Tips for I don't know what my subcontract commits me to

I don't know what my subcontract commits me to? Every tip we give on it, grouped by subject.

Tips

The terms are cheapest to change, and easiest to price, before your signature is on them.

Reading each amendment beside the published clause it changes shows you which ones cost money.

Seeing the main contract before you sign is the only way to price the terms a back-to-back subcontract passes down to you.

The exclusions and assumptions in your quote protect you only if the subcontract names them as part of the deal.

A written reply to their order's terms, sent before you start, heads off a battle of the forms over whose terms apply.

A short, costed list of changes gets read and answered, while a list of forty objections tends to get a single reply: no.

Every clause that stays in the subcontract has a cost, paid in cash flow, in risk or in margin, so it belongs in your price.

What you signed now runs the job. Get it out of the file and in front of the people who have to follow it.

A notice period only protects you if someone knows it has started, and a diary set up before work starts makes sure someone does.

The people who must give the notices and keep the records are on site, not in the office with the subcontract.

Payment terms that read well can still fail when you put dates to them, and the first late payment is a bad time to find out.