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Published June 2021, Updated April 2023
Published December 2022, Updated June 2024
How to Balance CLINs in a MILCON Schedule: A Step-by-Step Guide with Examples
If a schedule’s CLINs aren’t properly balanced, the government may reject it as it wouldn’t be able to serve as the basis for progress payments without the dollar values adding up.
If you’re working on a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) project using the government’s Resident Management System (RMS), CLIN balancing errors also prevent the schedule from being uploaded into the system.
Below are the steps to balance CLINs in a MILCON schedule:
1. Create the Standard Activity Coding Structure
2. Under the BIDI Activity Code, add each CLIN as a Subcode
3. Assign a BIDI Code to All Activities
4. Group and Sort the Schedule by BIDI Code
5. Assign Costs to Activities within Each Group
6. Confirm the Schedule’s Total Cost Equals the Contract Value
Source: UFGS 01 32 01.00 10, updated Feb-2015
In this article, we’ll guide you through the 6 steps with examples to balancing contract line item numbers (CLINs) in a military construction (MILCON) schedule.
A project’s CLINs represent a portion and cost of the contract. Each CLIN has its own value, and all CLINs added up equal the total contract value.
As we talked about in our Schedule Cost Loading and USACE Series Part 1: Schedule and Progress Payments articles, the standard UFGS 01 32 01.00 10 specification includes the requirement for the schedule to serve as the basis for progress payments.
With the schedule’s cost loading, the total value of all activities coded to a CLIN need to equal the value of that CLIN – in other words, be “balanced”.
Source: UFGS 01 32 01.00 10, updated Feb-2015
Make sure the activity coding structure is made on the project level, and NOT the global level. This is explained in our P6 Mandatory Requirements article.
The Bid Item Coding (BIDI) schedule activity code correlates with the CLINs.
Source: UFGS 01 32 01.00 10, updated Feb-2015
The first step to balancing CLINs in a schedule is to create the Standard Activity Coding Structure as explained in our USACE SDEF Explained article.
This coding structure is predefined in the specifications and tells you what needs to go in each field, activity code names, length, and description of the structure.
1. Create the Standard Activity Coding Structure
2. Under the BIDI Activity Code, Add Each CLIN as a Subcode
Once the activity coding is set (on the project level), add each CLIN as a subcode to the BIDI code.
The example below has the requirements from the Standard Activity Coding Dictionary snapshot above – the code length is 6 characters, and the description for each is the Bid Item (CLIN).
Source: UFGS 01 32 01.00 10, updated Feb-2015
3. Assign a BIDI Code to All Activities
Now that the activity coding structure is complete, assign a BIDI code to all activities. For example, all activities related to the scope of CLIN 0001 are assigned to that BIDI code.
The schedule’s activities need to be detailed enough so there’s only ONE BIDI code assigned to each activity.
ALL activities need to have a BIDI code assigned, even if there are no costs with that activity.
4. Group and Sort the Schedule by BIDI Code
5. Assign Costs to Activities within Each Group
Make sure the cost loading is set up into a single lump sum labor resource as explained in our P6 Mandatory Requirements article.
6. Confirm the Schedule's Total Cost Equals the Contract Value
In this article, we walked through six steps to balance contract line item numbers (CLINs) in a military construction (MILCON) schedule.
A schedule’s cost loading is “balanced” when the schedule activities coded to a CLIN equal the value of the CLIN, and all CLINs totaled together equal the contract value.
If the schedule does not have balanced CLINs, the government may reject it as the basis for progress payments and there will also be issues uploading the schedule file into the government’s Resident Management System (RMS).
Below are the steps to balance CLINs in a MILCON schedule:
1. Create the Standard Activity Coding Structure
2. Under the BIDI Activity Code, add each CLIN as a Subcode
3. Assign a BIDI Code to All Activities
4. Group and Sort the Schedule by BIDI Code
5. Assign Costs to Activities within Each Group
6. Confirm the Schedule’s Total Cost Equals the Contract Value
Questions or comments? Reach us at connect@cpm-ss.com.
Thanks for reading.
Related Articles:
USACE Series Part 1: Schedule and Progress Payments
New to USACE Schedules? 3 Things to Know
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