Project Systems Review
ForensicFixed FeeFor Subcontractors, Main Contractors & Clients10 working days
I embed with the commercial team on one live project, for a day as standard or up to a week for a more thorough review, and watch its systems run as the job actually uses them: the valuation, the variations, the site records, the CVR. The write-up reports two numbers, the hours each month going on work that does not need a person and the exposure sitting unproven in the job's own records, and closes with a ranked list of fixes in the order they are costing the project.
The problem
On a busy job the commercial systems are whatever the team had time to build: a valuation assembled by hand each month, variations logged in three places or none, a CVR rebuilt from scratch the night before it is read, instructions sitting in inboxes, site records that thin out exactly when the job turns difficult. Nobody has counted the hours that costs, and nobody has read the job's records the way an opposing surveyor would. So the two numbers that matter most are unknown, and decisions about tools and about risk get made on impressions.
The solution
I embed with the project team while the job runs as normal, a day as standard or up to a week where you want the whole month watched rather than sampled, and I watch the work happen: the valuation, the variations, the CVR, the reporting, the record keeping. Then I read the job's files the way the other side would read them in a dispute. The write-up gives you the hours each month going on work that does not need a person, the exposure sitting unproven in the records, and a ranked list of fixes matched to software you already own.
What you receive
You get the two numbers in writing, with the working behind them, plus the ranked list of fixes in the order they are costing the job. The list is yours either way: some firms hand it to their own team and stop there, and for some that is the right call. If you want the fixes put in, the set-up is scoped and priced against these findings and nothing else.
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: ten working days.
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.
Illustrative worked example
Every instruction closes with a written report. This is the format, on a worked example: See a worked example (PDF)
How it works
You tell me how the project runs today
A call, free, no preparation. Which job it is, who does its commercial work, what software the business already pays for, and which week has a valuation, a CVR or an assessment genuinely in it. You choose a day or an embedded week, and I put the fixed fee in writing before anything is booked.
You send me what the visit needs
Nothing gets tidied first. The review reads the working state of things as they stand, because a polished folder hides exactly what it exists to find.
- A
Read-only access to the project's systems
EssentialWithout it: The review has nothing to look at beyond what people say happens; it cannot check what the systems actually do
Where to find it: The settings or user-administration screen of whichever software runs the project's commercial or document records, where a read-only login can be added for you.
Why I need it: The review is of what is used, not described
- B
An hour with each role, separately
EssentialWithout it: There is no first-hand account of how the process actually runs, so the review has nothing to check the paperwork against
Where to find it: Each person books the hour in their own diary, at their desk, with last month's files open rather than in a meeting room.
Why I need it: The process as actually run
- C
Sample records, the last two full cycles
EssentialWithout it: There is nothing to sample, so the review cannot show what the process actually produces
Where to find it: The same commercial folder as row 1: pull the last two complete cycles specifically, applications, notices, the variation register and the cost report, rather than sending the whole run.
Why I need it: Samples show what the process produces
Quality: two complete cycles, warts intact.
- D
Time logs, if any exist
ImportantWithout it: The hours in the report become estimates rather than a measured figure
Where to find it: Whoever runs payroll or the timesheet system, if either exists; if neither does, say so rather than putting one together for the review.
Why I need it: Where the time actually goes
- E
Who does what, including cover
ImportantWithout it: A step with nobody clearly owning it goes unnoticed instead of being flagged as the finding it is
Where to find it: A short note from the commercial manager or project surveyor naming who covers each step and who stands in when that person is away.
Why I need it: A step with no owner is the finding
- F
The executed main contract and the subcontract used on the project, with every amendment and appendix
ImportantWithout it: The review can only be run against the standard form, so an amendment that shortened a notice period is not seen and the exposure findings understate what the process has to meet
Where to find it: Your own commercial file or document platform: the executed and signed copy with its schedule of amendments, not the tender draft and not the published standard form.
Why I need it: The review tests each step against what the contract requires by the date it requires it, and the periods that decide that are usually in the amendments
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 embed with the team while the job runs
I sit with the people doing the work while the valuation is assembled, the variations are priced and chased, the CVR is updated and the records are kept. I count as I go: which tasks eat the hours, which need a person's judgement, and which are copying numbers between places that already hold them.
I read the job's records the way the other side would
Every instruction checked for something in writing behind it, every notice checked against its window, every variation checked for substantiation that would survive scrutiny, the site records checked for the gaps a dispute would walk through. What fails gets valued: not a percentage, the actual items and what the job stands to lose on each.
Checked against your contract
Every contractual finding is verified against the contract you actually signed, never a standard form, before it goes in the write-up.
I write up the two numbers and the ranked list
The hours each month that do not need a person, task by task. The exposure in the records, item by item. Then the fixes, ranked by what each gap is costing the project, every one of them mapped to software you already own wherever that is honestly possible.
Findings from records seen
Every finding rests on records actually read and sampled; anything only described in interview is verified or plainly marked as unverified.
I hand you the review and talk it through
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
The project review has a business-wide sibling: the Business Systems Review reads the systems that sit above the jobs. What either finds, the set-up puts in, and nothing obliges you to take that step. And if the reading turns up a payment already gone wrong rather than a system to fix, that is the claims side of the practice, and I will say so rather than fold a live dispute into systems work.