Construction operation system
Construction System your construction operation
Within 30 days you open one line and see the work, the billing stages and the material dates together, without asking anyone.
For contractors billing in stages, running several projects at once, often with their own fabrication shop behind them.
What you get
The money moves with the job
Billing stages and retention are pins on the same line as the work, not a separate sheet. Move an install bar three weeks and the billing pin moves in front of you, so nobody has to explain later why next month is short.
Nothing new for the crews to fill in
Around two thirds of what the line needs already exists in your purchase orders, contracts and acceptance files. Subcontracted crews are never asked to touch it, because you cannot instruct them to and they change too often for any training to stick.
One line you can check yourself
What we promise on day 30 is checked against copies of invoices you actually issued. You never have to take our word for it, and if the line is not reached we keep working until it is, at no extra cost.
The problem
None of this is a price problem. It is a things-slipping-through problem.
- Stages the client already accepted, that nobody has billed yet, sitting in a folder
- Retention that passed its release date months ago, with nobody chasing it
- Extra work already done on site, never priced, never claimed
- A schedule that looked good on paper and died in month two
- Software you already pay for, while the report still gets rebuilt by hand
- No way to tell whether a bid was too low, because there is no real cost to compare it against
None of this happens because anyone is careless. It happens because more work passes through than one person can hold in their head, and the pieces live in different places, so lining them up is a job nobody has time to do every week.
The program
BUILD 30 · one project, thirty calendar days
Five steps on real dates. The first week counts what is already yours and agrees the line in the open. The rest of the month builds the timeline and gives it a rhythm that keeps running after we leave.
Baseline signed · days 1 to 3
We open three months of acceptance files and count the stages accepted but not yet billed, plus retention already past its release date. One number, signed by both sides before the first meeting. Everything later is measured against it.
Understanding in the open · day 4
We agree what day 30 has to reach for this to count as passed, and it is announced to the room with the owner present. Agreed before the clock starts, never renegotiated once results are in.
Install the timeline · weeks 1 to 2
Twelve to eighteen bars for the pilot project, from take-off through approvals, purchase release, shop production and install by zone to acceptance. Billing stages and retention sit on the same line as pins. Material dates hang off the bars that need them.
Loop every week · weeks 2 to 4
Two questions a week, asked where people already talk, plus 30 minutes every Tuesday on a fixed three-item agenda. Site answers which zone finished, the shop answers what shipped. No percentages anywhere in the system.
Day 30, checked with evidence
One calendar day, not a window. We check the line against copies of the invoices that actually went out, and hand over the timeline with the two people who have been running it since week two.
Proof, honestly
What we can prove today, and what we cannot
No client case studies here
This program is new and no client has finished it yet, so there is nothing to quote. We would rather write that sentence than dress up somebody else’s number as ours.
A guarantee line you check yourself
The promise is measured against invoices you issued, not against a report we produce. If day 30 does not reach the line, we keep working until it does at no extra cost, with no time limit.
The failure conditions are written first
Two silent weeks raises a flag in the Tuesday meeting. Three means we call it, close the work layer, and keep only the money layer that runs from documents alone. Written down before we start, not explained afterwards.
After day 30
What you are left holding
- One timeline for the pilot project that your own two people update, without us in the room
- A list of every stage accepted but unbilled, and every retention past its release date, kept current from documents
- A weekly rhythm that survives a busy month, because it asks two questions and takes 30 minutes
- Project codes and stage names that costing, stock and shop scheduling can attach to later without a rebuild
- A written line about what is not included yet, so nobody argues about scope on day 30
Resources
Notes on running contract work
The money you earned but never billed
Count two things sitting in your own files: stages the client accepted but nobody invoiced, and retention past its release date.
Read →The plan that died in month two
Construction schedules rarely fail because the plan was wrong. They fail because it was too detailed to keep current.
Read →Variation Work That Never Gets Billed
Extra work done on site rarely fails to get done. It fails to get billed because nobody priced it before the next instruction arrived.
Read →Want to know what the gaps cost you this year?
Book a 45-minute call. We open your acceptance file together and count what has been accepted but never billed. You keep that number whether or not we work together.
Schedule a call