One figure for every compensation event, wherever you look
The spreadsheet says one thing, the payment application another, and the Project Manager's letter a third. Contract Status holds one implementing quotation for each event and carries that figure everywhere it is used.
Where the time goes now
Ask most NEC QSs where their week goes and the answer is not measuring. It is reconciling. Which revision of the quotation was accepted? Is that event implemented or just agreed in a meeting? Did the assessment include the event from March? Has anyone told the other side?
Then the payment application comes round and it has to be right by the assessment date, because the Project Manager only has to consider what was submitted in time.
Whichever side you are on, the problem is the same: the money and the contract procedure live in different places, and they drift apart.
A day with NEC, without it and with it
Without it
- Open the CE tracker, which somebody else last saved in a copy on their desktop
- Chase the planner for the effect on the Accepted Programme, because the quotation is due in three days
- Find out from the site team that a revised quotation was instructed last week
- Rebuild the change to the Prices by hand for the application, and hope it matches
- Find the assessment date in last month's e-mail
With Contract Status
- Open the quotations waiting on you, with the date each is due
- Add the quotation on its compensation event: amount, Completion Date, Key Dates and build-up, all on one record
- See a revised quotation request as soon as it is made, with the reasons on the record
- Implemented events appear on the payment form as changes to the Prices, once each
- See a countdown to the next assessment date on the contract and payment pages
What it does for the money
Clause references are the standard NEC4 ECC. Each contract can hold its own periods and its own clauses.
Quote in the three weeks
Clause 62.3 gives three weeks from the instruction, and 62.4 gives three weeks for a revised quotation. Each date is on the record and on your list. Clause 62.2 expects the change to the Prices and the delay to dates together, so the form asks for both.
A submitted quotation stays as submitted
Once it has gone it cannot be edited: a change is a revised quotation, and the old one is superseded but kept. You can always show what was offered and when.
Counted once
Only one quotation, or the Project Manager's own assessment under 64.3, implements an event. The change to the Prices and to the dates comes from that one, so the same figure appears on the contract page, the application and the reports.
Certificates and pay less notices
Clause 51.1 asks for a certificate within a week of the assessment date, and 51.2 sets three weeks for payment unless the Contract Data says otherwise. With Option Y(UK)2 the pay less notice is structured: the sum now due, its basis and the dates, with the last day seven days before the final date for payment.
Breakdowns that follow the Option
Quotation and payment breakdowns follow the contract's form and main Option, so a target cost contract does not look like a priced one. The contract page shows the type: "NEC4 ECC, Option C", for example.
A final account with a history
The NEC4 final assessment under clause 53 is recorded with what has already been certified and any uncorrected Defects. A Defect corrected by others carries its cost across, in line with 46.1.
Limits for your signature, not everyone's
Where your company uses money approvals, each role has a limit. A QS who accepts or assesses a quotation over their limit does not have to chase anyone by e-mail: the decision is held, the first person whose limit covers it releases it, and the other side never sees the hold. The approver can approve or send it back with a reason, but cannot change your figures.
A contractor's account can hold the quotations it submits in the same way.
See it, try it, read up
The Contractor hasn't given a quotation
The quotation date has passed. Contract Status shows the Project Manager the next step: a Project Manager's assessment, recorded against the event.
See the exampleMy quotation is waiting for a reply
A contractor's quotation has had no reply. How Contract Status shows the reply date, the 62.6 notice and recording a quotation as deemed accepted.
See the exampleThe payment certificate came in lower than we applied for
A contractor is certified less than applied for. Contract Status shows applied and certified side by side, the certificate details and the next assessment date.
See the exampleTry the role-play
Sit in the commercial seat on an NEC contract, with quotations, assessments and an application due.
Play the scenarioTake a download
Registers for compensation events and more, ready to use on your own contracts.
See the downloadsRead up
The QS on an NEC contract: what changes from traditional measure and value.
Read the guideBring your awkward compensation event
Tell us the situation when you book. We will walk it through on sample data, from notification to the certificate.