NEC Contract Management Software: A Buyer's Guide

NEC contract management software gives each contract process its own register, works out when replies are due from your contract's periods, and keeps a dated history of who did what. On an NEC contract that matters more than on most, because the contract runs on notices and time limits: a missed reply or late notification can change the money and the dates.

This page sets out what such a system should do, process by process, and what no system can do for you. It also explains how Contract Status approaches each one, so you can compare it fairly with whatever you use now. If you want the contract itself explained first, start with the guide to NEC contracts.

What makes NEC different to manage

Under a traditional contract, much of the commercial argument can wait for the final account. NEC is designed to settle each change as it happens. The Contractor notifies an event, a quotation follows, the Project Manager replies, and the Prices and Completion Date move there and then. Three things follow for any software you consider:

Dates are part of the entitlement. A compensation event notified outside the eight weeks in clause 61.3 can lose the Contractor the change to the Prices and dates. A Project Manager who stays silent after a failure notice can find a quotation treated as accepted under 62.6.
Each notification stands alone. Clause 13.7 expects a notification to be made separately, not buried in a progress report or meeting note. A single shared inbox or a monthly report makes that hard to show.
The current position is always moving. The latest Accepted Programme, the Completion Date in force and the open compensation events all need to be visible now, not at month end.

A general document store or a generic contract repository can hold the paperwork. What it won't usually do is know that this record is a quotation, that the reply is due in two weeks, and that the reply is the Project Manager's to make. The construction contract management software page compares these categories.

What it should do, process by process

Process	NEC4 ECC	NEC3 ECC	What to expect from the software
Early warnings and meetings	15	16	A register built from the warnings themselves, with meetings, decisions and owned actions
Compensation events	60 to 66	60 to 65	Notification, reply and quotation as linked steps, each with its own due date
Instructions	14.3 and others	14.3 and others	A numbered record of each instruction, with any compensation event traceable to it
Programme	31, 32	31, 32	Each revision submitted, accepted or not with a reason, and the current Accepted Programme obvious
Payment	50, 51, Y(UK)2	50, 51, Y(UK)2	Assessment dates, applications, certificates and pay less notices tracked against the dates
Defects	43.2 to 46	42.2 to 45	Defects notified and tracked to correction against the defect correction period
Tests and inspections	41, 42	40, 41	Tests recorded on the contract with the result, not in a separate log
Communications	13	13	General communications and requests for information held on the contract, separate from formal notices
Completion and Key Dates	30, 35, X7	30, 35, X7	The dates in force, changing only when a compensation event that moves them is implemented

Contract Status gives each of these its own place on the contract page, a register for each process and a section for Key Dates, in the same way for both editions. The numbers above are the standard clauses; yours may differ if your contract has Z clauses.

What Contract Status does

Every record follows the same path, whichever process it belongs to. It starts as a draft that only your company can see. Once submitted, the other side is e-mailed and sees it in their notifications. The reply date is worked out from the period on that contract, and the record moves to the Action List of the side whose turn it is. The other side replies on the record, and the full history is kept.

Due dates from your contract. A new contract takes your company's default periods, which start from the ECC periods. Each contract can then hold its own where the Contract Data or Z clauses change them.
Overdue flags. Registers, the Action List and My Dashboard show what is late or next. Overdue alerts can be switched on by an administrator.
Late replies. Where NEC lets the Contractor rely on a late reply (61.4, 62.6, 64.4, and in NEC4 31.3), the record counts down and offers the notice. Giving it stays the Contractor's choice.
Letters. Most records have a notice letter with your letterhead, the parties and the clause, on screen or as a PDF.
Your clause library. Clause numbers shown on records and letters come from your company's library for that contract's NEC version. Where you have changed a clause, your version shows. Where the library has no clause, none is shown rather than an invented one.
Contract health. For administrators, commercial managers and the PMO, each obligation is shown as Red, Amber, Green or Unknown, with the clause and next step. Unknown is used where a rule can't be checked against the contract, so a gap doesn't read as Green.

A worked example: one quotation that nobody answered

A fictional NEC4 Option A contract for a culvert replacement, with illustrative dates, using the standard periods.

Week 0. The Contractor submits a quotation for a compensation event. A two-week reply date appears on the Project Manager side's Action List under 62.3.
Week 2. No reply. The record shows Overdue on the register. On the Contractor side it offers the notice that the reply is late.
Week 3. The Contractor chooses to give that notice. The further two weeks under 62.6 begin, and the record counts them down.
Week 5. Still no reply. The deemed acceptance is recorded, the quotation counts as accepted, and the event is implemented. The price and date changes in the quotation now apply.

Without a tracker, this sequence can first surface at a monthly commercial meeting, by which point the Project Manager has lost the chance to respond. The point isn't that one side catches the other out. It is that both sides could see the date coming.

What software can't do. It can't decide whether an event is a compensation event, who caused it or what it is worth. Contract Status records what the two sides did and when; it doesn't decide who is right. Check too what your contract says about communications under clause 13: whether a system message counts as a contract communication depends on your contract, and many name the system to use.

NEC3, NEC4 and other forms

Many organisations run both editions, so the system has to change more than its labels. NEC3 has a Risk Register and risk reduction meetings; NEC4 has an Early Warning Register and early warning meetings with set times under 15.2 and 15.4. NEC4 adds deemed acceptance of a programme in 31.3, which NEC3 doesn't have. Implementation of compensation events sits at clause 65 in NEC3 and clause 66 in NEC4. Contract Status sets the wording and rules from each contract's own version, and it also handles the NEC4 Professional Service Short Contract. The differences are set out in NEC3 vs NEC4.

Subcontracts need separate thought. A contractor on a subcontract account plays the Project Manager's part towards its subcontractors, and the NEC4 ECS sets different periods from the ECC.

Who uses it, and for what

Role	What they need from it each week
Project Manager	Replies falling due, quotations to answer, programmes to accept, the register to reissue
Quantity surveyor	Compensation events and quotations by status, applications and certificates
Commercial manager	A view across contracts: what is late and where the exposure is
Planner	The current Accepted Programme, revisions in hand and the dates in force
Contractor's site team	A simple way to raise early warnings and record when they became aware of an event
Client	Sight of the same records and dates as the delivery team, not a summary of them

Compare the options in detail

These pages go through each part in more depth:

Compensation event software: what to check in the notification, quotation and reply stages, including the time bar.
Early warning register software: how the register, meetings and actions should connect.
NEC programme approval software: submissions, reasons for not accepting and deemed acceptance.
NEC payment application software: assessment dates, certificates and pay less notices.
NEC4 contract software: the specific NEC4 rules a system has to reflect.
NEC3 contract software: what to look for if you still run NEC3 contracts.
Contract administration software for construction: the daily tasks a contract administrator wants off their plate.
Subcontract management software: running NEC subcontracts when the periods differ from the main contract.
Why use NEC contract management software?: the case for it, and when you may not need it.
Do we actually need NEC software?: a practical test for your own contracts.
NEC software vs spreadsheets: an honest comparison, including when a spreadsheet is enough.
How to choose NEC contract software: a buyer's checklist and test scenarios to run.
Looking for a CEMAR alternative?: what to compare if you are reviewing your current system.

The best test of any of these systems is one of your own awkward contracts. Book a call with Contract Status and bring one: the Z clauses, the changed periods and the mix of editions tell you more than a standard walk-through will. For the practice behind the tools, whichever system you use, see managing NEC contracts.

All guides in this section

See how this works in practice

Click through Contract Status with sample contracts: raise the notice, reply to it, and watch both sides of one record.

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Test your NEC knowledge, use the free NEC tools or download free NEC templates.

This guide is general information in our own words, not legal advice. Your contract and its Contract Data always govern. NEC, NEC3 and NEC4 are trade marks of Thomas Telford Ltd; Contract Status is not affiliated with or endorsed by NEC.