Records Organisation
RemedialHourlyFor Subcontractors & Main Contractors
I gather the records your project already holds and build them into one organised, indexed file that can carry a claim. Because a record nobody can find proves nothing.
The problem
Most projects do not lack records; they lack one place where the records are. The diary is in the site office, the photos are on four phones, the delivery tickets are in a box, and the emails are spread across inboxes, some belonging to people who have left. The cost lands when the file is needed: a final account to assemble, a set-off to answer, an adjudication with a response window measured in days. Whoever goes looking spends weeks sorting instead of arguing, and a document that cannot be found does the same work as one never made: none.
The solution
I take the file as it stands, from every source you point me at, and put it in order: your originals preserved untouched and all work done on copies, each document logged with what it is, its date and what it shows, named consistently, and filed in one structure that runs by event and by date, agreed with you in writing before anything moves. Alongside the archive you get a written gaps note: what the file proves well, where it runs thin, what should exist but does not, and which gaps can still be closed honestly, from delivery tickets, payroll, supplier records and the other side's correspondence, while the people who remember the job are still on it.
What you receive
The file stops being a search and becomes an asset: one archive, one index, every document dated and findable when the account, the deduction or the dispute asks for it. It hands over on your systems, in a structure your team can keep feeding, with the gaps note telling you where the file still needs work.
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: the timetable is agreed in writing at scoping and then kept.
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 send me the records as they sit
You send everything below exactly as it stands: nothing tidied, nothing renamed, nothing left out because it seems trivial. The mess is my problem, not yours.
- A
The whole document set, however it exists
EssentialWithout it: There is nothing to organise, so the job cannot start
Where to find it: Wherever it currently sits: the project inbox and shared drives, the boxes in the site office or a QS's drawers, and everyone's phones for the photographs. Send it from every location and say which is which
Why I need it: Organisation cannot be done on a sample. A partial set produces a structure that breaks when the rest arrives
- B
What is known of the chronology
ImportantWithout it: The gap list may miss things the documents themselves never mention
Where to find it: Whatever you already have: a spreadsheet timeline, a schedule of events from an earlier report, or just your own notes of the key dates
Why I need it: What is known now shapes the structure and seeds the gap list
- C
The issue in dispute, in their words
EssentialWithout it: The structure risks being built around the wrong question
Where to find it: This is not written down anywhere for me to find. A paragraph from you, in an email or on a call, is what I need
Why I need it: The structure has to serve the question being asked
- D
Any deadline the set is being prepared for
OptionalWithout it: The structure gets built without knowing how much is worth doing
Where to find it: Whatever correspondence or instruction set the date, or your own diary if nothing about it is written down
Why I need it: Determines how much structure is worth building
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.
Originals preserved untouched.
Everything you send is kept exactly as received and all work is done on copies, so the original trail is never altered or lost.
- A
I gather every source into one place
I bring in and log each store you point me at, keeping every original exactly as received and working only on copies, so nothing sits outside the file, nothing is counted twice, and the original trail is never altered.
You agree the structure in writing
Before a single document is filed, I put the proposed structure and naming convention to you and you sign it off in writing, so the file is built once, to a shape you have approved.
Structure agreed before filing.
The archive's structure is agreed with you in writing before a single document is filed, so the file is built once, to a shape you have approved.
I read and index the file
I read it document by document: what it is, its date, who sent it and what it shows, filed by event and by date under names that mean something.
You answer what the documents cannot
Where a document will not date or place itself, I come back with a short, specific list. Answers from memory, while it is warm, close gaps no amount of filing can.
I write the gaps note
I set down what the file proves, where it runs thin, what should exist but does not, and which gaps can still be closed honestly, each with where to look.
You decide which gaps get chased
The gaps note that comes back names what is missing and where it might still be found; how far to chase each one is your call.
I hand over one archive, indexed and dated
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.
My products used
Tips that raise your odds of success
Questions I get asked often
An organised file stays organised only while the project keeps feeding it. Records & Monthly Check sets up that discipline going forward, so the archive this service builds never falls back into the boxes it came from.