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. Quiet, factual letters written while writing is still cheap keep a job out of the arguments that expensive letters are written to win.
The problem
The commercial correspondence a contract requires gets written in one of two wrong registers. Either it never gets written, because the person who should send it is on site and the deadline passes, so the letter that would have protected a position went unsent; or it gets fired off in temper after something has gone wrong, overstating the case and conceding points by accident. Making the writing somebody's job, on the same monthly rhythm as the rest of the commercial cycle, records a position without raising a temperature.
The solution
At the start I read the contract for the correspondence it demands: confirmations of instruction, responses to certificates, notices of delay or of an event, requests and reservations a clause makes conditional on writing. That gives a short standing list of what to say and when; then, before each letter is drafted, you confirm in writing what it is to achieve, and I draft it from the records, stating the fact and leaving the door open. You correct anything that does not match what you know and send it from your own address, so the correspondence stays yours. Each letter is logged with its date and proof of sending.
What you receive
The letters the contract asks for get written on time, in a register that records a position without starting a fight, and your file carries a calm, dated thread that reads, months later, like a job run properly, exactly the thread a final account or a dispute wants to stand on.
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: two working days per letter.
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 the job and its correspondence
One call on the project, the contract and the letters that have or have not been getting written. The first conversation is free and commits you to nothing.
You send me the contract and the story so far
The list below lets the drafting be built on the contract's actual clauses and the correspondence already on the record.
- A
The facts and chronology
OptionalWithout it: The letter is written from the documents rather than your account, so it may take longer to find what is needed, but nothing about the letter itself is weaker for the lack of it
Where to find it: The site diary, the minutes, the instruction register and a short conversation with you.
Why I need it: A letter that gets the facts wrong is worse than no letter
- B
The contract clauses relied on
EssentialWithout it: The letter has nothing to stand on but grievance, and a letter without the clause behind it is easy for the other side to bat away
Where to find it: The job's commercial folder or the order email normally holds the signed copy.
Why I need it: The letter has to stand on the contract, not on grievance
- C
All prior correspondence in the chain
EssentialWithout it: The letter risks contradicting something already said, and you find that out from their reply rather than before you sent it
Where to find it: The project inbox and the sent items of whoever has been writing so far.
Why I need it: What has been said already binds what can be said now
- D
The outcome sought
EssentialWithout it: The letter has nothing to ask for, so even a well written one achieves nothing
Where to find it: There is no document for this one: it is a short conversation with you about what you actually want the letter to achieve.
Why I need it: A letter with no ask achieves nothing
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 list the letters this job tends to need
A short standing list from the contract's own clauses: what needs saying, in what form, to whom, and roughly when, on one page you hold too.
You confirm what each letter is to achieve
Before any letter is drafted, you confirm the outcome sought in one sentence, in writing: a sum, a date, an instruction, an answer or a withdrawal, and by when. The ask shapes the whole letter, so it is fixed first.
Purpose Agreed First
Drafting starts only once what the letter is to achieve, and by when, is stated in one sentence and confirmed by you in writing.
I draft each letter from the records
Confirmations, responses and notices, each drafted once its ask is confirmed: plain, factual language built from what the records prove, saying exactly what the clause requires and stopping there.
Facts Checked to Documents
Before a letter is prepared for sending, every fact is checked to a document and every clause quoted word for word against the executed contract.
You read and send each letter in your name
You correct anything that does not match what you know, then send it yourself; the correspondence and the relationships stay entirely yours.
I log what went out and watch for the reply
Every letter recorded with its date and proof of sending, and anything expecting an answer put on the watch list so the reply is chased, not forgotten. Each cycle closes with a short written position report, so the file shows the month rather than remembers it.
I keep the thread reading like a job run properly
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
Most of the letters worth drafting answer a deadline, which is why this service pairs with Insurance, Bond & Warranty Tracking and, for the payment cycle's own dates, with Notice & Deadline Tracking. When a letter is being written to run an argument that has already started, that is a dispute rather than routine, and the claims side of this practice handles those.