Revenue (Contract items) vs. Cost (Phase Codes)

There are three fundamental types of codes used to track project finances: contract items, phase codes, and subcontract ledger items. It is important to understand the difference between each of these three and how they are used to manage project financials.

Contract Items

Contract items are the line-item breakdowns that make up the prime contract between the project owner and the operating company. Contract items represent revenue elements that are paid to us during the course of the project. Simple projects may be set up with a single contract item, although it is far more common for a project to have many contract items. In general, the format, naming convention, and order of contract items is established by the owner in the project documents, or by mutual agreement between the Synergy project manager the owner and/or prime consultant prior to the first progress claim.

Phase Codes

Phase codes represent the cost centres of a project and are made up of one or more cost types. Phase codes are the management codes used day-to-day to track original budgets, actual and committed costs, and final forecast costs for specific elements of work. As the project progresses, costs accrue to the phase codes as actual costs and committed costs, and project management teams forecast a final expected cost for each phase code at regular reporting intervals. The sum of all forecasted phase code values represents the project cost forecast at that time. Phase codes must be tied to a corresponding contract item when they are created. This connects our work elements with revenue from the owner and creates an internal link inside Viewpoint between cost and revenue.

Subcontract Ledger Items

Subcontract ledger (SL) items are the individual line items on a subcontract between the operating company and a trade contractor. Each subcontract has its own ledger of items and, when summed, the SL items form the total subcontract value. Subcontractors should bill against the SL items as their scope of work progresses. SL items are analogous to contract items if we were acting as the owner and the subcontractor were the prime contractor. SL items are useful for providing insight into a specific subcontract that is taken out of the larger project context. As SL items represent actual and/or committed costs, they are tied to a specific phase code in the project. If you want to spread subcontract costs between multiple phase codes, you will first need to create that breakdown in the SL items.