Payment Assessment & Checking
Risk mitigationOngoingFor Main Contractors & ClientsMoney out
I assess each payment application that lands on you against the site's own records and hand you a certifiable number with its workings shown, inside the window your contract sets. A guessed assessment leaks money one month and loses an adjudication the next.
The problem
A dozen subcontractor applications land every month, each asserting its own version of progress, and whoever is nearest assesses them: same as last month plus a bit, or whatever keeps the trade quiet. The site knows the truth, but nobody asks it in time. Over-assessment quietly funds the supply chain out of your margin, and under-assessment without reasons is the raw material of the next smash-and-grab.
The solution
You forward each application, and I measure it against the subcontract's pricing document and the site's records: progress from the diaries and photos, materials from the tickets, variations and dayworks from the register, contra-charges where the paperwork supports them, retention as the subcontract sets it. Back comes a one-page assessment, the number I would certify, line by line against the application, each movement carrying its reason and evidence, inside the window. Fair is the principle, the fair assessment cheapest to defend if tested. Open differences are carried forward, and the same discipline serves an employer assessing a main contractor.
What you receive
Every application meets a number built from what the site recorded rather than what it hoped, in your hands inside the window with reasons that survive being read out loud, so you can certify, negotiate or serve the right notice in time. The accounts stop drifting from reality month by month, the adjudications that do come find workings instead of guesses, and the margin stops funding the supply chain by default.
The Handover Pack accompanies the work with its dates and sources, likely outcomes and responses, scope boundaries and ready-to-send correspondence where needed.
Turnaround: five working days per cycle.
The working days start when the agreed scope and required inputs are available. Optional items do not hold the start unless the agreed scope says otherwise.
How it works
You tell me about your supply chain and its cycles
One call on the subcontracts, the application dates and how assessments happen today. The first conversation is free and commits you to nothing.
You send me the subcontracts and the accounts as they stand
The list below lets each account's opening position be reconciled before the first live assessment; from then on you forward each application the day it lands, so its clock starts on my desk and everything is assessed inside the window the subcontract allows.
- A
The application in full, with build-up
EssentialWithout it: There is nothing to assess, so the whole cycle stops before it starts.
Where to find it: The inbox of whoever the subcontractors apply to.
Why I need it: What is being assessed
- B
The subcontract and every amendment
EssentialWithout it: There are no rules to assess the application against, so nothing beyond logging that it arrived can be done.
Where to find it: The buying folder or each order's confirmation email.
Why I need it: The rules the assessment must follow
- C
Site records for the period
ImportantWithout it: Work with nothing behind it on site is assessed at nil, whatever the application claims, and the lines affected are listed as such.
Where to find it: The site manager's folder and the team's phones.
Why I need it: What proves or disproves the measure
- D
The measure: bills or schedule of rates
ImportantWithout it: Measured work is valued as a percentage of the lump sum rather than at contract rates, which is a rougher and more arguable figure.
Where to find it: The priced bills or schedule of rates bound into the subcontract, usually as an appendix; ask whoever placed the order if you cannot find it.
Why I need it: The basis for valuing what was done
- E
Every previous certificate and notice
EssentialWithout it: There is no running position to reconcile the assessment against, so the cumulative account cannot be checked.
Where to find it: Your own file of certificates and notices issued on this account, or the payment folder.
Why I need it: The running position
- F
Contra-charges, each with its ground
OptionalWithout it: No contra-charge is applied this cycle; the assessment proceeds without one.
Where to find it: Whoever manages the account holds the grounds for any contra-charge: the clause relied on and the evidence behind it, if any is being sought this cycle.
Why I need it: A contra-charge without a ground is not one
Copies are fine. Send what you have and I'll tell you what's missing. Download the client request PDF or editable Word version to pass to whoever holds the files.
- A
I map each subcontract's valuation basis
Measurement basis, application dates and response windows per account, so every assessment is built on its own contract rather than a house habit.
Clocks Fixed and Diarised
Each account's due date, notice dates and final date for payment are taken from the executed subcontract and diarised before any assessment runs.
I assess it against the site's records
Progress, materials, variations, contras and retention, each movement evidenced, on one page per account with the workings shown.
I hand you the number in time to act on it
You certify, negotiate or notice from it while the window is open, and open differences are carried into next month rather than lost.
Handed Over Early
The checked assessment reaches you at least two clear working days before the notice date, so certifying or serving never becomes a same-day scramble.
I keep every certificate defensible and on time
Between projects the service pauses rather than cancels: nothing is re-onboarded, the file and the diary stay warm, and it resumes the day the next project starts.
Free Service Pack
A step-by-step Handbook, with the templates and working documents you need to carry out the work it covers yourself. You supply your own project information and records.
Follow the Handbook's scope and stopping points, and obtain independent advice where required. The pack is not project-specific advice or independent sign-off.
Tips that raise your odds of success
Questions I get asked often
The notices that carry these numbers are drafted by Payment & Pay Less Notice Assembly & Issuance, and the two run together with the account-keeping as Subcontractor Account Administration. Upstream, the same discipline applied to the certificates you receive is Payment & Pay Less Notice Checking & Response.