Basics of Schedule of Values (SOV)

The Schedule of Values (SOV) is a critical tool in Contractor Foreman, widely used in the construction industry to manage and streamline project financials. Its primary functions include:

Tracking the Contract Amount
The SOV provides a detailed breakdown of the project’s total contract value into individual work items or cost categories. This enables accurate monitoring of the contract amount as the project progresses.

Managing Invoicing
The SOV facilitates precise tracking of amounts invoiced to the client versus the remaining balance to be invoiced. This ensures accurate billing aligned with project milestones and prevents discrepancies in financial reporting.

By offering these capabilities, the Schedule of Values helps maintain financial transparency and enhances project management efficiency.

**The SOV is the information that will be shown on the Continuation Page of the AIA G-702 and G-703 form.

How do we create the Schedule of Values?

There are a couple of different ways to create the Schedule of Values of a Project and we will review each one of them below.

Importing items to the Schedule of Values from an Approved Estimate.

You can bring all the line items of an Estimate to the Schedule of Values and there are 2 simple ways to do this.

1. Once an Estimate gets manually approved, you will get a pop-up question asking you if you wish to create the Schedule of Values using every line item in your estimate.

** Please note that the sections created in the Estimate will also be shown in your SOV. In other words, your SOV will have sections and within those sections the individual line items.

2. If you created a Project from the Projects Module, or you did not create the SOV when the Estimate was approved. You can simply open the Project in question, go to the SOV section from the left panel and click on the drop down menu “Add Item to SOV. You will see a list of options. The one we are looking for is “Import from an Estimate” one. Click on it and you will have the ability to select an itemized version of the SOV (every line item shown on your Estimate) or just the subtotals as you had them on your original Estimate.

You might wonder, what the difference between the itemized version of the SOV vs the “just sections” version of the SOV is. The itemized version gives you more detail and with that a better use of the cost codes per line item, the “just sections” version does not allow the use of cost codes. Where the itemized version is best for projects where we want to have an accurate cost control, the “just sections” version of the SOV provides ease of use.

Remember that the above options are available only if you have an Approved Estimate in your Project.

Adding items manually to the Schedule of Values

If you will invoice your client in a different way on how you put together your Estimate, you can create a Schedule of Values from the scratch using some of the options given in the dropdown menu “Add Item to SOV” as shown below.

We will leave out Change Orders and Work Orders for the simple reason that when either one of those records get approved by the customers, they become part of the Schedule of Values automatically. This goes back to the original definition of the SOV, a tracking tool that allows us to keep track of the up-to-date contract amount of the project.

Importing an item from the Cost Items Database allows you to quickly add items to your SOV saving time and efforts. In order to use this function it is important to have built first a solid database with all your typical items.

Adding your items manually is one of the most common things to do in Contractor Foreman when we begin to use the platform. Just remember to fill all the required fields marked with a red asterisk and make sure you do not miss the item type (Labor, Equipment, Subcontractor, Material, Other) and cost code for better reporting. Since we are building the Schedule of Values it is not needed to have a markup, the actual amount to be invoiced to the customer is enough on this specific stage.

Importing your SOV from a file simplifies things that in just a matter of seconds you can build a whole new SOV using our CSV import template (click here to download it). This feature is great for companies that always charge their clients in the same format.

Important things to remember is that the Cost Code in the CSV file needs be written exactly the same as it is in Contractor Foreman. Failure to do so will generate additional cost codes and this will create confusion in the system. We highly recommend you having a 1 on 1 session before you import the SOV into your system. Another important note is that the item types need to be written following this nomenclature: Labor Items > LBR, Material Items > MTL, Equipment Items > EQUIP, Subcontractor Items > SUB, Other Items > Other.

**Also, see the Basics of the Cost Item Database