Commitments & contracts

Create a commitment

Issue a subcontract or purchase order and watch it roll into committed totals.

1. Open CommitmentsProject sidebar → Commitments. Summary cards show subcontract total, PO total, and grand total.
2. Click New commitmentPick the type — Subcontract for a labor-and-materials sub, or Purchase Order for a one-shot supply contract — then the vendor, primary cost code, and retainage rate.
3. Add linesEach line ties to a budget line and cost code with a description and amount. The lines roll up into the contract total.
4. Pick the manager and contactManager is your internal PM; contact is the sub’s PM. These names auto-populate the agreement when you generate it.
5. Save as draft, then executeWhen everyone has signed, flip the status to Executed — the contract total instantly rolls into the Budget Committed column and your forecast updates in real time.

Generate a subcontract agreement

FieldsDesk merges live commitment data into your company’s own agreement template — fully populated, ready to send.

FieldsDesk does not supply contract language. Instead it merges the live project and commitment data into your company’s own subcontract template — the agreement your attorney already approved — so every sub contract goes out fully populated without retyping. See Bring your own templates for how to set yours up.

1. Open the commitment drawerOn the Commitments list, click the commitment’s title. The drawer opens with an Open subcontract agreement action at the top.
2. Generate the agreementFieldsDesk renders your template with every merge field filled — vendor name and address, project number and address, scope-of-work lines, retainage percent, manager, and contact.
3. Scope of work fills itselfIf your template includes a scope table, it auto-renders from the commitment lines — cost code, description, quantity, unit price, line total, and a spelled-out total.
4. Required credentialsA credentials section, if your template has one, lists the COIs and licenses required from this vendor type and ties payment to compliance.
5. Live pay-requisition trailOnce the commitment is executed and the sub bills, a pay-requisition section fills with every requisition — period, status, payment due, percent complete — so the agreement carries the live billing history.
6. Print and sendUse your browser’s print dialog (Cmd/Ctrl-P) to save as PDF, attach to an email, and send for signature — or route it through the DocuSign integration.

Bring your own templates

Upload your company’s agreements once during setup; FieldsDesk fills them automatically on every project.

Contract language is a legal matter that varies by firm and by state, so FieldsDesk is built around your documents rather than a one-size-fits-all form. During onboarding you provide your standard agreements — subcontract, purchase order, change order cover, lien waiver — and FieldsDesk turns them into merge templates that auto-fill with live project data everywhere they are used.

How it works

1. Send us your templates during setupShare your company’s standard agreement documents and the firm-specific details (legal name, address, signatory, standard terms). We load them into your tenant as merge templates.
2. Merge fields map to live dataPlaceholders for vendor, project, scope lines, dollar amounts, dates, retainage, and signatories are wired to the matching FieldsDesk records, so the document fills itself.
3. Generate on demand, always currentEvery time you open an agreement it renders against the current data — change a commitment line and regenerate, and the document reflects it.

Change events and change orders

Track scope additions and overruns from PCO through an approved, contract-adjusting Change Order.

1. Open Change EventsProject sidebar → Change Events. Summary cards show open, pricing, pending approval, approved, and total exposure.
2. Click New change eventGive it a title, pick the reason (owner request, design clarification, hidden condition, scope creep), and describe what changed.
3. Add pricing linesAdd a line per affected trade with an estimated cost. The lines sum into a PCO total — the number you put in front of the owner.
4. Submit for approvalStatus moves to Pending and FieldsDesk emails the owner a change-order cover sheet, merged from your template.
5. Owner approves → stamp CO#On approval, FieldsDesk stamps the next sequential CO number, bumps the linked subcontractor’s contract by the approved amount, and extends affected schedule tasks by the approved day impact.