Quote and Variation Software for Contract Administrators

The work, broken down

Most price-related contract administration comes down to a few recurring tasks:

• Comparing tenders or quotes for a package before award.
• Working out what changed between revision A and revision B of a quote.
• Checking a variation price against the original quote or contract rates.
• Keeping a record of questions asked, answers received and assumptions made.
• Producing a report that someone else can review and approve.

The mechanical parts (extracting lines, checking arithmetic, lining up items, calculating differences) are well suited to software. The judgement parts (whether a change is a variation, how it should be valued under the contract, time and entitlement) are not.

What good software should do

1. Trace every figure to its source. Page and line, or sheet and row. Without this, you can’t defend the numbers.
2. Use exact arithmetic. Money calculated with decimal arithmetic, not floating point, with rounding stated.
3. Show deltas, not just totals. For a revision or variation: items added, removed, re-quantified and re-rated, changed exclusions, and the balance the lines don’t explain.
4. Keep unknowns unknown. A TBA price or an exclusion must never become zero in a total.
5. Record adjustments and overrides with a reason and an audit trail.
6. Draft, never send. Clarification questions should be drafts you control.
7. Export to PDF for review and Excel or CSV for your own workings.

Worked example: what changed between two revisions?

A subcontractor’s revision B is $2,750 higher than revision A. A delta analysis splits that into explained and unexplained parts (ex GST, illustrative):

Rev A total $48,600   Rev B total $51,350   Change +$2,750

Removed   Final site clean                          −$900
Added     Temporary fencing                       +$1,450
Re-rated  Concrete 18 m³ × ($290 − $265)            +$450
Re-qty    Mesh +20 m² × $12                          +$240
Proven by lines                                  = +$1,240

Unexplained balance   $2,750 − $1,240            = $1,510
New exclusion in Rev B: “Excludes rock excavation”

Without the breakdown you would be asking “why is it $2,750 more?”. With it you can ask four precise questions, and notice that rev B quietly added an exclusion that shifts risk back to you. Whether the rate increase or the new exclusion is acceptable is an issue for professional review, not something to decide from the arithmetic alone.

Evaluating a tool: a neutral checklist

• Upload a real past quote and check the extracted lines against the document.
• Feed it two quotes with different units and GST treatments, and check the conversions by hand.
• Include a TBA line and an exclusion, and confirm neither becomes zero.
• Ask where your documents are stored, who can access them, and whether they are used to train models.
• Check the export is something your reviewer would accept.

Where QuantDoc fits

QuantDoc compares quotes with source references for every figure, exact decimal arithmetic, unit and GST normalisation, scope and exclusion checks, risk flags and drafted clarification questions, and exports PDF, Excel and CSV reports. Revision and variation delta analysis, as illustrated above, is available for the Professional plan and above. Contractual points are listed as issues for professional review. QuantDoc gives no legal advice and makes no entitlement decisions. See QuantDoc for contract administrators and the security page for how documents are handled.