Make sure to allow for inflation in cost estimates.
Particularly allow for large increases in raw material costs (e.g. stainless steel, copper).

This is important in the tender preparation process. You don’t want to offer a fixed price and find that your material costs go up dramatically.

It is common to put a clause in your contract/offer conditions that allow for price increases on certain parts of your work if the material costs increase above a set percentage.

Tagged with: conditions • Cost • estimate • inflation • materials • Tender

Filed under: Contract • Cost • Tender

Be careful of scope creep.

Scope creep is where small additions or changes add up to contribute a larger and larger change in the scope of the project, often affecting delivery time and costs.

A few lessons I learnt:

• If scope is changed or more is asked for, submit variations before proceeding.

• If scope is changed you should ask for more money and more time.

• Always be aware that the time to completion may change with a changed scope.

• Even small additions add up to enough to increase the time to completion.

• Make sure to get written approval from the client before additions, variations, or scope change.

Tagged with: Cost • Scope • Time • variations

Filed under: Scope