Subcontracts
Let a work package to a subcontractor, award it, record and certify their running bills with retention, advance recovery and TDS, and see where you are paying ahead of the client.
A subcontract (work order) lets a package of work — shuttering, plastering, waterproofing — to a subcontractor at agreed rates. It is the mirror of your own RA bill: they measure, you certify, and you hold back retention from them the way your client holds it from you.
📷 Screenshot spot — a project's Subcontract tab with one awarded package open: the header figures (contract value, retention, advance, TDS), the Lines table and the Subcontractor bills panel with one certified bill
Save as static/img/screenshots/procurement-subcontracts.png and replace this box with 
Draft a subcontract
Who: Project Manager, Procurement Manager, Company Admin.
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Open the project and go to the Subcontract tab.
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Click New subcontract.
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Choose the Subcontractor. Only vendors of kind Subcontractor are listed — if yours is missing, add them under Vendors first.
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Enter the Package title, Work category (for example "Shuttering"), Rate type (item rate, lumpsum or labour rate), Start and End.
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Enter the commercial terms:
Field What it does Retention % Held back from each bill Retention cap % The most you will hold in total, as a percentage of the order value Advance ₹ Any advance paid to the subcontractor Advance recovery % How much of each bill goes to recovering that advance TDS section Defaults to 194C TDS rate % Deducted from each bill. Leave it blank and no TDS is deducted -
Add the Scope of work.
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For each line, pick the Client BOQ line it corresponds to (this fills in description, unit and quantity, which you can change), or leave it on "none". The picker works only when the project has a contract BOQ. Enter Description, Unit, Quantity and Rate. Click Add line for more.
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Click Save as draft. The order value is the sum of the lines.
Subcontracts are numbered per project, for example PRJ-07/SC/03. Even a lumpsum package needs at least one line in the app, because the line carries its value.
A draft cannot be edited in the app yet. If it is wrong, ask the Company Admin to Terminate it and draft a new one.
Award it
Only the Company Admin can award a subcontract. Open the draft and click Award.
Awarding commits the whole order value to the project's subcontract cost. It is refused if the order has no lines or is worth nothing.
How a subcontract moves
Every move is the Company Admin's, using the buttons on the open package: Award, Start work, Suspend, Mark completed, Terminate and Close. Suspend and Terminate offer a box for the reason; it is optional, but it is kept on the record. The first certified bill moves an awarded package to In progress by itself.
The Past their end date figure at the top of the tab counts open packages whose end date has passed; each shows an overrun tag.
Record a subcontractor's bill
Who: Project Manager, Company Admin. A bill is money throughout, so only roles that can see project cost see the bills panel.
A bill can be recorded while the package is awarded, in progress or completed — and only when no earlier bill is still Received or Under review.
- Open the package. In Subcontractor bills, click Record bill.
- Enter the Bill date, Period from, Period to and Their bill no.
- Enter any Other deductions ₹ and Deduction notes.
- For each line being billed, enter the Qty to date — the cumulative quantity from the start of the order, as on a client RA bill. Leave a line blank to leave it out.
- Click Record bill.
The app works the bill out:
| Figure | How |
|---|---|
| This bill | (Qty to date − quantity certified before) × rate, over all lines |
| Retention | This bill × retention %, until the cap is reached |
| Advance recovery | At the recovery %, until the advance is recovered |
| TDS | This bill × TDS rate % |
| Net payable | This bill − retention − advance recovery − TDS − other deductions |
A quantity to date above the ordered quantity is refused — the subcontractor is billing more than they were ordered. That excess needs a subcontract variation, and subcontract variations are not in the app yet.
Certify, reject or mark paid
Who certifies: Project Manager, Company Admin.
- Open the bill and click Certify….
- For each line, enter the Certify qty to date, or leave it blank to accept what was claimed.
- Enter the Certified amount ₹, or leave it blank for the full claim. You cannot certify more than this bill claims.
- Add Certification notes and click Certify bill.
Certifying moves the certified amount from committed to actual subcontract cost on the project, and records the retention as money you owe the subcontractor, due for release on completion. It cannot be undone.
The other buttons on a bill: Take under review, Reject (a reason is required — the subcontractor has to know what to correct) and, on a certified bill, Mark paid. Marking a bill paid also needs the right to record payments, so in practice it is the Company Admin who does it.
Terminating releases only what is outstanding
When a subcontract is terminated or closed, only the outstanding commitment comes off the project's committed cost — the order value less everything certified so far. What has been certified is work done; it stays as actual cost.
Back-to-back check against the client
For lines linked to a client BOQ line, the Back-to-back vs client BOQ panel lists every line where you have certified more to the subcontractor than the client has certified to you: Certified to sub, Certified by client, Ahead by and Exposure (the extra quantity at the subcontractor's rate).
This is a warning, never a block — paying a subcontractor ahead of the client is sometimes necessary. But it is money out before it is earned back, so link every line you can to the client BOQ when you draft the package. Without the link there is nothing to compare.
Who sees what
Values, rates, bills and the back-to-back panel show only to the Project Manager, Accountant and Company Admin. A Procurement Manager can draft packages and see their lines and quantities, but not the money. A team member with Financials ticked on the project's Team page also sees the package values and rates, though not the bills.