Contract extension
A contract extension continues a contractor's assignment with the same client past its original end date, usually through a new or amended assignment schedule. It is the cheapest gross profit a contract desk earns and the easiest to lose by letting the end date pass unnoticed.
Extensions are normally agreed four to six weeks before the end date, when the client knows whether the project continues. The agency confirms the new end date with both sides, reviews the rates, and updates the paperwork on each: the assignment schedule under the client's terms, and the contract with the contractor's company. A new purchase order is often needed as well, because the original was raised for the original period.
Contractors often ask for more at extension, and the bill rate has to move with the pay rate if the margin is to hold. A contractor on £550 a day asks for £600 for a further six months. If the client agrees £710 against the previous £660, the margin stays at £110 a day. If the client will only go to £690, the margin falls to £90, and that should be a decision the agency makes deliberately rather than one it discovers on the first invoice.
An extension is also a moment to check compliance. If the role has changed, for example the contractor is now managing the client's staff, ask the client whether its status determination still stands. Insurance expiry dates should be checked against the new end date. A Conduct Regulations opt-out already in place for the position continues, since a withdrawal given during an assignment only takes effect when the contractor leaves that position.
The most expensive failure is the contract that simply runs on. The end date passes, the contractor keeps working, timesheets keep arriving, and nobody has signed anything covering the new period. The terms may not cover the extra weeks, the purchase order may be exhausted so invoices are rejected, and questions about who carries which liability get answered only after something goes wrong. Commission schemes should also say whether an extension counts as a new placement or continues the old one, because the answer changes both the credit and any split.
How Vayora handles it
Vayora creates a task for the owner of a contract placement once it is inside 30 days of its end date, and closes it when the condition clears, while the Contract desk view in Reports lists extensions due in the next 30 days. The data model and API record each extension as its own dated row, with any new rates, and roll the placement's end date forward, though recording one from the app's screens is not built yet. A rate change at extension is made on the placement's rates, which is what future timesheets are priced from.