Records & Tracking

The site knows things the file doesn't

Photos in phones, instructions on WhatsApp, progress in memory.

Our letters give ground without meaning to

Commercial correspondence drafted in a hurry concedes positions a claim will need.

An insurance or bond could lapse and we'd find out too late

Expiry dates tracked nowhere, renewals left to the broker.

The valuation is rebuilt from scratch each month

And it leans on memory where it should lean on records.

We don't keep a site diary at all

Everyone means to. Nobody does. And the questions that need it arrive months later.

Our photographs aren't evidence, they're just pictures

No date, no location, no context, no index.

Labour is on site and nobody records what it did

Hours are paid, allocation is guessed, and any disruption claim later has nothing underneath it.

The diary says the gang was moved but not where to

We can prove they were stopped. We can't prove what it cost, which is the half that pays.

The measure is generous to keep things moving

It gets corrected later, at the point in the job with nothing left to absorb it.

“I definitely sent that email”

The position rests on correspondence nobody can produce.

We're relying on the other side's photographs

Their progress shots, their schedules, our money.

Nobody takes photographs

Too busy, too self-conscious, or wary of being pulled up for having a phone out on site - and the cheapest evidence there is never gets taken.

Nobody knows which records this contract actually requires

The obligations are in the contract and no one has ever listed them.

Commercial Correspondence Drafting

Risk mitigationOngoingFor Subcontractors & Main Contractors

I draft the month's commercial letters and notices properly and on time, all in your name, each saying exactly what it needs to and nothing it should not.

Insurance, Bond & Warranty Tracking

Risk mitigationOngoingFor Subcontractors & Main Contractors

I keep a register of every policy, bond and warranty the contracts require, held or owed, and chase each one before it lapses rather than after a loss.

Site Records & Progress Capture

Risk mitigationOngoingFor Subcontractors & Main Contractors

I design the site's record system for the team that actually keeps it, then run it monthly, checking each month for gaps while the gaps can still be filled.

Insurances, Bonds & Warranties Register

For Subcontractors & Main Contractors

Every policy, bond and warranty the contract requires: held, owed or expiring, chased before it lapses rather than after.

Design the diary for the person in the rain, not the surveyor at a desk

Give every record a named owner and a moment in their day

Make the phone do the dating and placing for you

Check for gaps monthly, while the month can still be rebuilt

Confirm instructions in writing the day you get them

Write to record a fact, not to win an argument

Send the notice the clause requires even when the mood is friendly

Log what went out and chase what expects a reply

Write the whole schedule of cover down once, at the start

Track what is owed to you as hard as what you must hold

Flag renewals and expiries before the date, not after

Chase unexecuted warranties while the leverage still exists

Value against the pricing document, not against last month

Record the measure as you take it, not the total afterwards

Get this period's figure agreed and keep it agreed

Reconcile the cumulative position every single period

What is an interim valuation and who produces it?

It is the periodic measure of what the works are worth to date, produced by whoever is applying or certifying, and it is the number the whole payment cycle then runs on.

How should progress be measured from one period to the next?

Measure against the priced document line by line, record the measure with its evidence as you take it, and reconcile the cumulative position each period so agreed lines stay agreed.

What are labour and plant allocation sheets for?

They record who and what was on site, where, and for how long, each day, which is the evidence behind daywork, disruption, delay and any argument about resourcing.

How does a small contractor set up site records without drowning the team?

Design the capture around the people who will do it, give every record a named owner and a fixed moment, keep each one short, and check for gaps every month rather than at the end.

When is a commercial letter actually worth sending?

Whenever a contractual right depends on writing something down, or a fact will be worth proving later, and always in a flat factual register rather than an argumentative one.

Which insurances, bonds and warranties need tracking on a live job?

Everything the contract requires in both directions: the insurances each party must hold, any performance bond, the collateral warranties owed, and the professional indemnity a designer carries.

What happens when a bond or warranty quietly lapses?

The protection you were contractually promised simply is not there when you need it, and the loss it should have covered falls on you instead, usually discovered the day it is called on.

How long should project records be kept after completion?

Long enough to outlast the period in which a claim can still be brought, which under a deed commonly runs many years past completion, so records are kept for the limitation tail, not until handover.