GMP baseline. Set once, frozen, versioned.

What the baseline records

The baseline is the GMP as signed, line by line. Cost of work by schedule of values line, general conditions, contractor contingency, owner contingency with a flag for whether it sits inside or outside the GMP, fee and fee basis, bond and insurance, the allowance schedule, the contract form, the shared savings terms, and the notice periods.

Each line carries a basis flag with one of three values: priced, allowance, or assumption. Priced means a subcontract or a quote stands behind the number. Allowance means a placeholder the contract says will be reconciled later. Assumption means the contractor estimated it without either. The flag is the most important field in the product, because every risk read downstream starts from it.

Versioning, not editing

A change to any line creates a new version with a reason and a timestamp. Version 1 is the GMP amendment as executed. Version 2 might be the first approved change order that adds to the GMP. The history is kept, and every report states which version it was read against.

Set by a senior reviewer

Baseline setup is advisory work, not a form. A senior reviewer reads the GMP amendment, the schedule of values and the clarifications list, and enters each line with its basis flag. The output is the GMP Baseline Report, a document the owner keeps. It is priced separately and never bundled into the subscription.

Why the basis flag matters more than the total

Two GMPs of the same value can carry very different exposure. One has 80 percent of the cost of work bought out with executed subcontracts. The other has half of it carried as assumptions at design development. The totals match. The risk does not.

The baseline makes that visible on the first screen: the share of the cost of work that is priced, the share that is allowance, and the share that is assumption, by value. The register of soft lines is ranked by exposure, so the owner knows which lines to watch before the first pay application arrives.

What it feeds

Every other module reads from the baseline. The contingency ledger takes the two fund amounts from it. The buyout tracker takes each package's GMP line value from it. The allowance register takes the carried values. The anticipated final cost starts from the GMP total. The shared savings projection takes the split percentages, the cap and the carve outs. Change one of those at the source and every downstream figure moves with it, with a version number attached.

What it is not

The baseline is not the development budget. Land, soft costs, financing and owner furnished items live in the owner's own budget tool. The baseline covers the GMP line and what the contract puts inside it.

Instead of the spreadsheet

Why owners pick this over the spreadsheet: a spreadsheet baseline is edited in place, so the reference itself drifts. Nobody can say which version the March report was read against. Here the baseline is frozen, every change is a version with a reason, and every report names the version it used.

Next and previous

Previous module: Monthly owner report. Next module: Contingency ledger. Or read how the eight fit together.