Why You Need Contract Admin

So what exactly is contract administration? 

It’s all the documentation involved to run the project from start to finish… the tender documents, drawings, specifications, contract, subcontract agreements, correspondence, photos, site diaries, health & safety information and records, construction programme etc… you get the gist…

And why do we need it?

Firstly, it’s our legal records of what happened during the construction period, and helps us prove Extension of Time (EOT) claims.

Secondly, it makes our life easier to manage the project, no matter how big or small our role is… although only if we keep proper records, and in my 30+ years experience as a QS and Project Manager, contractor, consultant and client side, very rarely does a project have a great system and good records, even more so since we’ve gone digital!  Which in itself is a sad case of affairs… we have the tools, and most don’t know how to use them… so that’s what this lesson is all about! ?

When I started out, everything was on paper, and filed in Lever Arch Files (and all in black with white labels and no colour coding – because coloured level arch files were rare and expensive.).

As a QS Cadet, documentation control was one of my first roles on site… checking all the updated drawings were clouded with the changes, stamping them as received, checking the contract and subcontracts were signed on every page and recording all the changes in a Lotus 123 spreadsheet on a 186 PC because this was before Microsoft Office existed!

Our site diaries were detailed, our programmes tracked into before and after lunch, or hourly depending on the project.

So where does that lead us to all these years later… systems seem to have disappeared, although it’s more likely that the training of how to use them efficiently has been lost through the decades with the advent of technology.

Aconex made its way into NZ in 2003, I was lucky enough to be one of the first to trial the beta version and I liked it; however, it needed a bit of work.  Several years later I used it again whilst I was a Facilities PM, and again more recently… and the difference over the 10-year gaps in between is that the setup in the middle was the best… so again how to use it efficiently and setting up the controls properly being lost in the rush to get the project underway.  The same applies to ProCore which many of our clients use… I’ve seen so many setups, and none of them are working efficiently, so this paper is about what you need, why and how to set your system up so you get the best out of it, especially if your project ends up in litigation.