Setting Up and Managing Project Contracts in Ontraccr

📜 Setting Up and Managing Project Contracts in Ontraccr Overview
 

The Contract tab inside each project lets you formalize and track contract details tied to the project’s scope, billing, and budget.

Whether you're setting up a lump sum contract, progress billing milestones, or contract changes, it all starts here!

🎯 Why Set Up Contracts?

• Create a schedule of values (SOV) for a project for progress billing
• Standardize contract billing workflows
• Track approved vs. pending change orders.
• Keep everything legally and financially documented in one place.
• Track all contract changes and connect them with automated form workflows.
• Break down lump sum contracts into billable components
• Maintain a clean, auditable record of project billing history
• Track change orders and subcontracted work separately
• Apply holdback/retainage logic where needed
• Export detailed billing PDFs for clients

🛠️ How to Set Up a Contract for a Project

To set up a contract in Ontraccr:

1. From the Projects page, click into the project you want to work on.
2. Navigate to the Contracts tab inside that project’s profile.

At the very top of the page, you’ll see a set of high-level contract fields:

Total Base Contract:

Enter the full value of the contract (e.g., $1,000,000) and click Submit.

This value is now shown under the Contract Total, and you’ll also see these live summary columns populate

🛡️ Toggling Holdback (Optional)

At the top of the Contracts page, you’ll see a Toggle Holdback switch.

• Enable this if your contract uses retainage.
• Enter the Holdback Percentage (e.g., 10%).

✅ This tells the system to withhold a portion of each invoice from payment — for example, billing $900 instead of $1,000 on a 10% retainage line.

✅ All relevant invoice and summary calculations will now account for holdback.

💡 Turn it off if retainage doesn't apply — such as in service work or time & material jobs.

📊 Summary Columns (Auto-Calculated)

🧱 Adding Line Items to the Base Contract

1. Scroll to the Base Contract section.
2. Click Add Row.
3. Enter the:
   • Description (e.g., “Electrical Work”)
   • Contract Amount
   • % Complete (updates invoice value automatically)

✅ The contract amount contributes to Current Base Contract.

✅ The invoice value is calculated based on % Complete × Contract Amount.

🔨 Adding Sub-Contract Line Items

1. Scroll to the Sub-Contracts section.
2. Click Add Row.
3. Enter Description, Contract Amount, and % Complete.

✅ Totals are included in both Current Base Contract and Invoice Amount summaries.

🔄 Adding Change Orders

1. Scroll to the Changes section.
2. Click Add Row.
3. Fill in:
   • Number
   • Description
   • Contract Amount
   • % Complete (optional)

✅ These totals flow into Total Changes, Contract Total, and Invoice Amount columns.

➕ Adding Custom Sections (Add Section +)

Below the Changes section, click Add Section + to create custom SOV sections:

• Enter a Section Name (e.g., "Pending Change Requests")
• Choose whether this section should be factored into calculations:
  • ✅ If checked: values affect the summary columns at the top.
  • 🚫 If left unchecked: values are for internal tracking only and will not affect contract totals, changes, or invoice calculations.

✅ This is ideal for internal-only categories, such as:

• Draft changes not yet approved
• Work under review
• Estimates for tracking but not billing

Once the section is created, you can add rows and line items just like any other section.

Each section has its own gear icon (⚙️) for edits and a delete icon (🗑️) if you need to remove it later.

📄 Understanding the Schedule of Values (SoV)

The SoV is your itemized billing structure for the project.

It allows you to:

• Break down the Base Contract into phases, scopes, or milestones
• Track Sub-Contracted work separately
• Add approved change orders in one place
• Manually or automatically populate values using templates or workflows

This breakdown does not include preset billing percentages or dollar milestones — those are handled during progress draws.

🧠 Tips & Edge Cases

• Apply templates before entering line items — if you’re using a standard SoV structure
• Locking the SoV (available via Lock button) prevents edits after client approval — unlocking later can affect calculations
• Progress Draws are generated from this structure and reflect % complete and holdback
• Every line item has a History icon to view audit trails or attach supporting docs
• You can upload invoice files per item or section

✅ Example Scenario

You have a $1.2M contract for a commercial renovation:

• You enter the Total Base Contract and enable 10% holdback
• Add line items for foundation, framing, electrical, drywall
• Enter 40% complete for framing, triggering $X invoice amount
• Add a change order for a revised roof scope
• Use “Pending Changes” section to track items under review without affecting totals
• Export a clean, branded progress draw PDF for the client

🚀 Summary

The Contracts tab in Ontraccr gives you full control over how you structure, track, and bill against your contracts.

From setup to invoicing, it supports detailed financial visibility, client-ready exports, and flexible tracking for both formal and informal project changes.