The ceiling is open, the planned cable route is blocked and another trade wants to close the room. Your electrician variation process decides whether you get paid for the extra work or absorb it.
Stop the changed work. Make the area safe. Then connect the discovery to the quote before labour and materials disappear into the job.
Stop, make the area safe and record the trigger
Separate the safety decision from the commercial decision. Isolate the circuit or protect the area where needed. That does not mean the customer has approved the wider electrical scope change.
Record what caused the change while the condition is visible. Take photographs. Note the room, circuit, fitting and cable route. Record who found it and when.
Do not write “extra work required”. State the physical problem. The floor was opened and the planned route was blocked. The customer requested a fifth downlight after the four quoted positions were marked. The ceiling was lined and chasing had been excluded.
Tell the other trades what is stopped and what can continue. Do not let programme pressure turn unapproved work into your cost.
Decide whether the work is a variation, included scope or rework
Start with the accepted quote. Read the drawings, specification, assumptions and exclusions. Use the wording the customer accepted, not what somebody remembers from the site meeting.
A variation changes the agreed scope, price, timing or method after acceptance. Common triggers include:
- A customer request, such as an added fitting.
- A concealed condition, such as a blocked cable route.
- A design change affecting circuits, controls or fitting positions.
- Another trade changing the access or sequence.
Work is not automatically a variation because it is difficult. If the accepted scope included the route, access and making good, you need to account for that commitment.
Keep your own omissions and defective work separate. If your team missed a fitting shown on the accepted drawing, record the correction as rework. Do not present it as a customer-approved variation.
Clear original wording makes this decision easier. Use the guide to writing a quote to set scope, assumptions and exclusions before the next refurbishment starts.
Define the changed electrical scope before costing it
Write exactly what will change. Name the affected fittings, circuits and rooms. State the new cable route and the access needed to complete it.
Allocate the surrounding work. Who chases the wall? Who lifts the floor? Who makes good the plaster? Who removes waste? If another trade owns a task, name that task without pricing it as yours.
Include the electrical work that follows the installation. State the inspection, testing and documents included. Record any shutdown, return visit or dependency on another trade.
Keep the exclusions visible. A new route may include additional cable but exclude decoration. A moved fitting may include electrical testing but exclude ceiling repairs.
Use a short record so the office, site team and customer see the same change:
Variation reference: [reference] Job and quote references: [references] Trigger and condition found: [plain description] Photographs: [file references] Changed electrical scope: [circuits, fittings, route and access] Making good by: [your business, customer or named trade] Exclusions: [work not included] Variation price or estimate: [amount and basis] Programme effect: [change to sequence or completion] Approval: [authorised person, method and date] Actual costs: [record against this reference] Invoice reference: [reference when raised]
Check whether the approval and certification route changes
Check this before pricing. A changed circuit, location or method can alter the labour, testing, documents and sequence required.
For work in England and Wales, ask building control which current notification or prior approval route applies. Where self-certification may be used for notifiable electrical work under Part P, ask your competent person scheme whether your business registration and the changed work allow that route.
In Scotland, ask building standards whether the changed scope affects building regulations approval. In Northern Ireland, ask building control whether the changed scope affects building regulations approval.
Use the answers to write a site decision before pricing. State whether the change affects notification, prior approval, electrician competence, inspection, testing, certification or handover documents. Then include the resulting work and documents in the price.
Price the variation from added cost
Do not guess a lump sum while another trade waits. Build the price from the work you have just defined.
Start with additional labour. Multiply the added labour hours by your business’s labour cost per hour. Include access, installation, testing, supervision and any return visit caused by the change.
Multiply each added material quantity by its current supplier cost. Include cable, fittings, containment and consumables needed only because of the changed scope. Add plant, access and subcontract costs your business will carry.
Use a simple framework:
Added labour hours × business labour cost per hour + Material quantities × current supplier cost + Plant and access cost + Subcontracted work = Added cost Added cost + Business markup = Variation price
Markup is added to cost to form the price. Margin is the profit left as a share of the selling price. They are different calculations.
State whether you are offering a fixed price or an estimate. If part of the route remains hidden, describe that uncertainty instead of burying it. The job pricing framework gives you the same labour, materials and markup structure for the original quote.
Record the programme effect before seeking approval. Say whether the change moves another trade, requires another visit or changes the expected completion sequence.
Get change approval in the electrician variation process
Give the variation its own reference. Link it to the job and accepted quote. A message saying “go ahead” is weak if it does not identify what the customer has accepted.
Your change approval record should show:
- The variation reference and accepted quote reference.
- The trigger and changed scope.
- The price or estimate basis.
- The exclusions.
- The programme effect.
- The name of the person accepting it, the acceptance date and confirmation that the person is authorised to approve price and programme changes for the customer.
Use written acceptance from someone with that authority. A site instruction from another trade is not automatically customer approval. Then tell the site team which work is authorised.
If approval has not arrived, leave the wider change stopped. Keep the area safe and tell the person controlling the programme what is waiting.
Track the variation while the work is done
Book labour to the variation reference, not only to the main job. Do the same for cable, fittings, access costs and subcontracted work.
This cost tracking lets you compare actual vs estimated cost while the work is live. If the new cable route takes longer or uses more material than estimated, you see it before the invoice is raised.
Treat another discovery as another decision. Record it, classify it and get approval before extending the scope again. One approved variation does not authorise every extra found afterwards.
Yes Foreman can keep the job, quote and site record together through its job management tools. Use the variation reference in the notes, costs and invoice entry so the chain stays visible.
Carry the variation onto the revised electrical invoice
Do not silently replace the original scope with one larger figure. A revised electrical invoice should preserve the accepted work and show each approved variation as a separate, traceable entry.
Oak Street worked example
This is a worked sample in sample currency units, not a rate card.
R. Chen’s quote Q-1847 for 14 Oak Street was 1,105. It covered a 150mm bathroom exhaust fan ducted through the roof and four LED downlights. The ceiling was lined, and the quote excluded chasing.
Extra cable and chasing were approved on site as a 160 variation. Invoice INV-1847 was therefore 1,265. The invoice should connect that 160 entry to the approval rather than rewriting the original quote.
Estimate E-1847 had a range of 900–1,400. Keep an estimate, accepted quote, approved variation and invoice as separate documents. Each answers a different question.
The costs belonging to the 160 variation are not given. You cannot calculate its profit from the invoice total.
Protect the job profitability figures
The Oak Street job cost was 850. Measured against the original 1,105 quote, the profit was 255:
1,105 − 850 = 255 profit 255 ÷ 1,105 ≈ 23% margin 255 ÷ 850 = 30% markup
Do not combine the 1,265 invoice with the 850 cost. The variation costs are missing, so that comparison would overstate job profitability.
Record variation labour and materials separately if you want to measure whether the extra work made money. Close the electrician variation process only after you have compared the quoted and actual costs without breaking that accounting boundary.