What the assessor is actually doing
The person on the other side has a short window and a contract to apply. They work through the application looking for figures that are not supported, work that is not in place, and items that belong somewhere else. Anything they cannot trace is the first candidate for reduction, because reducing it costs them nothing and defending it costs you time.
This is not bad faith. An assessor who certifies a figure they cannot explain is the one carrying the risk, so they take the safe number. Your job is to leave them no safe number below yours.
Measure first, price second
A percentage of an elemental total is an opinion. A measured quantity priced at a contract rate is a position. The two look similar on a summary sheet and behave completely differently once somebody starts checking.
Measure what is in place at the valuation date, against the same breakdown the contract was priced on. Where the breakdown is coarse, agree a more detailed one early, while nobody has an interest in the answer.
Variations belong in the application
Variations held back until the end are valued by a party who already has the work and no longer needs your goodwill. Price change as it happens and put it in the next application, with the instruction and the clause attached.
Where the value is genuinely open, apply for what the evidence supports and say what is still being agreed. An item marked as under discussion is far harder to strike out than one that simply appears at the end.
Materials and dates carry their own rules
Materials on site and materials off site are treated differently, and off site usually needs conditions met before anything is due. Vesting, insurance and identification are not paperwork for its own sake, they are what makes the claim stand up.
Payment notices and pay less notices run to dates fixed by the contract. A sound claim served late is worth less than a modest one served on time, and no amount of measurement repairs a missed date.
What this means for you
Build the application from a record you keep during the month rather than assembling one at the end of it. Measure, attach, date, and keep the same format every cycle so the assessor learns where to look.
Reltic prepares applications on that basis for main contractors and subcontractors, with the measurement and backup in the form the other side will check.
Send us last month's application
We will tell you where it is open to reduction and what the record needs to look like next cycle.