How a payment application works

The two sides of a payment application

Every payment application belongs to exactly one signed contract, and the contract decides who does what:

Exception: when the contractor is a self-managed subcontractor without its own BuildColab users, the client prepares and finalizes the report on its behalf. See External payment applications.

In the report registers, the same report shows a different Type (Тип) for each side: Budget (Бюджет) for the contractor, who bills its client, and Cost (Разход) for the client, who pays its contractor.

What a report contains

• The contract's positions. When a report is created, BuildColab copies every position of the contract's BoQ, at the BoQ version the contract was signed on (or the version of its latest change order), with its contracted quantity and unit price. You do not pick positions; you only enter quantities.
• The quantity for the period. Every position starts at 0. The contractor enters how much was done in this period, in the This period (За периода) column group. Value = quantity × contract unit price.
• Remarks. Each position has its own REMARK (ЗАБЕЛЕЖКА) cell, separate from the position's note in the BoQ. Both companies see the remarks.
• Files. Measurement protocols, photos or invoices attached to the report. Both companies can see, download and attach them at any status.
• Positions outside the contract. Optional extra work that the contract does not cover, priced in the report. See Positions outside the contract.
• Assignee. The person in the preparing company who is responsible for the report.
• Total. The sum of the period values of all positions, shown as Total: (Общо:) in the report header.

Executed to date, remaining and the contract cap

Each report shows three column groups next to the contract data:

Whether a position may be billed beyond its contracted quantity depends on the contract type chosen when the contract was signed:

• Fixed-price contracts (and older contracts without a type) are capped. You cannot enter a period quantity that takes a position past its contracted quantity; the cell shows Maximum: {max} (Максимум: {max}). More work needs a change order. Once the approved reports cover the whole contract value, Create report is disabled with the tooltip "The contract is fully claimed — all contracted quantities have already been approved." (Договорът е напълно усвоен — всички договорени количества вече са одобрени.)
• Unit-price (re-measurable) contracts are not capped. You may bill more than the contracted quantity. The position turns red with "Over the contracted quantity by {qty}" (Над договорното количество с {qty}), and % billed in the register can exceed 100.

The cap applies everywhere a quantity enters a report: typing, Certify full quantity, Excel import and pulling from subcontractor reports. It is checked again at approval, so two reports approved at the same time cannot together exceed the contracted quantity; the second approval is refused with a message that another payment application was approved first.

Turns and rounds

While a report is submitted, only one company can act on it at a time. That company "has the turn".

• After Submit for Approval (Изпрати за одобрение) the turn passes to the client.
• The company with the turn can approve, reject or send a counter-proposal. A counter-proposal changes quantities, remarks or new positions and passes the turn to the other company.
• The company without the turn waits. It sees "Waiting on {company}" (Изчаква се {company}) and can only Withdraw (Оттегли) its own proposal.
• The company with the turn sees "Waiting on your response" (Изчаква се вашият отговор). In the Reports panel its card shows Your turn (Вашият ред); the other company sees Counterparty's turn (Ред на контрагента).

1. View history ({count}) (Виж историята ({count})) counts the rounds so far.
2. Withdraw (Оттегли) is the only action for the company without the turn.
3. The negotiation bar "Waiting on {company}" (Изчаква се {company}) names the company that has the turn.

Each submission and each counter-proposal is saved as a round, a frozen snapshot of all quantities, remarks and new positions. The first round is called Initial submission (Първоначално подаване); later rounds are Version #{n} (Версия №{n}). Rounds cannot be changed. You can show them as extra columns and compare them; see Reviewing, approving, countering, rejecting. Approval always accepts the latest round.

Statuses

1. A Submitted (Изпратен) card with the turn badge, here Counterparty's turn (Ред на контрагента).
2. An Approved (Одобрен) card. It cannot be changed any more.

All actions at a glance

E-mails go to the other company's e-mail address (from its company profile) and link straight to the report. An e-mail is written in Bulgarian or English: in the saved profile language of the BuildColab account with that address; if there is none, in the language of the user who acted, and by default in Bulgarian. The assignment e-mail goes to the assigned person. In-app notifications go to project members with the Reports permission; see Notifications and their settings.

Several reports on one contract

A contract usually has one report per period: Report #1 for the first month, Report #2 for the second, and so on. BuildColab also lets several drafts and several submitted reports exist on the same contract at the same time. Each has its own number, its own negotiation and its own approval. Approval order does not matter: executed-to-date is always the sum of all approved reports.

Two limits keep the chain consistent: only the newest report on a contract can be revised after rejection, and for a self-managed subcontractor only one report can be open at a time.

What approval changes

• The report's quantities are stamped as approved and count in Executed to date of every later report on the contract.
• On the client's side, the approved value appears as certified in the budget and the financial dashboard. See Financial dashboard: committed, certified, margin.
• Positions outside the contract that the report carried are merged into the contract as a new BoQ version. An open change-order draft on the contract is superseded and has to be created again from the updated contract. See Positions outside the contract.
• The contractor gets the notification "Your pay application was approved. Invoicing is next." Invoicing itself happens outside BuildColab.

When the contract changes

A change order creates a new contract version. Reports created after it use the new contract positions, quantities and prices. Older reports keep showing the BoQ version they were made on. A rejected report made before the change cannot be revised; create a new report instead.

Permissions and plan

Without the permission, the Reports button shows a permission message instead of the panel, and the Report Register sidebar entry is locked. See Permission reference.

Common questions

Related

• Creating and submitting
• Reviewing, approving, countering, rejecting
• Positions outside the contract
• Change orders and extensions
• All statuses explained