Commercial leakage turnaround
Regional M&E contractor with inconsistent notices and weak variation evidence.
12–18%
variation recovery uplift in 90 days
Zero
missed contractual notices once stable
Weekly
recoveries-at-risk review cadence
Before
- Each PM tracks instructions in their own spreadsheet
- Variation evidence rebuilt from emails when accounts queries
- Margin drift visible only at month-end
- Notices missed because there was no shared trigger list
After
- Single instruction log, one source of truth across PMs
- Variation register links every line to evidence + narrative
- Monthly commercial rhythm catches drift in the period it lands
- Notice tracker fires triggers before the contractual window closes
Illustrative narrative - no measured claim attached to either column.
Situation
A regional M&E contractor running 15–25 live projects had no consistent way of tracking instructions, notices or variations across project teams. Each PM kept their own spreadsheet, and variation evidence was rebuilt from emails when accounts queried it.
Margin drift was being noticed at month-end rather than at the point each decision was made - and by then the evidence trail was fragmented.
Discipline installed
Single instruction log, notice tracker and variation register replacing per-PM spreadsheets. Every line carries an owner, a contractual basis, an evidence pointer and a status.
Monthly commercial rhythm - a 60-minute reviewing meeting with a fixed pack template covering open instructions, recoveries banked, recoveries at risk and notice exposure. The pack assembles from the registers automatically.
90-day shift
Variation recovery improvement of 12–18% in the first 90 days (illustrative - outcome depends on baseline discipline).
Zero missed contractual notices recorded after the workflow stabilised; recoveries-at-risk reviewed weekly rather than discovered late.
Governance gate reinforced
Reinforces the evidence-and-narrative non-negotiable: every recovery line carries a documented evidence pointer and a narrative explaining the contractual basis. Reviewable at audit, board and external dispute.
What was installed
Notice tracker, instruction log, variation register, evidence bundle index and monthly commercial rhythm.
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