The Commercial Control Playbook: Payments, Variations and Approvals Done Right
A practical guide for Commercial Directors, QS Directors and senior commercial teams at UK main contractors. Learn how to prevent margin leakage through better payment processes, variation management and approval workflows.
- Payment applications: Getting every penny you are owed
- Final account strategy: Recovering what you are owed at settlement
- Variations: How contractors lose money they were entitled to
- Approval workflows: When bottlenecks become business risk
- The audit trail: Why documentation wins or loses disputes
Commercial Leader's Guide
The Commercial Control Playbook
Why It Matters
Poor commercial control destroys between 3% and 7% of project value
The problem isn't skill or effort. It's that the processes used to manage commercial workloads were designed for smaller operations and have never been systematically updated as volumes grew.
Payment applications managed in spreadsheets. Pay less notices tracked in personal calendars. Variations agreed on site and chased up weeks later. Approval chains running through email threads with no single record.
This guide covers the three areas where commercial control most commonly fails: payments, variations and approvals.
What's Covered
The guide covers seven critical areas of commercial control that directly impact project margins:
Payment Applications
Getting every penny you are owed
Final Account Strategy
Recovering what you're owed at settlement
Cash Flow Forecasting
Why the numbers diverge from reality
Subcontractor Over-claiming
Building an assessment process that catches it
Variations
How contractors lose money they were entitled to
Approval Workflows
When bottlenecks become business risk
The Audit Trail
Why documentation wins or loses disputes
"The contractors who navigate final account successfully are not the ones with the most aggressive commercial team. They are the ones who have been building their final account position throughout the project rather than assembling it at the end."
From the guide
Related Reading
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The Platform
Commercial Control, Built Into Your Workflow
StoneRise is purpose-built for UK construction contractors. Commercial management, procurement, approvals and more in one platform.