Managing Provisional Sums in Mastt: Best Practices

Proper management of provisional sums ensures accurate budget tracking and streamlines contract variations in your construction projects. Follow these best practices to maintain clear uncommitted costs and efficient payment processing.

Essential practices

Set up provisional sums as a dedicated contract section

When creating your initial contract, organise provisional sums as a separate group or section within the contract. This keeps them clearly identifiable and easier to manage throughout the project lifecycle.

Create individual line items for each provisional sum rather than combining them. This allows for precise tracking and independent management of each allowance.

Example: For a $2M construction project, create separate line items for provisional sums like "Provisional Sum - Asbestos Removal" and "Provisional Sum - Site Conditions" rather than one combined "Provisional Allowances" line.

Use pending status for uncommitted provisional sums

Set provisional sum line items to pending status when first adding them to your contract. This is the recommended approach for most projects.

Why this matters: Pending status places these values in the uncommitted cost column, preventing them from appearing in payment certificates or variation options until they're actually required.

How to implement:

1. Navigate to your contract in the Cost module
2. Add each provisional sum as a new line item
3. Set the status to Pending
4. Save the contract

Tip: Pending provisional sums remain visible in your contract for planning purposes but won't interfere with active payment processing.

Transition to approved status when work is confirmed

Once a provisional sum is approved for use and the scope is confirmed, update its status to Approved. This activates the line item for payments and variations.

How to implement:

1. Navigate to the relevant contract
2. Click Edit on the contract
3. Locate the provisional sum line item
4. Change the status from Pending to Approved
5. Save your changes

After approval, you can:

• Process payments against the provisional sum
• Create variations to adjust the amount
• Track actual costs against the original allowance

Example: Your contract includes a $50,000 provisional sum for rock excavation. Once site works begin and rock is encountered, change the status to Approved, then process a variation to adjust the actual amount based on quantities encountered.

Common mistakes to avoid

Don't approve all provisional sums at contract creation

Approving provisional sums before they're needed inflates your committed costs and can appear in payment certificates prematurely. This creates confusion in budget reporting and may complicate payment processing.

Instead: Keep provisional sums as pending until the scope is confirmed and work is ready to proceed.

Avoid combining multiple provisional sums into one line item

Creating a single "Provisional Allowances" line item makes it difficult to track individual components and process specific variations.

Better approach: Create separate line items for each distinct provisional sum, even if they're small amounts. This provides clearer audit trails and simplifies variation management.

Pro tips

• Use consistent naming: Prefix all provisional sum line items with "Provisional Sum -" for easy identification in reports and filters
• Document triggers: Add notes to each provisional sum line item explaining what conditions will trigger its approval
• Monitor uncommitted costs: Use the uncommitted cost column to track your total provisional sum exposure across all contracts
• Coordinate with variations: When varying a provisional sum, ensure your variation description references the original provisional sum line item for clear documentation

Q&A

Q: What if I accidentally approved a provisional sum too early?

Edit the contract and change the line item status back to Pending. Any payments or variations already processed against it will remain, but future transactions will be blocked until you approve it again.

Q: How do I measure if I'm following best practices correctly?

Check that your uncommitted costs accurately reflect unconfirmed provisional sums, and confirmed provisional sums appear in the committed column. Your payment certificate options should only include approved provisional sums.

Q: Why am I still seeing pending provisional sums in payment options?

This shouldn't occur if the status is correctly set to Pending. Refresh your browser and check the contract line item status. If the issue persists, contact support as this may indicate a data sync issue.

Q: Can I delete a provisional sum line item after the project starts?

Only if no payments or variations have been processed against it. If transactions exist, it's better to vary the amount to zero rather than delete the line item to maintain your audit trail.

Measuring success

Look for uncommitted costs that match your unconfirmed provisional sum total and ensure payment certificates only include approved items. Your variation history should clearly show provisional sum adjustments tied to specific line items.