Variations now carry their own approval trail

The job you quoted and the job you're standing in are different jobs. The wall came off and there's more behind it. That's normal — what isn't normal is how much of this industry's disputes come from that moment being handled in a phone call nobody wrote down.

Extra work now has a record that runs from the technician who found it to the invoice that bills it.

What is a variation of contract?

A variation is a change to the work after the price was agreed: more work, less work, or different work. The customer asks for a second bathroom fan; the wall comes off and the framing is rotten; the tiles they chose are discontinued. Each one changes what you're doing, and usually what it costs, so it changes the deal you both agreed to.

The principle is the same in every trade: agree the change, and its price, before you do the work, and keep a record of the agreement. What that record has to look like depends on the work and the state.

Four steps, each of them a record

1. The technician raises it from the job

On site, from the phone: what was found, in their words. It takes about thirty seconds. The office is notified straight away rather than on Friday, and the request is stamped with who raised it and when.

2. The office prices it as a variation quote

Not an edit to the original quote — a variation in its own right, numbered separately, linked to the job. The original stays exactly as the customer accepted it, which is the whole point when someone asks six months later what was agreed at the start.

3. The customer approves it themselves

The variation goes out with its own approval link. The customer opens it, reads what the extra work is and what it costs, and accepts or declines — no login, no account.

That approval is timestamped. It is not "he said it was fine on the phone".

4. The board follows the decision

Send the variation and a sub-job is created for the extra work, named after what the work actually is rather than a reference number — so the board reads "Kitchen rewire — additional circuit for the island bench", not "Variation to Q-2026-0014".

Accepted, and the sub-job moves into the run. Declined, and it's settled rather than left sitting on the board as work nobody is going to do.

The trail itself

Every step above writes to the quote's timeline: sent, opened, reminded, responded, and by whom. The job's own audit trail carries the variation request alongside the status moves, the comments and the sign-off.

Neither can be edited after the fact. That is the property that makes it worth having — a record you can rewrite is not evidence of anything.

Where it shows up

• On the phone — raise a variation from the job menu; open ones are listed on the job with their status
• On the job detail — in the history, with everything else that happened
• On the quote — the full send-and-response timeline
• On the board — as a sub-job, named for the work

A variation to a building contract: what the paperwork needs

For residential building work, states set rules on how a contract is varied, and they are stricter than "get it in writing". Two examples:

• New South Wales. The government's guidance on contracts for residential building work says variations must be in writing, attached to the contract and signed by both parties, and that the document authorising a variation must explain its cost implications.
• Victoria. Consumer Affairs Victoria's page on changing a domestic building contract says a variation notice is used: both parties agree in writing, with the new price and completion date, before the work is done. There is a narrow exception for small changes that need no permit change, cause no delay and add no more than 2% to the original price. Victoria passed amendments to its domestic building contracts law in September 2025, so check the current process.

If you're looking for a variation to building contract template, start from those requirements rather than a generic form: a description of the change, the reason for it, the price and how it was worked out, the effect on the completion date, and a place for both parties to sign.

A BizzMate variation quote records the scope, the price and the time the customer approved it online. Whether an online approval meets the signing rule for your contract and your state is a question for your contract and, if the job is large, your lawyer. For work covered by those rules, use the variation quote as the priced record and get the variation signed the way your contract requires.

One thing worth doing

Tell your technicians to raise the variation before doing the work, not after. The feature works either way, but a customer approving extra work in advance is a very different conversation from a customer being shown an invoice for work they didn't know about.

The building contract section is general information, not legal or financial advice. Contract rules differ by state and change; check your state's regulator or a lawyer before relying on them.