Variations & instructions

A change to the work arrives on WhatsApp on a Friday afternoon — and before anyone has priced it, the work has often already happened. Unpriced and unapproved changes are where the money on a job leaks: not because the work was bad, but because the change was never dated, priced and approved while it still could be.

What YPA does

• Reads every instruction out of your WhatsApp, emails, voice notes and meeting minutes and files it as a dated row on your Variation Register the day it happens — who instructed it, when, and against what work. A change that was said, not written, is still captured, with its row number and source. You can send it in yourself — a message, a photo of a signed instruction, a voice note — or YPA catches it as it arrives on either channel.
• Moves each variation through the chain your contract expects — instructed → priced → approved → paid, and the dead ends too (disputed, rejected, withdrawn). When your quotation comes back from the QS, YPA files the amount and updates the row; when the certificate that pays the change lands, YPA matches it to the row and marks it paid from the certificate — and where the match isn't clear-cut, it comes to you to confirm before the row moves.
• Adds up your exposure every morning — instructed but unpriced, priced but not approved, approved but not paid — as one number in your brief on WhatsApp or email. Money at risk stops being a surprise on a certificate and becomes something you saw coming.
• Drafts the paperwork at each step — the quotation letter when a change is instructed (for the amount you set with your QS), the follow-up when a priced variation sits unsigned, the confirmation when a change is agreed. A formal document comes to your email as an attachment you can open, edit and send on yourself; short follow-ups arrive as WhatsApp messages. Ask for either in either channel — "send it to my email", "send it on WhatsApp" — and it switches.
• Checks every certificate against the register — when a payment lands, YPA looks for the approved variations it should include and tells you if one is missing, so an approved change can't quietly disappear from a certificate. Ask "did the last certificate pay this variation?" and YPA answers from the register.
• Files everything in your project folder — every instruction, register update and draft sits in secure cloud document storage alongside the rest of the job, and you can ask YPA in plain language any time — "show me the open variations", "send me the register" — and the answer comes back on the channel you asked on, or the one you name.

How it actually runs

• A change can come from anywhere — the client, the engineer, the principal agent — in a site meeting, an email, a WhatsApp message or a voice note.
• Your contract expects a change to be instructed (usually in writing), then priced with your quotation, then approved — and only then paid, through a certificate.
• In practice the work starts first. The instruction, the price and the approval get sorted out afterwards — if they get sorted out at all.
• The certificate that finally pays the work should show the approved change. When it doesn't, the variation has quietly disappeared.

Where it usually goes wrong

What a YPA sheet looks like

Every instruction and change goes onto the YPA Variation Register — one row per change, dated, with the money and the status at each step. The Cost Code column groups changes by trade (FND foundations, WIN windows, CLD cladding) — the same categories your QS works in.

YPA — Your Project Assistant · Variation Register Example project · generated sheet format

VO No	Date	Description	Instruction Ref	Originator	Cost Code	Reason	Work Status	Quoted Amount	QS Valuation	Approved Amount	Time Impact (days)	Status	Verified By	Source Tag
VO-01	2026-01-09	Extra foundation depth – Block A	SI-004	Principal agent	FND	Change of soil condition	Complete	38,400	38,400	38,400	3	Paid	QS	Email
VO-02	2026-01-22	Move boundary wall 2 m	SI-005	Client	EXT	Client request	Complete	72,500	72,500	72,500	5	Paid	QS	WhatsApp
VO-03	2026-02-12	Windows – revised sill height	SI-008	Architect	WIN	Design revision	Complete	28,600	26,500	26,500	2	Paid	QS	Email
VO-04	2026-03-05	Additional steel lintels – garage	SI-014	Client	STL	Client request	Complete	38,400	37,200	37,200	2	Paid	QS	WhatsApp
VO-05	2026-03-24	Stormwater – extra outlet	SI-016	Engineer	CIV	Engineer's instruction	Complete	41,900	41,900	41,900	4	Paid	QS	Email
VO-06	2026-04-14	Stone cladding – balcony change	SI-019	Architect	CLD	Design revision	Complete	56,000	53,200	53,200	6	Paid	QS	Voice note
VO-07	2026-05-06	Tiling – larger format, labour only	SI-021	Client	TIL	Client request	Not started	41,900	—	—	3	Priced	QS	WhatsApp
VO-08	2026-05-21	Roof sheeting – colour change	SI-022	Client	RUF	Client request	Not started	18,900	—	—	1	Priced	QS	Email
VO-09	2026-05-27	Move boundary wall 2 m (extra)	—	Verbal (site)	EXT	Disputed scope	Not started	—	—	—	—	Disputed	QS	Site meeting
VO-10	2026-06-03	Security gate – keypad upgrade	SI-024	Client	SEC	Client request	Not started	—	—	—	2	Instructed	QS	WhatsApp

Exposure: R60,800 priced but not yet approvedYPA flags the unpriced and unapproved rows →

Example only — illustrative rows in the real YPA Variation Register sheet format.

What you can do today

• Write the change down the day it happens — even a line in your phone: what changed, who said it, when.
• Ask for instructions in writing when it matters — "can you confirm that on a message" gives the price something to attach to.
• Price changes while they're still changes, not after the work is done and the leverage is gone.
• Keep the certificate that finally pays the change — it's the proof the variation didn't disappear.

This guide is general information, not legal advice. What counts as a valid instruction, and how variations are priced and approved, comes from your signed contract — always check the contract before acting. YPA helps you record, track and draft; it doesn't give legal opinions.