Construction Project Review
The work is complete.
Is the project closed?
Independent review of completed and closing projects. Echelon reconciles the project, commercial, and financial records so you can see what is closed, unresolved, missing, or awaiting a decision.
Primarily for specialty trade contractors and subcontractors. Start with one project.
The records
The job is not in one file.
The crew has moved on. Accounting has a balance. The change-order log has its own history. Email, extra-work direction, T&M tickets, proposals, pay applications, invoices, job-cost, and closeout records can disagree. Echelon reads them against each other.
The review uses the records you already keep. You provide the context and the files, through a transfer method agreed before anything is sent. A finding goes only as far as those records support.
Work performed
Field direction, T&M tickets, extra work, revised scope, and the other evidence of what happened.
Commercial treatment
What was priced, submitted, revised, approved, rejected, negotiated, or left open.
Financial outcome
What reached the pay application, the invoice, retainage, backcharges, and the final balance.
The break is the finding. The work can be finished while the commercial treatment, or the money, is still open.
Scope
The whole project, the changes, or the final account.
Completed Project Review
A second look at one finished or closing project when you are not confident the final account is complete.
Project reviewChange Order Review
Trace each change from the field through pricing, disposition, billing, and payment.
Change ordersRetainage & Closeout Review
Reconcile the final account, retainage still held, deductions, closeout items, and the remaining balance.
Retainage & closeoutEngagement
How a review starts and ends.
Project snapshot
The job, the approximate completion date, what looks open, and where the records are.
Scope
If the project fits, Echelon sets the scope and the fee before the review starts.
Records transfer
Records move through a transfer method you and Echelon agree first.
Reconciliation
Material items are traced across the project, commercial, and financial records.
Brief
You get what is closed, what is open, what is missing, and what should be referred.
Boundary
Every conclusion should be traceable to the record.
Echelon is not your lawyer, CPA, engineer, or claims consultant. Legal, engineering, accounting, schedule, and claims questions are marked and left with that professional.
Field Notes
Open items after the work is done.
What is still commercially open?
Change work, T&M support, billing, retainage, and the final balance.
Read field noteUnbilled change work
How performed work drops out between the field, the change log, and billing.
Read field noteConstruction retainage
What to reconcile when the work is done and final money is still out.
Read field noteIf items remain open
A later look at the open items.
Some items remain unresolved after a review because later records can still change their documentary status. Echelon can re-read a defined set of those items on an agreed later cycle against records received since the prior cutoff.
You keep the register and make the decisions. The scope, cutoff, and fee are set before each cycle. When there is no useful commercial record left to review, Echelon will not propose another cycle.
Open-item reviewQuestions
Do we need to know exactly what is missing before contacting Echelon?
No. Start with a completed or closing project when you are not confident the final account tells the whole story.
Does Echelon replace our attorney, CPA, engineer, claims consultant, or project team?
No. Echelon reconstructs and reconciles the records. Legal, accounting, engineering, schedule, damages, and claims judgments stay with those professionals.
Do we need to buy or implement software?
No. The review uses the records you already have.
Can Echelon review open items again later?
Yes. After an Echelon review, Echelon can re-read a defined set of open items on an agreed cycle against records received since the prior cutoff. Open-Item Review is a separate engagement with its own scope and fee. It does not include continuous review, deadline tracking, or management of your commercial process.
Can we start with one project?
Yes. That is the first engagement.
Start With One Project
Start with one completed or closing project.
Project type, approximate completion date, what may still be unresolved, and where the records are. Echelon will say whether the project is a fit for a review.
joel@echelonadvisorygroup.org