Attach the back-up before anyone asks for it
Send the measures behind your quantities, the invoices for materials and plant, the instructions and dated photographs with every application. If the assessor has to ask, you've added a cycle of delay; if they can't check it, you've invited a deduction.
Updated: . By Jack Butler-Kettle, Construction Claims Consultant.
Why it matters
An assessor working through 20 applications in a week values what they can check and cuts what they cannot. A quantity with no measure, a materials sum with no invoice, a variation with no instruction: each is a line to chase or cut. Cutting is quicker. If they chase, the answer arrives after the Payment Notice has gone, and the sum waits a cycle. If they cut, you argue next month from a weaker position. The sum is now a disputed deduction, not an unproven claim. Back-up sent with the application avoids both. But a folder of 200 photographs at the back of the application does not get opened.
How to do it
- Name every photograph and ticket by the line it proves when you take or receive it, not at month end.
- Attach the measure or marked-up drawing that supports every measured quantity.
- Attach the supplier invoice or delivery ticket behind every materials and plant sum, and the instruction and record of the work behind every variation.
- Attach the dated progress photographs for the period, indexed to the areas they show.
- Add a reference column beside the quantities, and check that every line that moved has at least one reference.
- Send the back-up as a numbered appendix with a contents page, so each reference in the application opens one document.
Example
Illustrative example. The scenario and figures are invented.
The facts
A brickwork subcontractor applies for £92,000 in cycle three: £70,000 of measured work, £12,000 of materials on site and £10,000 for two instructed variations. In cycles one and two, its applications went with no attachments. Each was cut by around 15%.
What happens
- The subcontractor's QS attaches the measure for each elevation, the merchant invoices for the materials, the two written instructions and the week's photographs.
- A contents page indexes each attachment to the application line it supports.
- The main contractor's assessor checks the measure against the marked-up elevations and the materials against the invoices, without contacting the subcontractor.
- The Payment Notice certifies £89,500. The £2,500 cut is a genuine measurement difference on one elevation.
Cycle three application against the Payment Notice
| Item | Applied | Certified |
|---|---|---|
| Measured work | £70,000 | £67,500 |
| Materials on site | £12,000 | £12,000 |
| Variations | £10,000 | £10,000 |
| Total | £92,000 | £89,500 |
The outcome
The cut falls from around 15% to under 3%. What is left is a measurement question that can be settled on the drawings, not a cut nobody can trace.
To have this set up for you, see our Underpayment Prevention service.