A strong claim begins before the work changes
Start with the signed contract, map its notice rules, then connect site records, variations, claims, certification, payments and retention.
Contract map / Four separate settings
“Contract type” is not one field.
Keep these choices separate. Their combination determines how the job is priced, delivered and administered.
- 01Pricing model
- Lump sum, schedule of rates, cost reimbursable, target cost or a project-specific hybrid. This sets the commercial basis for valuing work.
- 02Procurement route
- Traditional, design and construct, construction management or another allocation of design and delivery responsibility.
- 03Contract form
- The standard or bespoke conditions, schedules, amendments and special conditions that provide the administration machinery.
- 04Project particulars
- The actual parties, roles, dates, notice addresses, payment settings, retention, damages and other project-specific entries.
People often describe a construction contract as if it has one type. In practice, the form of contract, pricing model, procurement route and project particulars answer different questions. A lump-sum project can still be design and construct, use an amended standard form and contain its own notice, valuation, payment and retention rules.
Contract administration turns those signed terms into an operating record. The platform cannot decide legal entitlement or replace the contract administrator, quantity surveyor or lawyer. It can keep the source documents, site events, commercial positions and decisions connected so a claim can be prepared and assessed from evidence rather than reconstructed from memory.
Start with the contract you actually signed
A template name is useful context, but the executed documents and amendments govern the job.
Record the form of contract and the pricing model separately. A lump sum, schedule of rates or cost-reimbursable arrangement changes how value is established. The procurement route changes who carries design and delivery responsibility. Neither label reveals the complete bargain when schedules, annexures, amendments or special conditions alter the standard wording.
Capture the signed document set with the parties, roles, original contract sum, currency, signed and commencement dates, practical completion, defects period, damages, retention and payment mechanism. Contract analysis can help locate relevant wording and clause references, but a qualified person must verify the source and decide how it applies.
Do this
- Register the executed contract, schedules, amendments and referenced documents.
- Record the contract form, pricing model and project particulars as separate facts.
- Treat extracted terms as review prompts until a qualified person confirms them against the signed text.
Before you move on
Can the team identify the signed source for every important commercial setting without relying on a remembered standard clause?
Turn contract duties into a working map
No one should first discover a notice or evidence requirement when the claim is already due.
For each event that may affect time or money, identify the relevant clause, who must give notice, who receives it, the required method, the applicable time limit, the supporting records and the person authorised to respond. The contract and governing law vary between projects and jurisdictions, so generic deadlines should never be substituted for the actual requirement.
Use contract questions to locate and summarise the signed wording, then preserve the page and clause reference with the human decision. A search result is not a notice, and a software summary is not legal advice. The working map exists so the team knows what to check, prepare and record while the facts are current.
Do this
- Map common events to their notice, response, evidence and authority requirements.
- Record the exact clause, page, recipient and delivery method for each project-specific requirement.
- Escalate entitlement, interpretation and statutory deadline questions to an appropriately qualified adviser.
Before you move on
Would the project team know what record and action are required when an instruction, delay or payment event occurs?
Record the event where it happens
Project records establish what happened; contract administration deals with the commercial consequence.
Keep factual site diaries for dates, weather, access, labour, plant, progress, blockers and observed instructions. Keep RFIs, responses, drawing revisions, photographs, delivery dockets, inspection records, defects and programme updates with their own dates and authors. These records can support a later position, but they do not automatically prove contractual entitlement.
When an RFI answer, defect, instruction or programme event may change scope, time or money, carry it into the contract record. Give the event one reference and link the affected package, source document, location, cause, observed effect and current commercial status. Keep proposed, submitted, assessed, approved and disputed positions distinct.
Do this
- Write contemporaneous site records as facts, with dates, authors and source documents.
- Link any event with a possible cost or time effect to a controlled variation or notice record.
- Keep actual costs as performance evidence without treating them as automatic entitlement.
Before you move on
Can a reviewer move from the commercial event back to the dated site evidence without searching messages and personal files?
Build and assess the claim from the record
The submitted claim, professional assessment, certificate and payment are separate events.
Prepare the claim against the recorded contract position and claim period. Attach the relevant payment claim, schedule of values, site diary, photographs, delivery dockets, inspection records, approved variations and clause references. The certifier still needs to assess completed work, entitlement and value; the evidence chain makes that judgement inspectable.
Keep claimed, certified, retained, paid and disputed amounts separate. Preserve the reason for any adjustment and the authority behind the certificate or payment. At completion, reconcile the original contract sum, approved variations, claims, certificates, payments, retention releases and final account without rewriting earlier positions.
Do this
- Attach evidence by its purpose: submitted basis, work completed, materials on site, variation support, certification or payment.
- Record claimed, certified, retained and paid values as different facts.
- Keep adjustment reasons, decision authority and the earlier submitted position visible.
Before you move on
Can the team explain every movement from contract value to claim, certificate, payment and remaining exposure?
In short
What to carry into the next job
- Contract form, pricing model, procurement route and project particulars are separate settings; the signed documents decide how they work together.
- Site records support a commercial position, but they do not decide entitlement by themselves.
- A dependable claim connects the relevant clause, notice, event, evidence, valuation and authority.
- Claimed, certified, retained, paid and actual cost are different facts and should remain separate.
Sources and standards
Read the official guidance
Read next · Guide 03