For home building customers, additional features allow integration with VAP Budgets, bills of quantity and other specific home building functionality within Coins ERP+.

The following JC parameters affect the Site Overheads functionality.

The terms “estimated final cost” and “EFC” are customisable, so wherever they are used you can replace them with alternatives such as “FFC” (Forecast Final Cost) or “FCAC” (Forecast Cost at Completion). Use Terminology to enter System Override text for the tokens jc estfincost and jc efc.

To use the site overheads functionality, you need to set up future Financial Periods that cover at least the duration of any overhead forecasts.

Standard Contract Dates allows you to configure a list of standard dates that relate to a contract. These standard dates can then be incorporated into a site overheads template and updated via the Site Overheads Workbench.

The dates are maintained at company level to allow consistent reporting across contracts that use different templates.

Site Overhead Templates allows you to configure the templates for site overheads. The templates specify the dates, cost heads, standard overhead items, and additional fields that are shown on the Site Overheads Workbench.

There are two types of template: General and Home Building; Home Building templates have additional features that are not relevant for general contracting. The template allows you to maintain the dates and fields to be shown, the cost heads and their accrual method and the individual detailed overhead items.

The ‘Dates’ tab allows you to define the dates that are to be updated for a contract. These dates form the basis of the time frame over which weekly or Financial Period-based overheads items will be calculated. You can set up dates to be either entered manually, or calculated based on a number of days, weeks or months before or after another date on the template.

The ‘Fields’ tab allows you to define the fields which will appear on the summary tab in the Site Overheads Workbench. Any field from the contract record (and for home building templates, from the development record) can be used.

The ‘Cost Heads’ tab allows you to define the cost heads that can be used in the template, and their accruals calculation method. Only cost heads specified in the new JC parameter SOCHMASK can be used.

To avoid the need to make manual adjustments where the difference between the actual cost and the budget/forecast cost is small, you can specify an Allowed Difference. If the accrual method is accrual, but the difference is within this percentage, an accrual will not be created.

A row action Update Site Cost Heads allows you to add cost heads and update their accrual method and allowed difference on live sites in the Site Overheads Workbench. The update runs as a background report.

The ‘Items’ tab allows you to configure the items that make up the breakdown of the site overheads.

A row action ‘Update Site Items’ allows you to add the selected items to existing live sites that don’t have the item. The check if an item exists on a site is based on the cost head and item description. The update runs as a background report.

The Generate Cost Heads function on the Options menu allows you to automatically generate the cost heads for a template based on the cost heads specified in the JC parameter SOCHMASK. You can specify the accrual method and allowed difference, which apply to each new cost head added to the template.

Template Export/Import allows you to export a template and its dates, fields, cost heads and items, or to import an exported template.

The Site Overheads Workbench is a single place in which surveyors can see and manage information about their current site overheads. Two functions provide separate routes to the workbench:

The site overheads summary page allows you to maintain the dates, items and actual/forecast costs.

The ‘Summary’ tab shows the fields as configured using the template fields option, and the template dates. You can update manual dates, or tick the Override box to update calculated dates. If you change a date, any items with dates that are linked to it are updated, and the EFC (estimated final cost) total is recalculated.

The ‘Items’ tab displays a browse of the site overheads items. From here you can add bespoke items which are specific to the site; a * in the final column indicates a bespoke item. Column sets are available.

All users can add, update or delete bespoke items that are specific to the site.

Only users listed in the JC parameter SOOVRUSR can update all fields for all standard items. Other users can only update all fields if the Allow Override option is set on the standard item, otherwise they can only update the quantity- and price-related fields from here. If you attempt to delete an item linked to a standard template, a warning asks if you want to continue.

The ‘Matrix’ tab shows the detail for each item and allows you to update the amounts and forecast allocation of costs. The matrix also shows the actual cost variance, accrual and accrual reversal.

If you change a cell value for a cost head that is set up to accrue, a message in the context area informs you that the accruals need to be recalculated.

A row action allows you to allocate costs to a forecast period.

A link in the context area of the Site Overheads Workbench allows you to view a non-updateable ‘Gantt Chart’ view of the site overheads forecast. (A separate option allows you to print out a Gantt chart. See Gantt Chart.)

The following options are available from the Options menu of the Site Overheads Workbench:

Recalculate Site Overheads allows you to update the site overheads with actual costs and recalculate the actual cost variance rows. It also allows the accrual-related rows to be recalculated. This runs as a background report process; the context area shows the status of the recalculation process.

Lock Site Overheads allows you to lock the site overheads figures up to a selected period. Once locked, users will not be able to change the overhead item values for a locked period.

Unlock Site Overheads allows you to unlock the site overheads figures, if they are locked. This allows for the correction of errors and to make any adjustments.

It is expected that access to this function will be restricted by function access so only designated users can unlock a forecast.

Update VAP/BoQ runs a report that can update a selected VAP Budget and the current BOQ items Estimated Final Cost figures calculated on the Site Overheads Workbench.

VAP Budget Snapshots allows you to view any of the existing VAP budget snapshots.

What Ifs allows you to generate, view, and amend What If scenarios.

If you create a new What If, it will be based on a copy of the existing site overheads workbench. As this could take some time to process due to the number of records, this runs as a background report process. When viewing a What If scenario, it is updateable in the same way as the normal site overheads.

Delete What If allows you to delete the currently viewed What If scenario. It is only available when viewing a What If scenario.

Show Current allows you to switch to the current view of the site overheads workbench, if you are viewing a What If scenario or VAP budget snapshot.

Site Overheads Gantt Chart allows you to report on the site overheads items in a Gantt chart style. Tasks are shown for each item where an actual or forecast costs exists in the financial period. When viewing a What If scenario or VAP budget snapshot, this reports on details from the snapshot.

The report can also be run for more than one contract or development, from the Contract Status and VAP report menus.

Site Overheads Report allows you to print the details shown on the Matrix tab of the Site Overheads Workbench (or the snapshot if you are viewing a What If scenario or VAP budget snapshot).

The CVR includes any figures calculated at cost head level within the Site Overheads Workbench. This enables the CVR to include the figures summarised by cost head and summarised levels.

There is a CVR item type, Site Overhead.

The Site Overhead Value drop-down allows you to select from the Total Estimated Final Cost, Total to Date and Total Remaining. You can then select to summarise the item by each cost head analysis set and at contract level.

The CVR Update option has a tickbox, Update Site Overheads. This allows you to update the site overheads values in the forecast. This option is only shown if the model contains at least one CVR item linked to a site overhead and the contract is set up in the Site Overheads Workbench.

In addition, a separate Update Site Overheads option is available on the CVR update Options menu. This allows you to update only the site overheads.

This is required as some home builders don’t allow users access to the update CVR items option and the only time the CVR can be updated is when it’s first added. As the site overheads will likely be updated later after the initial CVR creation process a separate function is required to allow the site overheads and only the site overheads to be updated.

The CVR update process then takes a snapshot of the Site Overheads Workbench and updates the CVR item records and the associated summary records.

A view type of Site Overhead Matrix allows you to view the site overheads matrix from within the CVR. The view shows the snapshotted site overhead values that have been captured in the CVR, in the same way as the Site Overheads Workbench matrix tab (see Matrix Tab).

The Print Site Overheads option on the CVR Options menu allows you to report on the site overheads values that have been snapshotted within the CVR.

This option is only shown if the model contains at least one CVR item linked to a site overhead and the contract is set up in the Site Overheads Workbench.

The VAP/BOQ Link functionality allows the Estimated Final Cost in the Site Overheads Workbench to update VAP budgets and bill items in BOQ.

The Update VAP/BOQ report process on the Options menu in the Site Overheads Workbench allows you to update a selected VAP Budget and the current BOQ bill items from the Estimated Final Cost calculated within the Workbench.

You can choose to:

When the Copy Development Budget function is run, the site overheads VAP budget snapshot is also copied for each cost head that has been selected to be copied.

If the budget has been updated from the Site Overheads Workbench, it cannot be updated in the Development Budget Workbench. This check is be done at cost head level.

The Apply House Type Changes to Plots option in this workbench has also been amended so that any cost head populated from the Site Overheads Workbench is not updated.