In early January, a stack of indexation proposals lands on your desk. A cleaning provider reports 6.2 per cent, a caterer 4.8 per cent, and the security firm arrives with its own percentage. The question that matters is not which percentage is correct, but what the percentage applies to. Which contract value are you calculating against? Is that basis still accurate after everything that changed over the past year? Managing contract changes starts exactly here: with the question of whether the agreement you are paying for is still up to date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Managing contract changes means recording every change to a live contract in a way that touches both your agreement and your invoice. A change you fail to record does not disappear: it still works through to the invoice, only incorrectly. In Excel, that current version of the truth is consistently lost, because a tab creates no link between what you agreed and what you pay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A contract change is any modification to a live contract that alters the agreement or the contract value. With outsourced services, these changes arrive in three main forms. They may seem unrelated, but they all affect your contract value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Each of these three changes the basis you calculate against later. And that is precisely where the risk lies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A contract change has two sides. The first is the agreement: what has changed in substance, who approved it, and from when does it apply? The second is the invoice: is what you pay from that moment onwards correct? As long as those two stay together, there is no problem. The trouble begins the moment they drift apart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Take a cleaning contract for an organisation with four locations. In April 2025 a fifth location is added, with a monthly amount agreed verbally and confirmed by email. The contract manager processes it in the invoice check, but the contract value in the records is not updated. The agreement lives in the mailbox. The invoice is correct each month, because you check it against the amount that comes in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On its own, that seems no disaster. Until the next indexation moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In early January, all changes come together in a single calculation: the indexation percentage times the contract value. At that moment you pay the bill for a year without proper records. If the contract value is wrong, the indexation is wrong by default.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Back to the example. The fifth location is in the monthly invoices, but not in the recorded contract value. If the provider indexes in January against the full current scope, including that location, you cannot verify it. Your records do not recognise that location as part of the basis. You have no reference to compare the proposal against. You approve the percentage, or you spend an afternoon searching back through email exchanges to reconstruct what the basis actually was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It gets worse in the reverse case: a location that closed midway through the year but was never removed from the contract value. Then you index 6.2 per cent against a building you no longer clean. That error accumulates, year after year, because next year’s indexation calculates again against this year’s inflated basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is not a theoretical administration problem. It is an incorrect amount on an invoice that you can no longer trace yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Excel fails here not because people are careless. It fails for three structural reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The problem, then, is not that people are unwilling to record. The problem is that the record sits apart from the place where the money is checked. See also why Excel structurally falls short for facility contract management<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The solution does not begin with a stricter change procedure, but with one place where the agreement and its financial effect are locked together. Every change then follows the same route.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In GRIP you link changes to the contract file, so the current contract value is always visible and the invoice is checked against that current agreement. When the indexation letter arrives in January, you know exactly which amount the percentage applies to. Organisations that approach this in a structured way save an average of 8 per cent per year and 30 per cent on contract administration, partly because incorrect indexations and unrecorded changes are caught in time. The ownership of your contract data<\/a> stays in the system, even when a colleague leaves. Read more about the financial effect on the contract dashboard<\/a> page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A contract change is any modification to a live contract that alters the agreement or the contract value. Think of an indexation, a location that is added or closed, or an adjusted frequency or SLA standard. Every change works through to the invoice, even if you do not record it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because the invoice is only correct if it is checked against the current agreement. If you process a change in the monthly invoice but not in the recorded contract value, the next indexation leaves you with a basis you can no longer verify.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then you index against the wrong basis. With a closed location that was not removed, you pay a price increase on a building you no longer clean. That error accumulates cumulatively, because next year’s indexation calculates again against the inflated basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Excel lacks version history, creates no link between agreement and invoice, and keeps the truth in mailboxes and people’s heads. During an audit or staff change, you cannot reconstruct the change history, and the provider and client each hold their own version.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To the current contract value: the basis including all changes from the past year. Only when added and closed locations, changed frequencies and adjusted rates have been processed can you verify the provider’s proposal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Record changes in the contract file itself, not in a personal mailbox or a local Excel file. In a central system, the agreement, start date and approval stay preserved, even when the colleague who made the agreement leaves.<\/p>\n\n\n\nHow do you keep contract changes in one current source?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Frequently asked questions about managing contract changes<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
What is a contract change?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Why should I link contract changes to the invoice check?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
What happens if a change is not processed in the contract value?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Why does Excel not work for contract changes?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Which contract value do you apply an indexation percentage to?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
How do I prevent contract knowledge from disappearing during staff turnover?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n