Variation management in grantmaking can be encountered in any project, where circumstances surrounding costs, performance or resources change, and require contract adjustment. This can be challenging, especially in email and paper-based working environments, where information is not reconciled as it is received. This method of managing variations can lead to a snowball of versioning errors, confusion and wasted time.
Grant management systems, such as Enquire, modernise this process by enabling a more efficient and collaborative approach to variation management.
Enable two-way variation management
Variations to project contractual information is a common occurrence as part of grant management. As grant managers and grantees move through a project, they often find that information provided in the initial paperwork may change due to circumstances. And so begins the arduous process of email exchanges, time intensive re-entry of data and the redistribution and re-versioning of contracts. Variations usually require minor edits, but grantees are often buried in paperwork, resulting in wasted time. These delays impact both parties and can lead to an inefficient grant management experience.
Thankfully, Enquire provides a built in Project Update feature which streamlines managing variations. It works as follows:
- The grant manager sends an online variation information request directly from Enquire to the grantee for updating. It comes with additional options such as instructions on what specific change is required, due dates and reasons for the request. By sending these requests directly from Enquire, grant managers can easily view all project update requests in one overview.
- Grantees receive the request and know exactly what information to provide. They will send the online form back via Enquire’s Client Portal.
- Once submitted, grant managers review the submitted information. Once accepted, it automatically updates in the grant record, saving a tremendous amount of time.
- Upon this review the grantee receives an additional notification, advising if their variation has been accepted or declined.
The variations project update request is integrated with fields in Enquire to capture changes and versioning. Once accepted a new contract can be generated through the DocGen function to remove duplicate data handling.
Enquire’s project update feature offers a collaborative and transparent approach to variations management, enhancing both the experience for the applicant and the grant team.
Never miss a beat with notifications
The process of handling variations requires communication between different parties, and it is essential to make this as easy as possible. Notifications are used to manage the exchange of information during variation management. To indicate actionable items, Enquire provides clear notifications in the Client Portal interface which are swiftly initiated with a click.
Enquire allows the grant team to send emails so that correspondence receives the appropriate priority in the grantee’s inbox. This reduces the chance of tasks or deadlines being missed in a user-friendly manner. Relying on Enquire for time management streamlines your variation management even more, as communication is direct and saved against the record in Enquire.
This enables a structured and collaborative way of managing variations, while saving time and maintaining high levels of data reliability.
Stay on top of every development
A purpose-built grant management system such as Enquire provides an array of useful features that ensure your variations during the grant management process are managed swiftly, collaboratively, and easily across projects.
Enquire adds further security to this process by ensuring variations are approved before any data is changed and are saved against the record without any manual handling. Structured, secure and transparent, so you can focus on your results.
Would you like to see Enquire in action yourself and learn more about managing variations effectively? Contact us here to book a demo.
