Contract administration

1. Start-up

• Kick-off meeting: introduction of each party's managers, communication channels, schedule and procedures.
• Start-up documentation: signed contract, guarantees, insurance policies, ART (workers' compensation) and personnel roster, registration in the operator's vendor registry, vehicle and equipment approval.
• Safety inductions and site entry permits.
• Start-up record with the date from which the term runs.

2. During execution

• Daily reports signed by both parties: personnel, equipment, hours worked, progress, standby and interferences.
• Service order book (from the client to the contractor) and request note book (from the contractor to the client), numbered.
• Periodic progress meetings with written minutes.
• Tracking of indicators (KPIs): progress against plan, incidents, quality compliance.

3. Certification and invoicing

Each month (or each milestone) the work performed is measured and the certificate is issued: quantities per item × unit price, plus the price adjustment, minus advance payment and retainage. With the certificate approved by the client, the contractor invoices.

• Joint measurement, with criteria defined in the tender documents.
• Separate adjustment certificate, with the indices used.
• Approval deadlines: how many days the client has to approve or object.

4. Change orders and extras

• No work outside the scope is performed without a written change order approved by someone with the authority to do so.
• The change order must state what is being done, what it costs (or which contract prices it is paid at) and how it affects the schedule.
• Unforeseen events (interferences, different ground conditions, client delays) are notified at the time by request note, even if the financial claim is filed later.

5. Claims, penalties and performance

• Claims have deadlines: the contract usually sets how many days there are to file them after the event. Once that period has passed, they are lost.
• Penalties are applied as agreed and are capped; they must be notified and justified.
• The supplier's performance evaluation at the end of each contract feeds the operator's registry for future tenders.

6. Closeout

• Provisional acceptance (with a punch list) and final acceptance after the warranty period.
• Final certificate and reconciliation of quantities, adjustments and extras.
• Delivery of final documentation: quality dossier, as-built drawings, manuals.
• Return of retainage and guarantees.
• Closeout record with no pending claims (or with the pending items listed).