Field noteCompleted project

The work is complete. What is still commercially open?

Physical completion is not commercial closure. After the field is finished, five places in the record still decide whether you can treat the project as closed.

Editorial photograph of a field notebook and closeout checklist on a jobsite table. Not Echelon client work. — Editorial photograph.

Change work

Was extra or revised work directed, performed, logged, priced, and given a disposition? A change that exists only in the field, or only in the log, is still commercially open until those records agree.

T&M support

Time-and-material tickets, signatures, rates, and quantities have to connect to a commercial item. Incomplete T&M support is a documentation gap, not a closed cost.

Billing

Approved value that never reached a pay application, or billed value that does not match the change record, leaves the account open even when the work is done.

Retainage

Retainage is part of the billed account. Reconcile the amount held separately from the closeout conditions that delay its release.

Final balance

Billed, paid, retained, and deducted amounts should reconcile arithmetically. Arithmetic agreement is not commercial closure.

The question

For each material item: is it closed, commercially open, missing support, or a matter for another professional? That is the list you can decide from.

The illustrative management brief is a fictional format for that list.

echelonadvisorygroup.org · Start with one project.