Your subcontract has shorter clocks. Your software should know that
Under the NEC4 Engineering and Construction Subcontract you have seven weeks to notify, not eight. Your Contractor takes four weeks to reply to a quotation, and you get two to write one. It is easy to work to the wrong number, especially when the main contract is on the wall.
Two clocks, and you only control one
A subcontractor sits between the site, where things happen, and a Contractor who has their own notice to give upstream. If you tell them late, they may lose their entitlement, and they will say so. If they do not tell you what the Project Manager has decided, you can be working to a date that has already moved.
You also have less time and fewer people than the Contractor. There is rarely a commercial team to keep a tracker going. The notices still have to go, separately, on time, and in a form the contract accepts.
When your Contractor runs the subcontract on Contract Status, you and they work on the same record. You see what is waiting on you, what is waiting on them and how long has passed, without asking.
A day with NEC, without it and with it
| When | Without it | With Contract Status |
|---|---|---|
| On site | The main contractor tells you to wait for another trade. Nobody gives you anything in writing. You note it in a site diary. | You add the compensation event from a phone, the same day, and record when you became aware. |
| At the office | You spend the evening writing letters from an old template, and wonder which clause number to use. | The clause comes from the list on the form, and the letter is ready as a PDF once it is submitted. |
| Two weeks later | You send a third e-mail asking whether anyone has looked at your notification. | The Contractor's two weeks to reply are on their Action List and on yours, with an overdue flag when it passes. |
| Month end | You guess at the assessment date and send your application on what you think is the right day. | A countdown shows the next date. Implemented events appear on the form. |
| Later on | The site team moves on and the file is three people's inboxes. | Every step stays on the record, ready if the final account or a dispute needs it. |
What the subcontract asks of you
From the NEC4 ECS unless stated. Other subcontract forms differ, and your Subcontract Data and Z clauses can change these, so each contract can hold its own periods.
61.3: seven weeks to notify
One week shorter than the main contract. The form records when you became aware, so the limit for your form can be checked. On the NEC4 short subcontract the limit is three weeks.
62.3: two weeks to quote
Your quotation has two weeks from the instruction, then the Contractor has four to reply. Both dates are on the record.
61.4: their reply to you
The Contractor has two weeks to reply to your notification, or longer if you agree. Where the form allows it, you can give notice that a reply is late, and the record counts down the time that follows.
31.3: the programme
The Contractor has three weeks to accept your programme or give reasons. If they stay silent, the record can show the steps your form allows.
Early warnings
Warn your Contractor as soon as you know. A dated entry shows you warned, and when. Our early warnings guide for subcontractors covers what to watch for.
Payments
Periods for application and payment come from your subcontract. Applications go on one record, with files, and the amounts are kept together.
NEC3 subcontracts differ again: the app holds the right periods for the form that is recorded.
Built for a small team
- Your drafts are yours. A draft, and its files, stay within your company until you submit. The Contractor sees a greyed line, not the content.
- Help next to the term. A "What's this?" explains each NEC or app term, in plain English.
- The right words. On a recorded subcontract, the pages say Contractor and Subcontractor, not Client and Contractor.
- Your e-mails, your choice. Turn e-mails off by record type or contract. Everything is still on the Action List.
- Short subcontracts too. NEC3 and NEC4 Engineering and Construction Short Subcontracts, and the NEC4 Professional Service Subcontract, have their own rules, not an ECC pretending to be them.
It cannot make a late notice on time, and it will not tell you whether your claim is good. It will show you the date, and keep what you sent.
See it, try it, read up
A subcontractor's notice that affects the main contract
How a contractor running subcontracts in Contract Status records a subcontractor's early warning, and what it still has to pass up to the main contract.
See the exampleThe Project Manager has rejected my compensation event
A contractor's notification is rejected. Contract Status keeps the decision, the reason and the dates on the record, ready for the next conversation.
See the exampleAn instruction came with no compensation event
The Project Manager gives an instruction and notifies no compensation event. How the contractor picks it up in Contract Status and notifies it.
See the exampleSee the subcontract view
Tell us the form you are on and whether your Contractor uses the system. We will show what you would see.