From tender to close: the life of a project

A tender in Zeyto Construction & Contracting moves along a pipeline: enquiry, qualified, estimating, submitted, negotiation, then won, lost, no bid or cancelled. Losing or declining needs a reason so that, after a year, the register can tell you why you lose. The win rate is won divided by won plus lost over the last 12 months, by count and by value.

Click to enlarge

Close

Tenders: the pipeline from enquiry to award.

When a tender is won, one action on the estimate (Award and create the project) creates the project, the breakdown, the locked bill of quantities, the baseline budget by nature (equal to the estimate cost), a draft schedule, the contract and the key-clause register. Nothing is typed twice, and the Finance tab can then show the margin from estimate to contract to budget to actual.

Controls on a live project

• Cost lock date: no cost may be posted on or before the date.
• Over-budget control: off, warn, approval or block when an order would take actual plus committed cost past the budget (module 4).
• Gates: a missing approval of a submittal, method statement, inspection plan or drawing can block a purchase order, the start of work, a material issue or billing.
• Approvals: purchase, subcontract activation, variation orders, retention release and budget changes ask the approval engine.
• Month-end close: a checklist, then a lock of the books and project cost up to the month end.

Clauses and time bars

Contracts lose money when a notice is sent late. The contract clause register lists key clauses such as claim notices, extension of time, delay damages, retention release and the end of the defects liability period. When the event happens you enter its date; the due date is the event date plus the notice days, and the system warns 7 days and 1 day before. The notice periods in the library are standard-form defaults, and contracts usually amend them, so check each entry against your signed contract.

Click to enlarge

Close

Contract clauses: notice due dates so nothing is sent late.

At the end the project passes through practical complete and the defects period before closing. A closed project takes no new cost. Retention release and the final account are covered in module 3.