Subcontractor Account Administration
Risk mitigationOngoingFor Main ContractorsMoney out
I run your subcontractor accounts every cycle: applied, certified and paid reconciled on every account, the notices, contras and retention tracked, and anything exposed chased in writing. Downstream paperwork done late is how main contractors hand money away by default.
The problem
A main contractor owes each subcontract a proper cycle: applications assessed, notices served in their windows, payments made on the certified sums. On a small firm it lands on people who also have a job to run, so assessments slip to guesses, notices go out late or not at all, and under the Construction Act an application nobody answered in time becomes payable in full. The account side decays too: variations never priced in, contra-charges nobody documented, retention held with no record of when it releases, and the errors surface when a subcontractor leaves, fails, or goes to adjudication.
The solution
Each cycle I hold every account in one place: what was applied for, certified and paid reconciled per account, every difference explained from a document; the notice position recorded from evidence of service; contra-charges tracked against their grounds; retention checked against each contract with its releases diarised. This is the administration of the accounts, not the assessment of them: where an application needs assessing, that is Payment Application Assessment & Certification, run alongside. What this service makes sure is that across every account the money adds up, the notices went out, the retention is right and nothing has quietly stopped moving, with anything outstanding chased in writing.
What you receive
Every notice window is watched and every difference is found the cycle it appears, which ends the accidental full-payment defaults and takes the heat out of most downstream arguments before they start. Each account carries a current, evidenced position, so commercial decisions, and any dispute, start from the file rather than from memory. And the director who was doing all this at weekends stops.
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
One call on the subcontracts, the cycle dates and where the accounts stand today. The first conversation is free and commits you to nothing.
You send me the subcontracts and each account's position
The list below lets every account be reconciled before the service takes over its cycle.
- A
All subcontracts, executed, with amendments
EssentialWithout it: There is nothing to build the tracker from: no rates, no notice periods, no basis for a single account
Where to find it: The buying folder or each order's confirmation email.
Why I need it: The terms governing each account
- B
Every application received on each account
EssentialWithout it: The running position on each account cannot be shown: you will not know what has actually been claimed
Where to find it: The payment folder, the accounts system and the QS's or director's working spreadsheets.
Why I need it: The running position on each
- C
Every notice and certificate issued
EssentialWithout it: There is nothing to prove what was served and when, so the tracker cannot show whether a subcontractor's claim was properly answered
Where to find it: The payment folder, the accounts system and the QS's or director's working spreadsheets.
Why I need it: What was served and when
- D
Every contra-charge, with its ground
ImportantWithout it: Every deduction found in the certificates is carried as unsupported until you produce the ground, which is not the same as it being wrong, but it reads that way in the tracker
Where to find it: The commercial folder, the accounts system and whoever has been applying the deductions.
Why I need it: What has been deducted and on what basis
- E
The retention terms and what is held
ImportantWithout it: Retention held is taken from the certificates alone, so any account where neither the subcontract nor a certificate states a figure is left uncertain
Where to find it: The commercial folder, the accounts system and whoever has been applying the deductions.
Why I need it: What is held and when it falls due
- F
The final account position on each
ImportantWithout it: Accounts that are actually finished stay open in the tracker indefinitely, tying up retention and provision that could otherwise be released
Where to find it: Whatever you use to track completion: an account status list, the closing correspondence, or simply what you would tell me the position is on each package.
Why I need it: Where each account stands against its final figure
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 set up a register for every account
Applications, notices, variations, contra-charges and retention per subcontractor, with each subcontract's own windows mapped.
I reconcile every account, every cycle
Applied, certified and paid compared on each account, with every difference explained from a document: the notice that reduced it, the remittance that settled it, the contra taken. Anything unexplained is flagged with its value, never adjusted away.
Every Difference Explained
Applied, certified and paid are reconciled on every account, each difference explained from a document; nothing is adjusted just to make an account balance.
I check the notice position on every account
For each cycle, whether a notice is due and whether it was served, taken from evidence of service rather than assurance, with any window still open flagged the day it is found and the sum turning on it stated.
Notices Proven, Not Assumed
Each account's notice position is recorded from evidence of service; where proof is missing you are told in writing what is absent and what it exposes.
You act on what each cycle surfaces
Each flag reaches you with its evidence and its date: the notice due, the difference to answer, the release to apply for. Whatever goes out goes in your name, and the subcontractors deal with you.
I keep every account's position current
Variations priced in as agreed, contras documented as they arise, retention tracked to its releases, so any account can be settled or defended from the file as it stands.
I chase what is outstanding
One chaser per issue, drafted for you to send: the clause, the figure and a response date, each traced to the tracker and the documents behind it, with the response date diarised the day it goes.
Chasers Carry Their Basis
Nothing is chased on assertion: every chaser states the clause, the figure and a response date, each traced to the tracker and the documents behind it.
I keep every account answered and evidenced
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
This service administers the accounts; the assessment of any one application is Payment Application Assessment & Certification, and the notices themselves are drafted by Payment & Pay Less Notice Assembly & Issuance. Upstream, the mirror of this work is Payment & Pay Less Notice Checking & Response, reading the notices you receive with the same eye this service applies to the ones you serve. The retention this work records is tracked through to release by Retention Tracking.