Chapter 4 — Financial monitoring

☰ Chapter index

Before we start
The financial project dashboard
Cost control
Variations
Payment certificates and work in progress
Retention and guarantees
Subcontractor payment certificates
Permissions and summary

01 Before we start

In Chapter 3 you executed your tasks and recorded their daily progress and take-off quantities. Now we close the loop: we turn the work completed into money — we monitor profitability, bill the client with payment certificates, and hold back guarantees — and we see all of it in a single financial dashboard for the project.

All the screens in this chapter are tabs inside the “Commercial” module (at /boqs, a “Commercial” add-on activated by the platform administrator) — the same module where you priced your project in Chapter 2. The four new financial tabs: Dashboard · Cost control · Variations · Billing and work in progress.

Three engines read from Chapters 2 and 3: baseline pricing (Ch. 2) gives the budget and sale price; the executed take-off (Ch. 3) gives the completion percentage; and the actual costs (procurement, warehouses, and invoices, or manual entry) give the actual cost. From these three, the earned value, the payment certificate, and the financial dashboard are built.

Figure 1 — The priced baseline and execution feed three engines (cost control, variations, payment certificates), all of which pour into the financial project dashboard

02 The financial project dashboard

The first tab in “Commercial” is Dashboard, whose heading in the app is “The financial project dashboard” — a read-only executive view of a single project: large indicators, an S-curve, and alerts. Choose the project from the top of the module and the dashboard updates.

Figure 2 — The financial project dashboard: the indicator cards and an S-curve comparing earned value, actual cost, and billed amounts cumulatively

The four indicators: Contract value (adjusted) = baseline sale price + approved variations · completion percentage by the cost/cost method · CPI (above 1 profit, below 1 overrun) · profit margin to date (recognized revenue − cost).
S-curve: Three monthly cumulative lines: earned value (from the executed take-off), actual cost (invoices + warehouse issues + manual entry), billed (cumulative payment certificates). The billed line diverging below the earned line = under-billing.
Alerts: Low CPI and an expected overrun · under-billing · missing catalog prices · missing quantities · items that have exceeded their budget. Address their causes in the other tabs.

This dashboard is a read-only aggregate; actual editing takes place in the following tabs.

03 Cost control: earned value

The Cost control tab (its heading “Cost monitoring” — “the assumed cost vs the actual for each product, recorded as the work is completed”). Here is the heart of financial monitoring: the earned value (EVM) cards, a cost table for each product, and the screen for recording the actuals.

Figure 3 — The six earned-value cards: the budget, the earned value (and its percentage), the actual, CPI, the forecast, and the variance at completion

How are they calculated?: BAC = the sum of the items' budgets (from Ch. 2 pricing). Item percentage = the executed quantity ÷ the planned (from Ch. 3 take-off). EV = Σ (item percentage × its budget). AC = a single source per item (manual entry → warehouse issue → supplier invoice) with no double-counting. CPI = EV ÷ AC. EAC = BAC ÷ CPI. VAC = BAC − EAC (positive = expected savings, negative = overrun).
A table per item: Opened from the earned-value card: BOQ item · budget · % complete · earned · actual · variance (EV − AC).
The products table: A row for each product under its task, each value assumed (A) above actual (B): a Progress column (from the execution task), the quantity, the unit price, the supplier, and the cost, then the variance. A red border = over budget, green = within it. Expanding the row reveals: committed (purchase orders) · billed · warehouse issue · the quantity, price, and duration variances.
Recording the actual for editors: The pencil icon on the product opens a dialog: the actual quantity, the unit price and its currency (a warning when the currency differs from the project's currency), the supplier, the country of origin, the actual start and end dates, and notes. Table filters: All / Recorded / Over budget / Not recorded, and export to Excel and PDF.

✓

Because the completion percentage comes from the executed take-off (Ch. 3), recording your visits in the take-off updates the earned value here automatically — and your job remains to record the actual cost for each product.

04 Variations (change orders)

The Variations tab (its heading “Change orders”). Any change in the contract scope — an addition or a deletion — is recorded here as a change order, and only an approved one adjusts the contract value on which the payment certificates and the completion percentage are computed.

The top cards: Baseline sale price (from the baseline version frozen in Ch. 2) · the current computed sale price · approved change orders · adjusted contract value = the baseline sale price + the total sale price of the approved orders.
Change-order fields: An automatic sequential number per project · the title · the description · Δ cost · Δ sale price (a negative value means a deletion/reduction and appears in red) · the status · notes · who decided and when.
The cycle: Proposed → Approved or Rejected (and it can be reopened to “Proposed”). Only the approved enters the adjusted contract value.
Permissions: Adding, editing, approving, and rejecting are for editors (Owner/Admin/Manager); deletion is for Owner and Admin. There is no separate “approver role” — whoever has edit rights approves.

Important: the adjusted contract value is the basis of the completion percentage and the recognized revenue in the payment certificates (the next section). Approving a change order raises the ceiling of what can be billed — so approve only after auditing the value.

05 Payment certificates and work in progress

The Billing and work in progress tab (its heading “Payment certificates and work in progress”). Here you bill the client for the value of what has been completed — by the percentage of completion (Egyptian Standard 48 / IFRS 15) — and you track work in progress and retentions.

Figure 4 — Calculating the payment certificate: the cumulative minus the previously approved = the current, then adding VAT and deducting the retention, taxes, and advance = the net due

Creating a payment certificate: Up to a period · the cumulative (pre-filled with the recognized revenue) · the retention rate (5% by default) · the advance payment deduction · VAT 14% · WHT (withholding tax) 1% · other deductions · notes.
The quality gate: The value of open non-conformances (NCRs) and blocking RFIs (from the technical office, Ch. 3) is excluded from the approvable amount, and an alert banner appears on the draft — so you don't bill work that is on hold for a quality defect.
Work in progress (WIP): By Standard 48: recognized revenue = the adjusted contract value × (cost to date ÷ the total estimated cost). From it: over-/under-billing (billed − recognized), the margin (recognized − cost), and the retentions held by the client.
The cycle and closing: Draft → Submitted → Approved → Paid, with automatic accounting posting at approval (revenue) and payment (revenue + collection). The monthly period close freezes the figures, and the approved/paid is exported to the e-invoice (ETA).

06 Retention and guarantees

Every payment certificate holds back a percentage (5% by default) as a guarantee of good performance. The system tracks these retentions in the retentions register (a tab inside the “Finance” module).

Two sides: Retention held by the client (a receivable/asset for you) from your payment certificates, and retention held from subcontractors (a liability on you) from their certificates — both from the automatically posted journal entries.
Aging and release: The register is shown by aging buckets (up to 90 / 180 / 365 / more) to highlight what's overdue. When a release falls due, a release transaction is recorded with an amount, a date, and a memo, and a reversing entry is posted. Remaining = retained − released.
Where do you see it?: On each payment certificate (the retention and net lines), in the work-in-progress summary (“retentions held by the client”), and in the retentions register in Finance.

07 Subcontractor payment certificates

The flip side of payment certificates: just as you bill the client, your subcontractors bill you with their certificates. You find them in the Contracts module (a Subcontracts add-on activated by the platform administrator) → open the subcontract agreement → the contractor's certificates section.

Fields: An automatic number · the date · the claimed amount · the retention · the claimed completion percentage. The net = claimed − retained. The agreement carries the retention rate, the late penalty and its cap, and the contracted value.
The cycle: Submitted → Audited → Approved → Paid / Rejected, with an accounting cost posting at approval and a payment at settlement.
The quality gate: Approval or payment is blocked when there is an open non-conformance or a blocking RFI against that contractor — the same link with the technical office.

The accounting mirror: the client's certificate is revenue, and the subcontractor's certificate is cost — and both are posted automatically to the “Finance” ledgers.

08 Permissions on the financial screens — and the summary

Action	Owner	Admin	Manager	Viewer
Viewing the financial tabs (dashboard/control/variations/billing)	✔	✔	✔	✔
Cost control — recording the actual	✔	✔	✔	✖
Variations — add/edit/approve/reject	✔	✔	✔	✖
Variations — delete	✔	✔	✖	✖
Payment certificates — create/approve/pay/send ETA	✔	✔	✔	✖
Payment certificates — delete draft	✔	✔	✖	✖

The general rule: editing is for editors (Owner/Admin/Manager), and deletion is for Owner and Admin. The retentions register and the subcontractor certificates live in the “Finance” and “Contracts” modules; and approving/paying a subcontractor certificate is blocked by quality (a non-conformance or a blocking request).

✓

Summary of Chapter 4: the work completed (Ch. 3) raises the earned value in cost control, and change orders adjust the contract value, from which the payment certificates are issued to the client with the guarantee retention — and the financial dashboard gathers all of it into indicators and a single curve. The next step: closing the periods and the project, and full accounting in the “Finance” module — in a later chapter.