Track additional client work on an existing project as an opportunity, prepare its proposal and apply the approved variation to the project budget.
Before you begin
Open an active project with an existing budget and a company as its client.
Make sure you have permission to create variations and manage their proposals.
Check whether your business requires linked opportunities for client-facing variations. If it does, the opportunity section is required rather than an optional checkbox.
Create the linked variation
Open the project’s Budget tab and select Add Project Variation.
Enter a Name, check the Effective date and add a description of the changed scope. If a Scope field appears, choose the appropriate option for the client-facing change.
Select Create a variation opportunity to manage, unless the opportunity section is already required.
Complete the estimated start and end dates, lead score and Opportunity Template. Assign the responsible staff as needed.
Select Save and Manage Variation.
Drum creates the draft variation and its linked opportunity. Use this flow so the opportunity is connected to the project’s variation; creating an ordinary opportunity separately does not establish that link.
Manage the opportunity and proposal
From the variation, use View Associated Opportunity to manage the sale or View Opportunity Proposal to open its proposal.
You can also find the opportunity on the Opportunities dashboard, identified as a variation. Keep its estimated dates, lead score, assignments and follow-up notes current. See How to edit an opportunity for those actions.
Build and check the variation budget
Open the linked proposal and select Variation Budget.
Add the extra deliverables and tasks, or adjust the existing work affected by the change.
Review the Before, Delta and After figures. These show the current amount, the proposed change and the resulting amount.
Check the variation’s budget and contract value changes against the scope you intend to propose.
Return to the proposal and review its line items and total before sharing it with the client through your usual process.
The variation builds on the existing project budget. It does not create a separate new project.
Accept the proposal and apply the variation
Accepting the linked proposal marks the opportunity as won and approves the variation, applying the changes to the existing project. Confirm the client’s acceptance and check the scope, tasks and amounts before continuing.
Open the linked proposal and set its Status to Accepted.
Read and confirm the prompt.
Return to the project’s Budget tab and open the variation.
Check that the variation is approved and the project reflects the expected budget and contract value changes.
If the expected change is missing
If the opportunity option does not appear when creating a variation, check that you are working on an existing project with a company client. Ask your Drum administrator to check the account’s variation settings and your access if needed.
If the project budget has not changed, check that the linked proposal shows Accepted and that you confirmed the prompt. Then check the variation’s status directly from the project’s Budget tab. Contact Drum support if the proposal and variation statuses do not agree.