Systems and methods are presented by which a contractor can initiate a proposed variation to a project contract and request payments against the proposed variation even before the variation is approved by the other party to the project contract. A data structure representative of proposed variation is generated and maintained as the proposed variation is reviewed, approved, and elevated to become part of the actual budget for the project. Because the same data structure is maintained throughout the process and after the proposed variation is approved, payment requests, payments, and any other actions taken against the data structure before the proposed variation is approved are automatically linked to the actual budget after approval and, thereby, are recognized and processed by external accounting systems as though the variations were created by the other party to the contract.