Additional work on the construction site – how not to lose money on changes during execution

The estimate is ready, the offer has been accepted, the work has started. Everything seems well planned. Yet a construction project rarely goes exactly the way it was assumed at the very beginning.

During execution, new needs appear, the design changes, there are additional arrangements with the investor or situations that could not have been foreseen earlier. Sometimes a single conversation on site is enough for the scope of work to grow.

The problem is that additional tasks mean not only more work, but often additional costs as well.

A small change, a big impact on the budget

Let’s imagine the investor asks for additional alterations or for another element to be completed. The site manager passes the information to the crew, the workers do the job and the construction site carries on.

But were the additional works priced? Were the required materials and working time included? Were the arrangements recorded?

If the information stays in phone calls, messages and private notes, then at project settlement it may turn out that it is hard to reconstruct the actual scope of work performed. That is the first step towards a situation where a lack of control over additional costs reduces the profit of the whole company.

What is worth remembering?

For every change in the scope of work, it is worth making sure of a few basic details:

• what exactly was changed or added,
• who reported the change and who approved it,
• what additional materials and man-hours will be needed,
• whether the change will affect the completion date,
• whether the additional works were properly priced and agreed.

It is also worth documenting the arrangements as they happen, instead of reconstructing them only after the project is over.

Cost control starts on the construction site

Even small changes, if they appear repeatedly, can affect the final financial result of the job. That is why it is so important to collect information about completed work, used materials and the team’s working time on an ongoing basis.

Contractors.es helps to organize the information about job execution and costs, which makes it easier to control the progress of the project both in the office and on site. It is a way to see the real project result in real time, not only after it is over.

Because well-done work is one thing. Equally important is that all the costs incurred are reflected in the final settlement.