Payment, valuation, variations, retention and the final account. 174 pieces, no sign-up, and no piece that ends in a sales pitch.
It can be, and the difference decides whether your figure becomes the sum they must pay. What a payment application needs, how long you have to send one, and why the wrong day can cost a whole cycle.
Read nowAn advance payment bond is a guarantee that if you take the money and fail, the client gets it back from a bank or surety instead of chasing you. What it costs, how it reduces as the advance is recovered, and the wording that quietly makes it dangerous.
Read nowAnyone who answers with a percentage is guessing about your business with your money. Markup is two numbers wearing one name: overhead recovery, which is arithmetic from your own accounts, and profit, which is a decision. How to work out yours.
Read nowNo. There is no rule of law that finished work earns a discount, and the request usually works only because the builder is tired and the retention is hostage. How to price a concession properly if you choose to make one, and what never to trade away.
Read nowRetention comes back on two triggers your contract names, and it stays stuck for three usual reasons: nobody asked, the triggering certificate never got issued, or the money is quietly funding a different argument. Which one is yours, and the letter for each.
Read nowMore than you fear, less than you want. Starting work on a quote usually makes a contract by conduct, on the terms that were actually agreed; what was never agreed just does not exist, and there is no signature that can be retro-fitted to fill the holes.
Read nowJobs rarely lose their margin in one disaster. They lose it in six quiet places: unbilled extras, free favours, allowances never adjusted, prelims running past the programme, waste, and retention financing. Each has a habit that stops it.
Read nowAlmost certainly yes: the defects period ending did not end your responsibility, it ended a retention mechanism. How long liability really runs, six years on a signed contract, twelve on a deed, and how to respond to the call.
Read nowInstead of the client holding 5% of every payment for two years, a surety guarantees the same protection and you keep the cash. When the swap genuinely pays, what the premium and the counter-indemnity really cost, and the client objections worth taking seriously.
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