DOCUMENTATION

Have you ever been personally involved in a dispute, a legal claim, a divorce, or a fight with the IRS?? You are looking for that notice you were sent, or a copy of the letter you sent to someone else.? Where are those notes you took during that phone call?? What happened to those emails I sent and received?? Been there.? Done that.? You can find every insignificant email and scrap of paper you ever scribbled on, except that ONE CRITICAL thing you need to prove your side of the story.

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My very first large PM project was around $1.7M dollars.? The job went south from the get go.? It became evident the GC was not keeping everyone on schedule.? There were extreme delays.? Letters and emails began to fly.? Later in the job it was evident we were going to be out around $350k and plans started to bring a claim.? When our legal team met with me, their first questions was, “When did you first notify the HVAC contract there was a problem?”? My response was a copy of an email I sent them, “Three weeks after we mobilized the project.”

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Our contract contained attachments that included a project schedule, and my initial email three weeks into the job said, “The schedule shows to date we should have XYZ scope of insulation work released to start on, but it is not ready, and it looks like the schedule is about two months behind.? Do you have a plan on how you are going to recover the schedule?”? That was their first notice.

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Part of critical documentation is that you must notify parties there is a problem, and give them an opportunity to fix it.? You CANNOT wait until the project is almost over and then present them with a bill for money you believe was lost due to their actions or inactions.

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As a general foreman, a superintendent, project engineer, or project manager, YOU have the most intimate knowledge of how your job is going, and if trouble begins, your office and legal team are going to depend on YOUR documentation to prove your side of the story.? YOUR notes, conversations, emails, notifications, RFI’s, T&M sheets, change order requests, etc. are going to be the difference between your company’s ability to recover losses – or not.? So, what documentation do you need to generate, and what do you need to archive?

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THE SCHEDULE – The schedule provided at contract execution is the BIBLE.? It is supposed to lay out the pathways for every contractor to work with each other to get their work installed in a proper manner without any of us delaying the others.? Any changes in that schedule COSTS MONEY.? Track all issues schedule changes, and notify your customer of any impacts.

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EMAILS – There are now email retention laws in all states and federal jurisdictions.? First, DO NOT delete emails that have substantive information about the project.? Second, be aware of that emails can be subpoenaed. BE VERY CAREFUL about what you say in emails.? If you would not want it repeated in an open court, don’t write it!

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MEETING NOTES – Retain all of your meeting notes – yes, you should be taking notes!? Often the GC issues meeting recaps a day or so after progress/scheduling meetings, etc. Review them, report any inaccuracies or corrections.

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RECORDINGS – Check state laws, but most allow recordings of conversations as long as one party to the conversation (you) have knowledge that recording is taking place.? Every phone now has recording ability – use it.? This may include general scheduling meetings, or even one-on-one conversations.

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PICTURES – Remember the saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words”?? These days, a picture may be worth a thousand dollars!? Take pictures.? Lots of pictures.? Lots and lots of pictures.? Of your work.? Of other peoples work.? Of jobsite conditions.? Find some method to document WHERE in the building or onsite the pics are taken.? I used to carry a little pocket notebook and write on a page, “4th Floor”, and hold it up at the bottom of the frame of the pictures I took.? And the digital picture itself is automatically time/date stamped.

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RFI’s, BULLETINS, ADDENDUMS, T&M SHEETS, ETC. – Keep up with all documentation that involves changes to the original bid scope.? Excessive changes may also lead to a conclusion that the project design or scheduling was poor.

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PRODUCTIVITY TRACKING – Most companies have some form of field productivity tracking.? If yours does not, you need it.? In order to win a claim, you have to have documentation that project conditions changed and cost you money, and you have to be able to document those costs in the form of lost production or time.? If you cannot prove your production fell when this or that event happened, you cannot support that it cost you money.? You must have a reasonable methodology to track productivities on a consistent and logical basis that can be compared to your original estimate and/or tied to unusual or chronic events on the jobsite.