Instructions

No instruction, no variation

A variation with no instruction behind it is the first thing an auditor pulls out, and the first thing a payer refuses. The register exists so that the answer is on file before the question is asked.

Your own numbering, not an imposed sequence
Date issued and issued by, held against every entry
Register prints and exports to CSV

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Instructions

Instruction AI-019

TypeArchitect’s instruction

Date issued2 June 2026

Issued byFielding & Partners

Cost effectYes

Variation raisedNone

An instruction is the authority for a variation. This one has a cost effect and nothing has been raised against it.

Numbering that still makes sense in three years

Instructions are referred to by number in correspondence long after the project team has changed.

Keep the contract’s own numbering and the file stays readable; renumber it to suit a spreadsheet and it does not. QScope holds the number you give it, the date, who issued it and what it said, and prints the register as a document. Dayworks and variations both point back at it.

Instructions

The two gaps that cost money

The first is an instruction that changes the cost of the works and never becomes a variation.

Instructions with a cost effect and no variation raised, shown in red
Verbal instructions awaiting written confirmation, shown in amber
Architect’s instruction, CA instruction, employer’s instruction, CVI and site instruction

Instructions

Unconfirmed

No variation

AI-018 · Revised door scheduleVariation VO-11

AI-019 · Additional drainageNo variation raised

CVI-004 · Verbal, 12 MayAwaiting confirmation

With a cost effect19 of 24

AI-019 changes the cost of the works and has no variation against it. As things stand it will not reach the final account.

Variations

What the instruction authorises

An instruction is the authority.

Every approved variation traced back to its instruction
Basis of valuation and contract clause held on the variation
Instructions with a cost effect and no variation flagged in red

Variations

VO-11 Revised door schedule

InstructionAI-018

Basis of valuationContract rates

Contract clauseJCT 5.6.1

Extension of time1 day

Subtotal£2,150.00

Link the instruction to the variation and both point at each other, so the account can be traced from the authority to the figure and back.

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RFIs

The question before the instruction

An instruction often begins as a question.

Question, who it was raised with, and the date raised
Answer and the date it was given
Days outstanding counted from today, not from memory

RFIs

Outstanding on this project

QuestionRaisedStatus

Confirm lintel spec over new opening4 AugOpen 16 d

Drainage invert level at MH311 AugOpen 9 d

Finish to exposed soffit2 AugAnswered

Open on this project2

When a question becomes an instruction it becomes a variation, and the register keeps the thread from RFI to instruction to change on the same project.

Dayworks

Work carried out under instruction

Where work cannot be measured at contract rates it is valued as daywork, and every sheet needs the instruction that authorised it.

Separate additions for labour, materials and plant
Only agreed sheets carried to the final account
Sheets with no instruction linked are flagged

Dayworks

Sheet DW-014

Labour £2,000 + 130%£4,600

Materials £3,000 + 15%£3,450

Plant £500 + 20%£600

Sheet total£8,650

Each daywork sheet links back to the instruction in the register, so the authority for the labour, materials and plant is on file before the sheet is submitted.

Instructions

The Engineer’s instruction on a FIDIC job

Outside the UK the authority often sits with the Engineer, not an architect or contract administrator.

Engineer’s instruction under Sub-Clause 3.3, alongside AI, CVI and site instruction
A Variation instructed under Clause 13, valued under Clause 12
Cost effect with no variation raised, shown in red on FIDIC as on JCT

Instructions

Instruction EI-023, FIDIC Red Book

TypeEngineer’s instruction

Sub-clause3.3

Variation clause13

Cost effectYes

Variation raisedVO-07

On FIDIC the Engineer instructs under 3.3 and the Variation is valued under Clause 12. The authority and the figure still point at each other.

Who it is for

One change, four people it touches

You are applying

You price the change and defend it

You price the instruction, submit the variation and defend it when it comes back cut. Instructed work with no variation against it is money you have already spent.

Applying for payment

the same measurement

You are certifying

You value the change and answer for it

You value the variation from the other chair and account for what you cut. The register you keep is the one the final account will be argued from.

Certifying payment

You are doing both

You build the change, paid or not

You absorb the small changes as they come, and the ones nobody wrote down are the ones you end up building for free.

Doing both yourself

You are reporting

You fund the change, priced or blind

You check that scope changes are priced and approved before money moves, because an unpriced variation is risk the facility is carrying blind.

Recommending a drawdown

The client, the architect and the tenderer are not on this list. They are the people you let in on a link: they see the one document you sent them, answer it, and that answer is written into the record. No account, no licence, no charge, on every plan.

FAQs

The questions this page raises most often, answered without a sales pitch at the end.

A confirmation of verbal instruction. Where the contract administrator gives an instruction other than in writing, the contractor may confirm it in writing, and it takes effect if the administrator does not dissent within the period the contract allows.

Only the person named in the contract. An instruction from a clerk of works or a project manager who is not named does not vary the works, however reasonable it was.

No. It shows you the instruction has a cost effect and no variation against it, and you decide what to raise. Automatic creation would produce variations nobody had priced.

Yes, as CSV, and it prints as a formal register for issue with the final account.

The Engineer. On the FIDIC Red Book the Engineer issues instructions under Sub-Clause 3.3 and instructs Variations under Clause 13, valued under Clause 12 with daywork under 13.6. QScope holds the Engineer’s instruction in the same register as an architect’s instruction, under your own numbering.

From the blog

The part nobody teaches you, written down

Three pieces from the same corner of a contract as this page, answered at length and without a sales pitch at the end.

Variations10/08/2026

How do you price extra work so the client actually pays for it?

Instruction first, then the valuation ladder your contract sets: contract rates, adjusted rates, a fair price or dayworks. Where each rung applies, and why the smallest variations are the ones that never get paid.

Read now

Variations15/07/2026

Small extras keep eating the job. How do I stop doing them for free?

No single extra under two hundred pounds feels worth the awkward conversation, and thirty of them are a month’s wages. The three-sentence habit that captures small changes without souring the job, and the quote clause that makes the habit expected.

Read now

Variations11/06/2026

Loss and expense is not the same as an extension of time

Time and money are separate entitlements with separate tests. Why an extension of time does not carry money with it, what has to be ascertained, and where these claims usually fail.

Read now

All 174 pieces

Keep reading

The three parts this page leans on

Variations Record the instruction, basis of valuation and clause, on JCT, NEC or FIDIC. Approved variations pull straight into a payment certificate. See how it works Dayworks Labour, materials and plant carry separate percentage additions on JCT, and FIDIC daywork sits under Sub-Clause 13.6. Only agreed sheets reach the account. See how it works Confirming a verbal instruction A verbal instruction is real work with weak paper. The one-line confirmation email that fixes it, who has to have said it for it to count, and why this works the same on a domestic extension as on a commercial job. See how it works