Leverage your entitlement and recover your project's commercial success
ENTITLEMENT - Facing headwinds in your project? Have you considered all your entitlements under contract and obtained full valuation for change and delays and disruptions which are not of your making? We can assist with a quick appraisal and action plan for maximizing the return in a project and in projects with lean profit margins this can often mean the difference between a profitable project and a non profitable project.
PAYMENT ADJUDICATION CLAIMS - Having trouble getting paid, or paying too much? We can prepare robust payment claims and payment schedules which can then be used in the statutory security of payments schemes such as the Building Industry Fairness Act (BIFA) and the Building and Construction Industry Security of Payments Act (BCISOPA). With adjudicators on hand, we know the process well and can help you navigate through it with ease.
TIME - Is your project in delay or likely to become delayed? What is the extent likely to be? What are the causes of the delay? Who is responsible? What measures can be put in place to mitigate further delay? What extension (if any) should the given to the Date for Completion? We can assist with a brief situation report and an action plan for managing your time related claims.
COST / QUANTUM - What is the cost of the delay, or disruption? Can the costs be particularized and articulated? Are the costs taken from the correct period and can they be verified with records? How should profit and off site overheads be considered? We can assist with a comprehensive review of your cost records and compilation of accurate and clear quantum claims.
PRODUCTIVITY - Is cost exceeding value on your project? Is the budget being managed correctly to reflect value increases through variations? Are you measuring productivity? Is the productivity less than planned? What are the events which are impacting the productivity? Who is responsible? Can a causal link be established between the disruptive events and the diminished productivity? Whilst productivity claims are notoriously difficult to prosecute, these questions are worth exploring and a disruption claim may form a part of a suite of claims or used in negotiation.
RECORDS - Records, records, records. The party with the best project records often has the strongest claim. Daily diaries, as built programme updates, dayworks records that are legible, relevant and correct, these seemingly simple things are so often overlooked in the rush to "get the job done" and the cost of this approach only becomes clear when disputes arise and these records are called into reliance. We can assist with a suite of templates and advise about good project record keeping.
COST MANAGEMENT - Our cost management services include tendering support, management of the variation process, valuation of monthly or stage payment claims, and assessment / preparation of time or productivity related cost claims. On ‘cost-plus’ projects we provide reports which reconcile the cost of what has been built with the value to identify potential budget blow outs early in the project while there is still time to put recovery measures in place. These "CV" reports are what the lenders rely upon when assessing amounts to release for payment to the Contractor.
CONTRACT SELECTION - Which form of contract? Which procurement method? Lump sum, schedule of rates, cost plus, target cost, we can provide the risks and opportunities for each and comment on which may be the best fit for your project. What information should be sent to the tender list and what information should be requested in return? We can assist with preparing the tender schedules, analyzing the tender submissions and compiling the stage payment and variation pricing schedules and 'rules of credit' for the contract which would include defining "cost" in "cost plus" contracts.
CHANGE MANAGEMENT - All projects involve changes and some of these changes will affect the contract price and the time allowed for completion. Dealing with these variations in a timely manner is critical to keeping a handle on project costs and forecasting. We can assist with managing the whole variation account or individual variations on an ad-hoc basis, setting out the contract entitlement and the valuation, referencing contract rates, established rates or market rates as appropriate.
PROVISIONAL ALLOWANCES - When the full design or specification is unknown at the time of contract, provisional allowances may be used. We can review the design and comment on which items should be provisional, the appropriate provisional value and the contractual mechanism for converting the provisional allowances into fixed sums.
PAYMENT VALUATIONS - How much work has been completed? Does the cost reflect the value? What is the Contractor entitled to be paid? Well it depends on the contract. Lump sum & schedule of rates contracts will be governed by the payment schedule, QS' valuation or a schedule of rates. Cost plus agreements can result in a divergence between cost and value and this problem needs to be arrested early. We provide cost value reconciliations to identify problem cost areas and facilitate discussions on why items of work are costing more than planned.
