Contingency ledger. Two funds, two ledgers, never one total.
The contractor's contingency and the owner's contingency are different money with different rules. This module keeps them apart and charts each one against how much of the building exists.
The contingency ledger, as it renders in the product. Fictional project. Every chart is inline SVG.
What each entry carries
Date, amount, fund, reason, category, authorizing party, and the supporting document. An entry without a document is flagged, not blocked. The ledger is meant to record what happened, including the draws that arrived without backup, because that fact is itself worth knowing.
Entries are grouped by period so the monthly snapshot is exact. The draw register shows the last entries first, with the fund as a chip and the backup status beside it.
The chart: drawdown against progress
Two columns, one per fund, each filled to the percent drawn. A dashed line across both at percent complete. Fill above the line is money leaving faster than the work arrives. The gap is stated in points, and the contractor's column turns to the flag color the moment it crosses the line.
This is the signature chart of the product and it appears on the dashboard, in the monthly report and in the free runway calculator. It carries a caption naming the source of its figures, as every chart does.
Exhaustion month, two ways
The projection runs at the average rate from the start and at the trailing three month rate. The headline is the earlier of the two. On the fictional project on this page, the average says month 16 and the trailing rate says month 13, so month 13 is what the flag says. The calculation is the same function in the ledger, the report and the calculator, so the three can never disagree.
Flags the ledger raises
Contractor fund drawn faster than progress. Exhaustion inside the remaining schedule. A draw recorded without a supporting document. A draw reclassified between funds, which writes to the audit table and raises a flag for the owner to review. The owner's fund is flagged only when it is drawn ahead of the work, because it is the owner's money to spend.
What it is not
The ledger does not approve draws and does not pay them. Approval stays where the contract puts it. The ledger records the decision, the date, and the document, and shows the two funds side by side.
Instead of the spreadsheet
Why owners pick this over the spreadsheet: a spreadsheet holds one contingency total in one cell, with no document behind a draw and no projection beyond a division. Two ledgers with documents attached, and an exhaustion month computed two ways, is not something a workbook maintains for eighteen months.
The burn projection: drawn to date as a line, extended at the trailing rate to the exhaustion point.
Questions owners ask
What if the owner's contingency sits inside the GMP?
The baseline carries a flag for that. The chart and the anticipated final cost both read the flag, so an inside the GMP owner contingency is treated as part of the cap and an outside one is added to it.
How do you get the draws in?
From the monthly package the owner already receives: the contingency log and the pay application. Entries are typed or imported, each with its document attached. There is no connection to the contractor's system.
Why no combined contingency total?
Because a combined total hides the only question that matters: whose fund is paying. Two funds, two ledgers, two columns, always.
Next and previous
Previous module: GMP baseline. Next module: Change order register. Or read how the eight fit together.
See the contingency ledger on a project like yours.
Thirty minutes. We open the fictional project, walk the contingency ledger, and show the page of the monthly report it produces.