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Creating a Main Contract as a GC

This article gives you step-by-step guidance on how to create a Main Contract as a GC.

Overview

This guide walks you through creating your first main contract in Ingenious. The main contract represents the formal agreement between your company and your client (for example, a general contractor and the project owner). Follow these steps to set up your contract, link it to your budget, and prepare it for change orders and invoicing.

Prerequisites

Before you can enter your main contract, make sure the following are in place:

  1. Create your Project BudgetEnsure that your budget has been created and at least one cost code is loaded into Ingenious.
  2. Optional: Template your WBS (Work Breakdown Structure)
    If you'd like, you can set up your WBS in the List & Templates section. This will make it easier to load into your main contract, instead of manually creating each item.

Process

1. Navigate to the Main Contract Section

  • In Ingenious, go to the Project Contracts module to begin. Add a Main Contract. This represents the contract between your company and your client (e.g., you General Contractor (GC) contract with the client).

2. Enter Contract Details

  • Fill out the necessary fields with information about your contract, such as:
    • Contract Name
    • Client Name
    • Other contract-specific details (e.g., start and end dates)

3. Skip Internal Financial Approval (Optional)

  • If you prefer to skip the internal financial approval workflow (e.g., approvals from your project team), select Yes, I have an executed contract. This allows you to proceed directly to uploading your executed contract PDF.

4. Upload Insurance Template (Optional)

  • If required, you can upload your Insurance Template for the contract. This step is optional but may be needed depending on your project’s requirements.

5. Set Retention Percentage

  • Enter the Retention percentage for your contract. This percentage will automatically apply to each line item in your Schedule of Values (SOV). Retention helps ensure that a portion of the contract value is held back until agreed-upon milestones or completion percentages are met.

Note: You can update the retention percentage for specific line items later. However, this initial entry will set the default retention for the entire contract, including any change orders or amendments.

6. Add the Schedule of Values (SOV)

  • Click on Add a Schedule of Values to enter the SOV for your contract. The Schedule of Values outlines the breakdown of costs associated with the project.Tip: If your contract budget mirrors your SOV, you can easily copy and paste your existing cost codes into the SOV fields.Example:
    You might see something like this for your SOV breakdown:
    • CSI Division
    • General Conditions
    • Contingency
    • Overhead & Profit

Note: If you want to break down your CSI Division SOV into second tier or third tier to show material + labor, add WBS2/WBS3.

The system will allow you to link these SOV line items to corresponding cost codes from your budget.

7. Link SOV to Budget Cost Codes

  • Once your SOV is entered, link each SOV line item to the relevant cost code in your project’s budget.Example:
    • If you’re adding a line item for electrical work, simply select the corresponding electrical cost code from your budget to ensure the SOV and budget are aligned.
    • This linkage ensures that future changes (e.g., change orders) will automatically reflect in the budget, and values will sync between the two.

For instance, if I were to create a change order against our electrical SOV line in the budget, it would populate that budget column in the approved contract changes, right? Because the budget side is your dollars, and the anticipated side is subcontractor commitments and anticipated costs.

8. Save and Finalize the Main Contract

  • After entering all necessary details and linking your SOV to the budget, click Save as Executed to finalize your main contract. This action will officially link the contract to your budget.

9. Create Change Orders & Invoices

Now that your main contract is set up and linked to your budget, you can begin creating change orders and invoices against the contract as needed.

Once your main contract is set up and linked to your budget, you're ready to manage the project's financial workflow. Any future change orders and invoices created against the contract will remain connected to your budget, helping keep costs and contract values aligned throughout the project.