Instructions
The instruction register
An instruction is the authority for a variation. A variation with no instruction behind it is the first thing an auditor pulls out and the first thing a payer refuses.
QScope Team·4 min read
Log it when it arrives
- Open Instructions and add an entry.
- Keep the contract’s own numbering. It is what the correspondence will refer to years later.
- Choose the type: architect’s instruction, CA instruction, employer’s instruction, confirmation of verbal instruction or site instruction.
- Say whether it has a cost effect. If you do not know yet, say so.
The two entries QScope colours
Red means the instruction changes the cost of the works and no variation has been raised against it. As things stand it will not reach the final account.
Amber means a verbal instruction is still waiting for written confirmation. It binds nobody until it is confirmed.
Confirming a verbal instruction
- Add the entry, choose Confirmation of verbal instruction, and record the date and place it was given and by whom.
- Describe what was instructed in enough detail to price.
- Send the confirmation.
- When it is confirmed or not dissented from, change the status.
Linking to a variation
Choose the variation the instruction authorised and the two are joined in both directions. Daywork sheets link to instructions the same way, so a sheet with no instruction behind it is visible before it becomes an argument.
On a FIDIC contract the Engineer instructs
The steps above use the JCT names. On the FIDIC Red Book the authority is the Engineer, who issues instructions under Sub-Clause 3.3 and instructs Variations under Clause 13, valued under Clause 12 with daywork under 13.6.
Log it the same way. Keep the Engineer's own numbering, record the sub-clause it rests on, and flag the cost effect. Counting on FIDIC is in calendar days and there is no pay-less notice, so the deadline you are working to is the one in the Conditions of Contract.