Contract administration software should cut the chasing: working out reply dates, drafting routine letters, telling people what is due, and keeping records you can find later. On a construction project, the useful test is simple. Take your week's admin tasks and ask which of them it actually removes, and which it just moves to a new screen.
This page takes that view for NEC contracts. It is part of the NEC contract management software guide, and the practice behind it is covered in NEC contract administration.
The week's tasks, and what software should do with them
| Task by hand | What software should do | What stays with you |
|---|---|---|
| Working out reply dates in a diary | Calculate them from the periods held for that contract | Entering the right periods from the Contract Data |
| Chasing replies by e-mail | List what is waiting, by whose turn it is | Replying with something worth reading |
| Writing routine notice letters | Produce them from the record, with the parties and the clause | Checking the content is right for the facts |
| Finding who said what | Keep each record's dated history | Getting off-system events on to the record |
| Updating a monthly tracker | Show the current state from the records themselves | Interpreting what it means for the job |
| Checking a clause number | Show the clause for that contract's edition and amendments | Keeping the clause set right for your Z clauses |
The right-hand column is the honest part of this table. If a supplier's answer to everything is that the system handles it, ask how it would know about a phone call on site, or a Z clause it hasn't been told about.
What Contract Status does
- Action List and My Dashboard. The Action List shows what is waiting for your side, most urgent first. My Dashboard gives the same at a glance.
- Reply periods by contract. A new contract takes your company's defaults, and you can change them on one contract. An extension agreed on one record replaces the date for that record only.
- Letters. Most records have a notice letter with your letterhead, the parties and the clause, on screen or as a PDF.
- Communications. General communications and requests for information have their own registers, apart from formal notices. That helps with 13.7, which expects a notification to be given separately from other communications.
- E-mail control. Each person chooses their e-mails in their preferences, and the bell keeps notices together on screen.
- Contract health. For administrators, commercial managers and the PMO, each obligation is shown Red, Amber, Green or Unknown, with the clause and next step.
- Roles and words. Your account uses your words for the two sides and for instructions.
Three limits to plan for
Is the system the contract's means of communication? Whether a message in the software counts as a communication under the contract depends on clause 13 and your Scope (Works Information in NEC3). Many contracts name the system to use. Check yours before relying on it, and see communications under NEC.
Who enters what? A site instruction or a meeting decision isn't on record until someone puts it on the right register. Agree who does it, or the system's picture will be neat but incomplete.
Who does the counting? Contract Status counts in calendar weeks from the day a record was submitted, starting from your recorded periods. Compare that with how your contract treats periods, and don't take any tool's date as the last word in a close call.
A test you can run in your head
Take last Monday on a fictional contract. Your list includes a compensation event reply due Wednesday, a programme accepted but not recorded, and two requests for information that have gone quiet. Ask yourself:
- How long did it take to find that list this week?
- How would you find it if the person who keeps the tracker were on leave?
- Can the other side see the same dates, or are you chasing from a private list?
- Which of those three items would you know about only because someone remembered?
If the answers are comfortable, you may not need new software yet. Our comparison of NEC software and spreadsheets is candid about when a spreadsheet is enough. The weekly NEC routine is also useful, whatever tool you use. If they aren't comfortable, book a call and we can go through the same list on Contract Status.
Related guides
- NEC Contract Management Software
- Construction Contract Management Software
- Subcontract Management Software
- NEC Software vs Spreadsheets
- NEC4 Contract Software
- NEC3 Contract Software
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.