Commercial change, made legible.
Practical guidance for the people who have to capture, price, approve and account for construction variations. No generic theory: every guide follows the real VariationDesk workflow from site instruction to finance handover.
10
Operational guides
05
Workflow stages
Site → finance
One connected record
Variation control
The record should get stronger as the job moves.
Instruction
What changed, who asked and where
Evidence
Photos, files, notes and quantities
Commercial
Rates, quotation and final value
Decision
Approval, rejection or sign-off
Handover
Review, report and finance preparation
One history is easier to review than five disconnected versions.
Start with the whole picture
One guide for the complete variation lifecycle.
Use the definitive guide first if you are deciding how site, commercial and finance teams should work together. Then go deeper into the stage that needs attention.
Manage a variation from instruction to invoice
Follow one variation through capture, pricing, approval, work completion, office review and export in VariationDesk.
Choose the pressure point
Go straight to the problem you need to fix.
The library is organised around the work, not around software features. Start where the commercial record is currently breaking down.
Stop extra work becoming a memory exercise.
Build the instruction, photos and quantities while the work is still visible on site.
Site evidenceGet a clear decision before work drifts on.
Use quotation and sign-off routes that keep the response attached to the variation it belongs to.
Approval workflowsGive the office commercial control.
Review evidence, pricing and status together before a record is treated as commercially complete.
Office reviewHand approved work to finance cleanly.
Check the final value first, then prepare the approved record for reporting or accounting export.
Finance handoverFollow the record
Five stages. One commercial history.
Each stage links to the guide that explains the decisions and checks that matter there.
Collection 01
Start here
Set up your workspace
A practical first-day setup guide for company details, projects, rate cards, users and a test variation.
For workspace owners and managers
Manage a variation end to end
Follow one variation through capture, pricing, approval, work completion, office review and export in VariationDesk.
For site, commercial and finance teams
Collection 02
On site
Site evidence checklist
A field checklist for instructions, photos, notes, quantities, files, locations and signatures that the office can actually use.
For technicians, supervisors and field managers
Offline mobile working
How to prepare the mobile app, capture records without a reliable signal and sync them safely when connection returns.
For field users and supervisors
Collection 03
Approvals
Quotation approval workflow
How field and office teams use the quotation-before-work route without losing the evidence or starting a second variation.
For field users, estimators and commercial managers
Remote sign-off
A practical guide to choosing the reviewer, sending a secure link and keeping the response with the variation.
For site supervisors and office managers
Collection 04
Office workflow
Office review and evidence packs
How the office checks a field submission, resolves missing information, records a decision and produces a customer-ready PDF.
For commercial, project and finance teams
Variation reporting
A guide to status, ageing, approval speed, rejection reasons and bottlenecks in the VariationDesk Reports area.
For owners, commercial managers and operations teams
Collection 05
Commercial setup
Rate cards and pricing
How to structure customer rates, units, field quantities and custom lines without exposing internal commercial information.
For estimators, commercial managers and workspace owners
Accounting exports
How to connect an accounting provider, review approved values and export without treating the sync as the commercial check.
For workspace owners, managers and finance teams
Need the workflow, not just the reading?
Run one real variation through VariationDesk with us.
Use a live project, your own rates and your own approval route. The assisted pilot is designed to prove the process before you roll it out further.