingencies in construction are funds reserved for potential risks or changes in the project scope that are not known in advance, while allowances cover known scopes of work with an unknown cost. Both are vital for budget management and can be tracked within Join.
Project Contingencies and Allowances
To set up Contingencies and Allowances, you will need to first bring in the Milestone Estimate information (for help bringing in an estimate, check out Importing an Estimate File). Once the estimate is ready, you can select the Type of Markup in the Milestone Markup section for each Milestone Markup.
Withdrawing and Adjusting
With the Contingencies and Allowances set at the Milestone, you can select if an Item is going to draw from or add to them in the Items Cost Impact section. Adjustments can be set to the full amount of an Item or a custom amount, and it can be split across multiple Contingencies and Allowances. Positive adjustments can also be made when an item's cost is a reduction in scope or when you choose to increase the value of a Contingency or Allowance. When the status of the Item is moved from Pending to Accepted, that adjustment will be updated in the Contingency & Allowance Report.
Contingency and Allowance Reporting
Items List
When an Item has a Contingency or Allowance covering the item's Full Estimate, the cost impact of the Item will be zero when the cost display mode is set as Show Markups Allocated or Show Markups Separated. If the adjustment value is more or less than the Item Estimate, the net value will be displayed. In the Items list you can see the value of the Contingency or Allowance using the Item Sidebar.
Tip: You can also see the direct cost impact on an Item by pivoting the Display Cost setting to Direct Cost.
MSR and Variance Report
Under the Milestone Summary Report and Variance Report (depending on the display cost settings), there are sections for Markups, Contingencies, and Allowances. Positive adjustments appear as Adds, and negative adjustments appear as Draws.
Contingency & Allowance Report
Under the reports tab you can launch the Contingency & Allowance Report. You can view the adjustments in the active Milestone and across all milestones to understand how much of the contingency or allowance you have remaining.
Milestone Transition with C&A
If you're copying a Running Total forward to a new Estimate or Budget, the accepted Items that have Contingency and/or Allowance adjustments will be carried over and listed as draws and adds in a separate table under the Milestone Markups titled Incorporated Item Adjustments. Here you can reconcile the value for the Contingency or Allowance with this new Milestone.