Variations and purchase orders

A job's Overview and Work tabs carry variations to its scope, materials the crew buys for it, and the customer's own purchase order number. On a working job, the Overview quick-add row shows only the actions the role can use. Existing items render as records; an empty section offers an Add action that opens a sheet.

Raise a variation

Anyone who can write to the job can raise a variation from the Overview quick-add row or from Work under Variations. A finished or archived job is read-only.

1. Describe the extra-scope work.
2. Only the owner can add an estimated dollar amount. Everyone else raises a variation without one.
3. Select Raise variation.

Only the owner, admins, dispatchers and office staff can approve or decline a variation, and only the owner sees its dollar amount. To decide one that's pending:

• Select Approve or Decline. Declining needs a reason.
• Select Need detail instead of deciding straight away. This sends the variation back to the person who raised it; they answer with Add detail, which returns it to your queue.
• Select Reopen on a variation you've already decided to send it back to pending. This is recorded, and tells the person who raised it.
• Anyone who can see the variation can also open its Ask thread to leave a note without deciding it.

If the customer needs a purchase order for the job, the owner or an admin can link a variation, at any stage, to one of the job's purchase orders below.

You can also review outstanding variations from Approvals, filtered to Variations.

Buy materials for a job

On the job's Work tab, under Materials & receipts, the owner, admins, dispatchers, office staff, site supervisors, and any crew member assigned to the job can log a purchase. The Overview + Material used action opens the same materials and receipts flow.

1. Say what you need.
2. Add a Supplier if you know it.
3. Enter the $ cost.
4. Select Log purchase, or Request approval if the button has already switched to that (ONYX1 shows this before you submit, once the cost is over your workspace's approval threshold).

If it needs approval, don't buy it until the office says yes. Once a purchase is approved (or logged straight away, under the threshold), buy it, then come back, enter the actual cost, and select Save receipt to attach a photo of the docket. Anyone who could see the purchase can select View receipt afterwards.

The owner, admins, dispatchers and office staff decide purchases that need approval (site supervisors cannot):

• Select Approve or Decline. Declining needs a note.
• Select Need detail instead of deciding straight away. The crew member answers with Send detail, which returns it to your queue.
• If something was approved to buy but never actually bought, select Close as not bought so it doesn't sit looking unfinished.

You can also review outstanding purchases from Approvals, filtered to Purchases.

The owner or an admin sets the approval threshold at Settings → Business, under Buying materials on site, in the Approval needed above field. Set it to zero to require approval for every purchase.

The customer's own purchase order

Only the owner and admins can see or add the customer's own purchase order details, under Purchase orders on Work. This is a record of the customer's paperwork, not an approval you decide.

1. Enter the PO number.
2. Add the $ value if you know it, the date it was Received, and whether it covers the Base work or a Variation.
3. Add a document link if you have one.
4. Select Record purchase order.

A variation can be linked to one of these purchase orders at any stage, not only once it's approved.