The instruction came verbally on site, the work was carried out, and the claim was never raised. The cost stays with you.
Cost position arrives after the fact
You learn a package overran when the month closes, long after anything could have been done about it.
Progress is somebody's opinion
Percentage complete is estimated by the person who wants it to look a certain way, and the payment claim reflects that argument rather than the site.
How it works here
Signal, understanding, action.
1
Signal
Site correspondence, instructions, messages, photography, valuations and cost records are read as the project runs.
2
Understanding
Instructions are matched against the contract to recognise what is genuinely a scope change, and photography is compared against the programme.
3
Action
A draft claim appears in front of the commercial manager with its instruction, dates and evidence already attached.
What it does from the first month
Six things, running whether or not anyone is watching.
Captures
Catch the variation as it happens
Instructions given in messages, meetings and site correspondence are recognised as scope changes, matched to the contract, and drafted into a claim with its evidence attached. Nothing depends on someone remembering to raise it.
Compares
Know your cost position now
Committed and actual cost is tracked against the bill of quantities continuously. A package trending over is visible while there is still something to be done about it.
Estimates
Progress from the photographs you already take
Site photography is compared against the programme to estimate what is genuinely complete. Payment claims are supported by evidence rather than by argument.
Assembles
Evidence, not opinions, on subcontractors
Attendance, output, rework and responsiveness are recorded as the job runs. When it is time to award the next package, the conversation is grounded.
Chases
Nothing dies in an inbox
Requests for information, submittals and approvals are tracked to closure, with the delay attributed to whoever is actually holding it. The record you need in a dispute builds itself.
Watches
Watch the site and the plant
Cameras check safety compliance and site access. Equipment tracking shows what is genuinely in use and what is being paid for while standing still.
In practice
You ask the way you'd ask a person.
One place to ask
Three instructions were carried out and never raised as variations.
site correspondence + the contract + your cost records
Unclaimed variations
Tower project · instructions matched to contract
Additional core walls, level 412 Febdraft ready
Revised drainage run27 Febdraft ready
Extra site hoarding6 Mardraft ready
Awaiting your approval to submit—3
Illustration of the interface. Your data, your wording, your records.
A Tuesday in your business
What this actually looks like.
A client's engineer asks for a change on a site walk. It is agreed verbally, done that week, and would ordinarily have been absorbed. Instead the request — captured in the message that followed the walk — is recognised as a variation, priced against the contract, and put in front of the commercial manager as a draft claim with the instruction, the photographs and the dates already attached.
Why this pays
It pays for itself the first time it captures one verbal instruction that would otherwise have been absorbed.
An absorbed costA claim
A month-end surpriseA live position
An argumentA photograph
$88bn
of avoidable rework was caused by bad data in a single year — around 14% of all rework carried out globally.