---
title: "Setting Up and Managing Project Contracts in Ontraccr"
url: "https://help.ontraccr.com/en/article/setting-up-and-managing-project-contracts-in-ontraccr"
language: "en"
last_updated: "2025-06-06T23:27:45.786Z"
---

# 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)**

| **Column Name** | **What It Shows** |
| --- | --- |
| **Contract Total** | Total Base Contract + Total Changes |
| **Total Changes** | Sum of all change orders |
| **Total Billed To Date** | How much has been invoiced across all line items |
| **Current Base Contract** | Combined total from Base Contract + Sub-Contracts |
| **Invoice Amount** | Current invoice value (across Base, Sub, and Changes) based on % complete or invoice input |

* * *

### **🧱 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.