Subcontractor Adjudications

Setting up a subcontractor adjudication is very similar, with the difference just being that you will be adjudicating on line items instead of on resources. So steps 2 to 5 are the same as for the Supplier Adjudications, just applied within the subcontractor modules instead of the supplier ones. Also, in Step 4 you will add the BOQ line items, instead of Resources.

However, with the Subcontractor Adjudication, we have to bring in a new concept, which is the fact that due to the adjudication happening on a line item level it means that information is being inserted into a worksheet. This means that we have to define the resource on which the adjudication is happening, so we have to define a subcontractor resource.

In order to understand this better, let's take a step back and think about how you would normally price a subcontractor in a rate buildup. One option would be to create a subcontractor resource for each line item you are subcontracting out and to then define the allowable for those resources as the rate that the subcontractor will be charging.

Alternatively, you can define a generic subcontractor resource, for example, a tiling subcontractor with an allowable of 1.00. Then, once you get your subcontractor rates, you can use the transform column to multiply the resource allowable with your subcontractor rate.

This second way is the way that Quest allows you to do automatically across multiple line items using the subcontractor adjudication module, i.e. when running a subcontractor adjudication you have to define the subcontractor resource that you are adjudicating on and Trimble Quest will then insert this resource in the applicable line items’ worksheets and use the transform column to update the rate to the rate that you accepted in your adjudication.

So, the extra step that is needed when setting up a subcontractor adjudication is to select the subcontractor resource you are going to use. You can do this by going to Info in the Action Tab on the right when you are inside your adjudication and then using the blue CHANGE button next to the Adjudicate on Resource option. This will bring up the Resources in your project and you can then select the generic subcontractor resource you created for the adjudication:

Then, applying the subcontractor adjudication also gives you a few more options than the supplier adjudication:

Update/insert will search for any and all adjudication resource usages in any of the relevant BOQ worksheets, and update them. If not found, it will add the resource to the worksheet. This will not clear the worksheet, so if there are other resources in the rate build-up they will remain unaffected. This works well for example where you are using a labor-only subcontractor and you are buying the materials yourself.

Append does the same thing, but it just adds the resource without checking to see if it was already there. This can cause duplication of the subcontractor resource, so only use this if you are sure the subcontractor resource has not been added to any of the worksheets before.

Lastly, clear and insert will clear the worksheet completely of the previous rate buildup and then insert the transformed subcontractor resource.

Video: Subcontractor Adjudication