In Next Project, in addition to the main agreement, you can also manage Deviations and Variation Orders in your projects.

 

Below, we present the module related to Deviations, which can be seen as a question/answer section in Next Project. When a deviation is approved by the client, you can easily convert it into an Variation Order, where you can then manage the financial settlement.

 

 

In Next Project, you work with deviations/question-answer via the Deviation module, which can be found to the left of the Variation Order module. Here, you register deviations, provide information about them, and communicate with the recipient of the deviation via email.

 

Toolbar in the Deviation Module:

• Green plus icon: Register a new deviation.

• Save button: Save changes.

• Trash can icon: Delete deviation(s).

• Create VO from deviation: Create a new Variation Order from the selected deviation.

• Send email: Send the deviation from Next to the recipient.

• Show status history: See a list of different statuses a deviation has/had.

• Import data: Import a list of deviations from, for example, Excel.

• PDF: Print various reports.

   

Register a Deviation

To create a deviation, click on the green plus icon. A dialog box will appear where you fill in information about the deviation. Fill in basic information and then click Add. 

 

Enter additional information, details, in the box to the right in the deviations.

Send Deviation

Once a deviation is created, you can send it to your recipient in different ways:

• Email it directly from Next.

• Generate a PDF and email it from, for example, Outlook.

To send a deviation from Next Project, click on the Send Email button and choose the recipient. You can enter your own email address.

Select an email template or write your own subject and content. If you lack email templates, see the Email article or contact our Support.

Select any attachments you have linked to the deviation and then send it to your recipient. The email is now sent via Next Project and will appear under the Communication tab in Next Project, where you can see all sent items.

 

 

Communication Tab

In the Communication tab, you can see sent deviations that have gone from Next Project.

 

 

You can mark a communication post as a decision point and post your own messages you want to send, creating a log of the communication in the deviation.

 

Document Tab

Under the Document tab, you will find all linked images and documents related to the deviation. Here you can email them to the customer, and if you have Next Docs, check out and edit the documents.

 

 

Create Variation Order from Deviation

A significant strength in the deviation module is that you can directly create an Variation Order from a deviation to make a financial settlement of the deviation.

 

Click on the Create Variation Order from Deviation button and fill in Variation Order information. Then click Add to create a new Variation Order, which you can then report time and costs against. You can also invoice the Variation Order and generate various reports.

 

 

Deviation Reports

As an alternative to sending emails directly from Next, you can also generate various reports from the Deviation module and then send these from either Next or as an attached PDF in your regular email program.

 

To generate a report, click on the PDF button in the toolbar. Here you can choose between two different reports:

• Deviation: A report on your selected deviation with the ability to customise the content.

• Deviation Journal: A journal of your deviations based on your choices.

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News – latest updates from release notes

Summary of changes and improvements retrieved from Next Project's release notes.

2026

April 2026

• An issue that caused an error message when creating a new deviation has been fixed
• New fields for purchaser decision have been added to Deviation: Decision, Decision received by and Decision received date. The fields are also available as selectable in the deviation report and have been included in the Excel export
• Compensation form has been added to Deviation. The information is available as selectable in the deviation report and deviation journal, as well as included in the Excel export

Earlier updates

2025

September 2025

• The Deviation module is now available in the new mobile solution to create, view, communicate and document deviations. Read more here

August 2025

• When clicking the PDF icon in Deviation without having selected a deviation, nothing happened. Now an error message is displayed informing that a deviation must be selected

May 2025

• The import of deviation and purchase has been made more robust
• Any compensation form specified on a work order is now printed in the dialog that opens when you click "Edit work order"

February 2025

• For a journal entry, you can now "Retrieve notes" from Work order, ÄTA, Deviation and Booked hours for a different date than when the journal entry was created. When you click "Retrieve notes" the dialog box opens as before but with an addition, a date picker. Select project and date and notes will be listed, if any exist, for the selected date and project

2024

October 2024

• More columns have been added to the Work order overview in the Project overview tab, Accrued revenue, Accrued not invoiced and Billable to reconcile work with Running account as compensation form

August 2024

• The following fields can now be edited directly in the Project overview, Project category, Project type, Type of assignment and Compensation form. The function "Fill rows" has also been added to the mentioned columns

New fields in the deviation (April 2026)

The following fields have been added to the deviation view:

Field	Description
Decision	The decision made by the client
Decision provided by	Who provided the decision
Decision received date	When the decision was received
Compensation form	Which compensation form applies

All fields are optional in the deviations report and deviation log and are included in Excel export.