TaskRox Help & User Manual

The Cost Tracking tab is the project manager's cost-code view. It tracks control accounts such as original contract scope, approved variations, provisional sums, pending variations, commitments, forecasts, and actuals.

Summary cards: - Original Contract - Approved Variations - Revised Contract - Committed (sum of committed costs) - Forecast / EAC - Actual - Variance

Line items — add items with: - Description - Cost code - Type: original, variation, provisional, or PC sum - Status - Budget, committed, forecast, and actual amounts

Cost Tracking rows are control accounts. They may come from the contract estimate, a variation workflow, a provisional allowance, imported/setup data, or a manually created PM tracking bucket.

Every Cost Tracking row has a type and a status. They answer two different questions: *what kind of money is this?* and *where is it in the approval lifecycle?*

Types - Original — base contract scope from the awarded BOQ. - Variation — a change to the contract (a variation order / VO): added, omitted, or altered scope, or a contractual claim such as a rise-and-fall / fuel escalation. - Provisional — an allowance for scope that is expected but not yet fully defined (provisional sums). - PC sum — a prime cost sum for nominated supply.

Variation status lifecycle A variation typically moves: *identified → submitted → under assessment → approved or rejected*. The row status captures where it sits: - Pending — submitted and/or under assessment. Not yet part of the revised contract and not counted in the Approved Variations card. - Approved — accepted by the Superintendent / principal. Now part of the revised contract and the Approved Variations total. - Rejected — declined; retained for audit but excluded from contract totals. - Active — a live working/tracking bucket (used mainly for original and provisional rows), not a variation-approval state.

Why a pending variation can already show committed and actual cost Cost frequently precedes formal approval. A contractor may be directed to proceed (a site instruction) or proceed at risk before a priced variation is approved, so labour, plant, and materials are booked to the variation cost code while it is still pending.

Because a pending variation carries a $0 budget (it is not yet in the contract) but can carry real committed / actual amounts, it shows a negative variance — and that is the point: it surfaces unapproved cost exposure (work-at-risk) that needs a decision. A clean, just-submitted variation instead shows a forecast (the claimed amount) with $0 committed/actual until work is directed.

Only approved variations increase the revised contract and the Approved Variations card. Pending exposure stays visible until it is approved, rejected, or the contract catches up.

The BOQ / Estimate tab is the contract estimate breakdown: sections, quantities, rates, and line amounts.

Sections — add section rows (bold headings) to group related items. Sections show subtotals.

Line items — under each section, add: - Item No. - Description - Unit (m³, m², m, t, LS, etc.) - Quantity - Rate ($/unit) - Amount (auto-calculated = qty × rate)

Columns auto-save on blur. Subtotals and totals update in real time.

Open the BOQ as a full spreadsheet with View as spreadsheet on the BOQ tab.

Two-way sync — edits to Description, Unit, Qty, and Rate write back to the BOQ register immediately. Amounts are formulas (qty × rate) recalculated on the server, so the register always carries calculated values.

Protected layout — the header row, Amount column, and section rows are locked. Editors cannot break the BOQ mapping; module admins can manage protection from the right-click menu.

Formulas and names — the spreadsheet supports the full 74-function formula engine and named ranges (the BOQ columns are pre-named: BOQ_QTY, BOQ_RATE, and so on, e.g. =SUM(BOQ_QTY)).

Import / export — drag a .csv, .xlsx, or .xwbk file onto the page to import (with progress and cancel). If the workbook already has data you'll be offered a replace flow. Downloads support custom filenames, a CSV range export, and an Excel-friendly BOM option. Every import source and export file is also filed in the project Documents register under a "Spreadsheet" folder.

Fidelity report — anything an import can't represent (merged cells, macros, unsupported formats) is listed in the import notes panel — nothing is dropped silently. The notes persist across reloads and can be copied with one click.

A Cost Tracking row is BOQ linked when TaskRox can connect that cost code/control account to one or more BOQ line items.

Linkage lets the app answer: - Which BOQ lines make up this cost code? - Which BOQ section does this control account reconcile to? - Is the Cost Tracking total aligned with the BOQ total? - Are any BOQ lines missing from the cost-code view?

The Cost Tracking table shows: - Mapped BOQ — how many BOQ lines are represented by that cost code - Source — the linked BOQ section, or Unmapped if no section is linked - BOQ linkage — whether mapping is complete, incomplete, or has exceptions - Reconciliation delta — the dollar difference between Cost Tracking and BOQ totals, after the allowed tolerance

The system can use saved mappings, default section roll-ups, or fallback section matching. Where the match is not clear, the row stays unmapped so users can review it instead of relying on a weak automatic match.

Not every Cost Tracking row must always have BOQ lines.

Rows that should normally be BOQ linked: - Original contract cost codes - Approved variations that are now part of the revised contract - Provisional sums or PC sums that are represented in the contract BOQ

Rows that may validly be unlinked: - Pending variations before approval - Internal PM control accounts - Forecast or contingency buckets - Provisional tracking rows created before the estimate has been updated - Cost codes used for commitments or actuals that do not yet have a BOQ section

An unlinked row can still show a zero reconciliation delta if both sides are zero. That means the dollars currently balance; it does not mean the row has BOQ lines. Treat BOQ linkage and financial reconciliation as two related but separate checks.

Click Import BOQ to open the import sheet. Paste from Excel or upload a .xlsx file.

The importer auto-detects columns by header names (description, unit, qty, rate, amount, etc.) and shows a preview before import. Confirm to bulk-insert all rows.

After import, you can edit individual cells as normal.