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Build the full calendar of dates at the start of the job

Map out every application date, due date, notice deadline and final date for payment once, check it, then put it in the diary. Counting fresh each month, from memory, on a Friday afternoon, is how a good position gets given away.

Updated: . By Jack Butler-Kettle, Construction Claims Consultant.

Why it matters

Payment deadlines are lost by being counted late, not by being unknown. Count fresh each month and the counting happens on the day it is needed, by whoever is at the desk. The contract is open in one window and three other jobs in the others. That is when a bank holiday gets missed, or the count starts from the wrong day. Build one calendar at the start, have a second person check it, then put it in the diary. That takes the counting out of the pressured moment. The dates arrive as reminders, and the only work left on the day is producing the document.

How to do it

  1. Read the payment clauses and the amendments once. Write down how each date is defined and what it is counted from.
  2. Build a table with a row for each monthly cycle to the end of the job and a column for each date. Start from the agreed payment schedule, or the contract formula if there is none.
  3. Fill every row from the definitions, adjusting for weekends and holidays the way the contract says.
  4. Have a second person check the counting against the contract, cycle by cycle, before anything goes in the diary.
  5. Enter every date in the payment tracker and in the shared diary, not a personal one, so the reminders survive holidays and staff changes. Set each reminder 5 working days ahead, naming who acts.
  6. Rebuild the calendar whenever the programme moves the end of the job or the contract is amended.

Example

Illustrative example. The scenario and figures are invented.

The facts

A fit-out subcontractor has three live jobs, each with monthly cycles and different payment terms. Its QS counts each deadline as it comes up. On one job, the main contractor's Payment Notice arrives a day after its window closed. The QS counts the window from the wrong date, treats the notice as in time and accepts a figure £18,000 below the application.

What happens

  1. The commercial director has the QS build a full calendar for all three jobs in one afternoon.
  2. The office manager checks the counting against each contract and finds two dates out by a day.
  3. All dates go into the shared company diary with a reminder 5 working days ahead and a second on the day.
  4. The tracker is updated so every cycle shows its dates beside the sums applied, noticed and paid.

The outcome

Over the next 12 cycles on three jobs, no deadline is counted on the day. When a Payment Notice next arrives after its window, it is caught the day it lands. It is not accepted, as the £18,000 one had been.

To have this set up for you, see our Underpayment Prevention service.