Adjustments
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      How to make commercial/assessment adjustments

      In this article

      When to use commercial/assessment adjustments

      After exhausting your value engineering options, adjusting commercial expectations for the package and project may be required. There are two forms of commercial adjustments that can be made within a Chalkstring assessment; percentage-based and working back from an agreed figure.

      Finding your assessment

      1. Expand the black menu bar and click on the ‘Projects’ icon.
      2. Search for and select the project to re-tender.
      3. Within the project homepage, select the work package to re-tender.
      4. Within the ‘Assessment’ homepage, any tenders that have been submitted will be stored in a read-only format. This is to preserve the data integrity of each submitted tender and to ensure tenders do not get mixed up with the various amendments being made on re-tenders. 
      5. Once an assessment is submitted for tender, an identical copy is automatically created and allocated the next sequential version number. 

      The example below shows assessment version 1.0 was submitted for tender and accepted. Chalkstring has created a copy of this assessment as version 1.1 as a quick starting point for revisions and value engineering amendments.

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      Option 1 - Reducing the price of measured works by percentages

      This method of making wholesale commercial adjustments to a package assessment is to apply a percentage-based adjustment to all products in the rate build-up. Doing this will not affect the cost base of these products, but it will adjust the overhead and profit margins that are expected to be made on these products.

      1. Select the version of the assessment to work on by clicking ‘Start assessment’ or ‘Continue assessment’.
      2. From the 'Assessment Overview' page, click the ‘Assessment Adjustments’ sub-menu.
      3. In the ‘Add an Adjustment’ section enter a name and a percentage. Positive values will increase prices, negative values will reduce prices.
        1. If the client needs to be made aware of the adjustment, tick the ‘Client Disclosed’ box.
        2. If the adjustment does not need to be disclosed to the client, leave the ‘Client Disclosed’ box empty.
      4. Click ‘Save’.

      The project details section will update to reflect the new price and the total value of the adjustment made.

      Chalkstring will update the pricing of the package automatically by adjusting the overheads & project margins for each product in the rate build-up by the required percentage.

      Note: adjustments will not affect any product where the price has been manually fixed and the padlock symbol on it is black and in the ‘locked’ position.
      On the rate build-up screen, place your cursor over the calculator icon within the product box to see ‘As Priced’ and ‘Adjusted Price’ data.
      If the adjustment outcome is as desired, complete the tender process again.

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      Option 2 - Agreeing a figure with your client and working your margins back from that 

      Following a tender submission, a client may state they will approve the tender if you can agree to a set figure total for the project. Chalkstring has functionality built in to re-price an assessment from an agreed end figure.

      1. Select the version of the assessment that you wish to work on by clicking ‘Start assessment’ or ‘Continue assessment’.
      2. From the 'Assessment Overview' page, go to the ‘Set Assessment Price’ section.
      3. Enter the proposed figure in the ‘Set the Final Assessment Total’ box and click ‘Set Total’.  Chalkstring will recalculate the assessment to be as close as possible to the target price
      4. If the outcome of the changes and the revised profit margin are acceptable, complete the tender process again.
      5. If not, click the ‘Unfix all prices’ button to revert to the original assessment price.

      Additional notes

      • The adjustment needed to reach the target price will not affect any product where the price has been manually fixed. This will be displayed as a black padlock symbol in the ‘locked’ position. This may result in some products being disproportionately affected by the adjustment compared to others.
      • Clicking the ‘Unfix all prices’ button will unfix all manually fixed prices. This will cause all products to revert to their price being established on a cost-plus margin basis. 
      • Every item in an assessment is subject to two decimal place rounding.
      • Variations Note: If the 'assessment adjustment' was used to add a main contractor discount (MCD), any variations added to that work package will have the MCD applied to them. If a price of a variation is fixed, the price set for that product will override any MCD. 

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