Verifying subcontractor progress
Last reviewed 9 September 20261,898 words9 min read
When their 80% is your 55%
🟩 In one line: A subcontractor's percent is a payment claim, not a progress measurement — verify it against your own rule of credit, your own quantity sheet and the inspection records, walk the area jointly before the data date, and put the reconciled figure in P6 with the difference explained in writing.
👤 Who this is for: J/M. You should have read the two pages before this one. Seniors: the subcontract clause section is worth checking against your own documents.
First, let's be honest about why this page exists
Subcontractors overstate progress. Not always dishonestly — their payment cycle rewards it, their supervisor genuinely believes the work is nearly done, and their percent usually counts material on site and work started. Main contractor planners who accept the figure unverified end up with an S-curve that runs ahead of reality until the last 20% of the package, which then takes 40% of the time.
The verification is not confrontational if it is routine. Same walk, same sheet, same rule, every month, agreed in the subcontract before anyone has a number to defend.
🟨 The standard — what "good" looks like
| Source | What it says (paraphrased) |
|---|---|
| FIDIC 1999 Cl 4.4 / 2017 Cl 5.1 (Subcontractors) | The Contractor is responsible for the acts of subcontractors as if its own; the main programme must therefore reflect verified, not reported, subcontract progress. |
| FIDIC Conditions of Subcontract for Construction (2011) | Subcontractor to submit a programme consistent with the Main Contract programme and progress reports in the form the Contractor requires (check against your copy). |
| NEC4 ECC Cl 26 / NEC4 Engineering and Construction Subcontract | Subcontract conditions to be back-to-back on programme and progress requirements; the Contractor's Accepted Programme must reflect subcontract operations. |
| SCL Protocol, 2nd ed. — Part B, records | Progress records should be agreed contemporaneously between the parties where possible; agreed records carry far more weight than one party's. |
| ANSI/EIA-748 — earned value techniques | The same measurement method applies to subcontracted work as to self-performed; subcontractor-reported progress should be validated. |
| DCMA 14-Point — Metric 9 (Invalid Dates) | Subcontractor updates frequently arrive with actual dates in the future or planned dates in the past; both must be corrected before merging. |
🟢 Rule: rule of credit in the subcontract, joint walk before every data date, your quantity sheet as the record, and the reconciliation table in the update file — every month, every package.
How it actually works
1. Set it up before the first update.
| Item | Where it lives | What it says |
|---|---|---|
| Rule of credit per activity type | Subcontract, progress-measurement appendix | Same steps and weights as the main programme SBM; attach the P6 step templates |
| Definition of "installed" | Same appendix | In place and inspection-requested (or accepted, per trade); material on site excluded |
| Progress submission format | Same appendix | Quantity sheet in the Contractor's template, plus XER if they run P6, by the 22nd for a 25th data date |
| Joint progress walk | Same appendix | Contractor's planner and section engineer with subcontractor's supervisor, week of the data date; walk sheet signed by both |
| Payment linkage | Payment clause | Interim payment for an activity based on the reconciled percent, not the applied percent |
2. The monthly reconciliation.
| Step | What you do |
|---|---|
| 1 | Receive their sheet and, if applicable, their XER. XER into the sandbox database; never the production one. |
| 2 | Compare their installed quantities with the inspection register. Quantity with no IR is "started", not installed. |
| 3 | Joint walk. Count what can be counted: panels hung, walls built, risers in. Photograph disputed areas with date stamp. |
| 4 | Apply your rule of credit to the agreed quantities. This gives your percent. |
| 5 | Table the difference: their %, your %, reason (material on site, started not complete, no IR, different weights). |
| 6 | Enter your percent in P6 and your remaining durations, not theirs. |
| 7 | Send the reconciliation table with the walk sheet. Their commercial team will argue; the planner's number stands until the rule of credit is shown to have been misapplied. |
3. Their XER. Useful for logic and remaining durations; unreliable for percent. In the sandbox, check Actual dates against the data date (Metric 9), check whether they've progressed everything to 5% "to show a start", and compare their remaining durations to your rate-based ones. Do not merge their file into yours; take the verified actual dates and remaining durations across manually or via a controlled import to a Reflection first. See subcontractor-schedule-integration.
4. The patterns.
| What you see | What it usually means |
|---|---|
| Every activity in the package at 5–10% | Mobilisation claimed as progress; none of it has an IR |
| Percent tracks the planned curve within 2% for six months | They are reporting the plan, not the site |
| Last 15% takes three months | Earlier percents included uninspected and incomplete work |
| Remaining durations unchanged from baseline while percent is behind | Nobody has re-forecast; the finish date is fiction |
| Actual finish dates a week after the data date | Optimism entered as fact |
5. Their remaining durations. Ask for them; don't accept them. Check each against remaining quantity ÷ achieved rate. A subcontractor at 55% with 40% of duration used and the same crew is not going to finish in the original time. The forecast belongs to you.
📜 What the subcontract should say
Three clauses do most of the work: the progress-measurement appendix (rules, definitions, format, walk), a programme clause requiring their programme to be consistent with the main programme and updated on the same data date, and a payment clause tying interim payment to the reconciled percent. Without the third, the reconciliation is advisory and the subcontractor will keep applying at 80%. Under FIDIC 1999 Cl 14.3 / 2017 Cl 14.3 the main contractor's Statement to the Engineer must be for work executed; you cannot certify upward to the Employer what you have verified downward to the subcontractor. Under NEC, back-to-back subcontracts (Cl 26.3 requires the Project Manager's acceptance of subcontract conditions in some options — verify per option) make the same alignment easier to enforce.
🟥 Where people go wrong
- Taking their percent into P6. The main programme now reports a number the main contractor cannot substantiate. Verify first, always.
- No rule of credit in the subcontract. You have nothing to reconcile against; every month is a negotiation from zero.
- Skipping the walk when the numbers look fine. The numbers look fine because nobody walked. The walk is what keeps them honest.
- Merging their XER into production. Their calendars, codes and out-of-sequence actuals are now yours. Sandbox, then manual transfer.
- Accepting "started" as installed. Brackets on the wall with no panels is a started activity. The rule earns the bracket step, not more.
- Letting commercial settle it without the planner. The QS agrees 70% to keep the peace; the schedule now has to carry that number and the S-curve lies forever.
- Reconciling only the packages in dispute. Every package, every month. The ones nobody checks are the ones that surprise you.
⚖️ When you're challenged
"We've applied 80%. Your programme says 55%. Pay us on 80%." The subcontract measures by step: bracket 20, panel 50, seal 30. Joint walk on the 23rd counted brackets on all 120 units, panels on 70, seals on 30. That is 55.5%. Your 80% counts the panels on site and the seals started. The walk sheet is signed by your supervisor. Payment is on 55.5% per clause 14 of the subcontract.
"Your planner is holding up our payment." The planner is applying the measurement rule in the subcontract. If the rule is being misapplied, show me which step is earned that I haven't credited. If the rule itself is wrong, that's a commercial conversation — but the rule doesn't change mid-month.
"We'll finish on time, don't worry about the remaining duration." Remaining quantity is 1,400 m², your average over the last three periods is 45 m²/day, that's 31 working days; the baseline shows 18. If a second crew is coming, tell me the date and I'll re-forecast with it. Until then the schedule shows 31.
📄 Related pages
- Progress measurement and rules of credit — the rule that makes reconciliation possible.
- Quantity tracking and physical progress — the sheet you reconcile against.
- Subcontractor and Interface Integration — their XER into your database safely.
- Forecasting honestly — why their remaining durations are yours to set.
- Cleaning an XER Before Import — sandbox first.
- Statusing a schedule — where the verified figure is entered.
- Notice Requirements and Records — the walk sheet as a record.
✏️ Worked example
A hotel in Doha, unitised façade package, 620 panels across east and south elevations. Rule of credit per panel: bracket fixed 20%, panel installed 50%, sealed and inspected 30%. Update 08, data date 25 June 2025.
Subcontractor's application: 78% — based on 484 panels "complete or in progress" ÷ 620, with 60 panels delivered and staged counted as started.
Joint walk 23 June:
| Elevation | Panels total | Brackets fixed | Panels installed | Sealed and IR'd |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| East | 340 | 340 | 310 | 250 |
| South | 280 | 280 | 150 | 60 |
| Total | 620 | 620 | 460 | 310 |
Contractor's percent: (620 × 0.20 + 460 × 0.50 + 310 × 0.30) ÷ 620 = (124 + 230 + 93) ÷ 620 = 72.1%.
Reconciliation table sent 24 June:
| Item | Their basis | Ours | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Staged panels (60) | Counted as started | Not installed | −4.8% |
| Panels installed, not sealed (150) | Counted complete | Panel step only | −7.3% |
| Weighting | Linear by count | By step weight | +6.2% (our method credits brackets they ignored) |
| Net | 78% | 72.1% | −5.9% |
Remaining duration: 160 panels to install at an achieved rate of 6.8 panels/day (last three periods) = 24 working days; 310 panels to seal at 11/day = 28 days, overlapping. Remaining duration set to 30 days against a baseline remaining of 20. Façade path float fell from +4 to −6; recorded in the narrative with the reconciliation table attached and the subcontractor's proposed second sealing crew noted as unconfirmed.
Payment certified on 72.1%. The subcontractor's second crew arrived the following week.
📖 References
- FIDIC Conditions of Contract for Construction, 1999 — Cl 4.4, 14.3; 2017 — Cl 5.1, 14.3 (check the edition in your contract).
- FIDIC Conditions of Subcontract for Construction (2011) — programme and progress clauses (check against your copy).
- NEC4 ECC — Cl 26; NEC4 Engineering and Construction Subcontract (check against your copy).
- Society of Construction Law, Delay and Disruption Protocol, 2nd ed. (2017) — Part B, records.
- ANSI/EIA-748 — earned value techniques (check against your copy).
- DCMA 14-Point Schedule Assessment — Metric 9.
- Oracle Primavera P6 Professional User Guide — Import; Reflections; Percent Complete Types.
From the field
Experience from working planners. Unreviewed — read it as experience, not guidance.
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