RESOURCES/PRICING & CONTRACTS Engaging and Managing Subcontractors: Packages, Back-to-Back Terms and Paying Down the Chain The moment a civil contractor stops doing all the work itself, the job changes from a production problem into a procurement problem. Most of the money is now lost in the gaps between packages, in terms that do not match … Read more
RESOURCES/PRICING & CONTRACTS Bank Guarantees, Insurance Bonds and Retention: Contract Security in Civil Construction Security is the word civil contracts use for three different things, and the one that matters most is the one nobody explains: an unconditional undertaking a principal can convert to cash without proving anything. What the instruments are, what they really … Read more
RESOURCES/PRICING & CONTRACTS The Road Transport Contractual Chain Order: What It Means for Civil Contractors Who Engage Cartage In April 2026 the Fair Work Commission made an order that can require a business engaging cartage to pay its haulage providers more than the contract says. Construction businesses are squarely among the parties it reaches. Its … Read more
RESOURCES/PRICING & CONTRACTS Plant and Equipment Finance: The Decision That Is Not About the Machine How you fund an excavator decides three things that have nothing to do with digging: how your balance sheet reads to a prequalification assessor, whether you can still fund working capital on the next big win, and what happens to … Read more
RESOURCES/PRICING & CONTRACTS Job Costing and Cost Control: Knowing You Are Losing Money Before the Job Ends The estimate is a forecast made once. The cost report is a forecast you remake every month, and the gap between them is the only early warning system a civil contractor has. Most SMEs find out how a … Read more
RESOURCES/PRICING & CONTRACTS Plant Hire Agreements: Wet Hire, Dry Hire and the Docket Nobody Reads Hired plant is often the second largest cost line on a civil job, and its commercial terms are usually set by a delivery docket signed by an operator at 6am. Wet or dry changes who insures the machine, who carries … Read more
RESOURCES/PRICING & CONTRACTS Awards, Enterprise Agreements and Labour Rates in Civil Tenders Two contractors price the same council job. One is materially dearer on labour before either has decided a margin. Neither has made an error — they sit under different industrial instruments, and most civil SMEs have never checked which one binds them. Awards, … Read more
RESOURCES/PRICING & CONTRACTS Materials Supply Agreements: Quarries, Concrete and the Prices That Move Under Your Bid A supplier quotation is an offer with an expiry date. A fixed-price civil contract is a commitment without one. How materials supply agreements are priced and secured across quarry products, concrete, asphalt and steel, why freight moves the delivered … Read more
RESOURCES/PRICING & CONTRACTS Term Maintenance Contracts: Winning and Pricing Recurring Civil Works One contract, three economies: routine work paid by the month, callouts paid off a schedule of rates, and quoted minor works — priced once, then locked in for years. Term maintenance contracts are won on depots, response capability and resourcing as much as … Read more
RESOURCES/PRICING & COMMERCIAL TERMS Cash Flow on Civil Construction Contracts: Funding the Job, the Claim Cycle and the Retention Drag Profitable civil contractors fail more often than unprofitable ones grow. The reason is almost always the same — the work is won, the margin is real, and the money arrives six to ten weeks after … Read more
RESOURCES/PRICING & CONTRACTS Rise and Fall: Cost Escalation Clauses in Australian Civil Contracts A three-year maintenance panel at fixed rates is a bet on input prices that most civil SMEs make without noticing they are making it. What a rise and fall clause does, which indices Australian contracts use, how the formula and thresholds work, … Read more
RESOURCES/PRICING & CONTRACTS Bills of Quantities, Provisional Sums and PC Sums Explained Four mechanisms sit inside a civil pricing schedule — measured items, provisional quantities, provisional sums and prime cost sums — and they look almost identical on the page. They behave completely differently when the work is done, the adjustment is made and your … Read more