Module 5 of 9

Buyout tracker. What each package carried, and what it was bought for.

The difference between a package's GMP line and its awarded value is the owner's money to share, not the contractor's to keep quiet about. This module keeps the running total.

The buyout tracker, as it renders in the product. Fictional project. Every chart is inline SVG.

What it is for

The problem this solves.

Every package bought under its line in the GMP creates money that the contract has already decided the home of. Every package bought over it is the first sign that the number will not hold.

$1.09Min the savings poolSeven packages bought against their GMP lines
7 of 8packages awardedUntil the last one, the pool is a projection
$818kyour share on a 75 to 25 splitApplied from the clause, every month, the same way
What it replaces. Finding out at closeout what the buyout was worth, from a reconciliation written by the party that kept the records. We did that work by hand for twenty years, and it took about a day a month on every project. Over a two year job that is roughly twenty four days of somebody's time, every year, on one contract.

Figures are from the fictional project used throughout this site, and are arithmetic rather than an industry claim. Your own numbers are the ones worth knowing, and the calculator below computes them.

Every package against the GMP line it was carried at 22 s, no voice over. Nothing loads from YouTube until you press play.All eleven films

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Change Order Exposure

The pool is made in the buyout and spent in the change orders. Enter your open items by cause and see what is eating it.

It runs the same functions as the product, in your browser. Nothing you type is sent anywhere or stored.

Per package

Package reference, trade, GMP line value, awarded value, variance, award date, subcontractor reference and status. Awarded packages show the variance as savings above the line or an overrun in the flag color. Open packages show the GMP line value and nothing else, because there is nothing else yet.

The running savings pool is the sum of the variances on awarded packages. It is shown on the dashboard and it flows into the shared savings projection.

The chart: variance by package

One bar per awarded package. Savings above the axis in the accent color, overruns below in the flag color with a hatch so it reads in grayscale. No legend. Each bar is labeled with the trade and the figure. The three packages over their line on the fictional project are visible at a glance: curtain wall, elevators, site utilities.

Flags it raises

A package awarded above its GMP line. A package awarded against a line that the baseline flagged as an assumption, which is worth a look at the basis. Buyout coverage below the level the baseline expected at this month. A package whose award date passed with no award recorded.

What it is not

The tracker does not procure and does not hold bids. The contractor runs buyout. The owner records the result, package by package, against the line the contractor carried in the GMP.

Instead of the spreadsheet

Why owners pick this over the spreadsheet: buyout workbooks break quietly. A package awarded in pieces, a line renumbered in the schedule of values, a variance formula dragged one row too far. Here each award is an entry against a fixed baseline line, and the pool is a sum of entries, not of formulas.

Variance by package. Savings above the axis, overruns below in the flag color.

Questions owners ask

Where do awarded values come from?

From the subcontract log or the buyout report the contractor provides, and from the pay application's schedule of values when it changes. Each entry carries the document it came from.

What about packages bought in pieces?

A package can carry several awards. The tracker sums them against the single GMP line and shows the components.

Does buyout savings belong to the owner?

That depends on the shared savings clause in your contract. The tracker records the figure. The shared savings module applies your split to it.

Next and previous

Previous module: Change order register. Next module: Allowance register. Or read how the nine fit together.

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Send us one pay application. We will check it.

One G703 with the names redacted. Six checks against the schedule of values it came from, and a written answer in two working days. No charge, and no follow up unless you ask for one.

Send us one