Currently, Co-construct associates an allowance amount with a single selection item. However, there may be times when your contract specifies an allowance that is shared among multiple selection items. Examples could include “Kitchen cabinets and countertops” or “Fireplace, mantle, and surround.” There are a few ways to handle this:
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Create a single selection item that includes all of the items in the allowance, such as “Kitchen cabinets and countertops.” Select “Choice to be entered by client” as the way the client makes the selection choice. This allows the client an open-ended way to type in both their cabinet and countertop selection. When you then enter in the combined price, Co-construct computes the variance from that price and the total allowance amount.
This is a common scenario when you use a vendor to handle certain selections. That vendor will then aggregate the clients’ selections on a single order, and provide it to you.
- Reconsider whether it is necessary to actually show the allowance amount on the selection sheet. Especially if you are offering the clients some basic options that are covered by the allowance amount, it may make more sense to address the pricing in terms of upcharges over the contract price.
For example, your contract may have a $4,500 allowance for a fireplace, mantle, and surround. For each of these three, you have standard options that add up to the $4,500 amount. In this case, should the client pick your standard options, there would be no change to the price of the project.
However, to give your clients a greater degree of choice, you could break these into three separate selection items, all under a “Fireplace” category. Do not put an allowance amount on any of the items and give each of your standard selections a price of $0. Should the client choose the standard options, as with before, there would be no change to the price of the project.
For standard upgrades or other custom items selected by the client, simply enter prices in terms of the upcharges. Because the prices reflect the incremental cost of the upgrades, you are still taking the allowance into account, even though you did not explicitly enter it on the selection sheet.
By explaining in the “Information” section of the selection item that the allowance has been taken into account in the pricing, you can prevent any confusion from the client.
- You could assign part of the allowance to each selection item, with the total of all the allowances equaling the total for the category. While the client may be over on one and under on another, all of the numbers will balance out once all of the selection choices have been made.