There's nobody available to sign anything off

The bottleneck isn't the paperwork, it's the people: the architect who must approve is on leave, the project manager answers one email in five, the clerk of works won't commit to a signature. Meanwhile the work proceeds, the account grows, and everything sits at pending - which reads as fine until the month it reads as disputed.

Chasing is a system, not a mood: every item awaiting sign-off in one register with its owner and its age, follow-ups sent on schedule, and silence escalated - politely, in writing - so that when the account is argued, the record shows who sat on what. Contracts often help more than people expect: response periods, deemed positions, procedures that keep moving without the missing signature. Knowing which of those apply is part of running the register properly.