Project schedules
A schedule you can hold the contractor to, not just a start date and a promise.
A project schedule is the contractor's written timeline for a capital project: start date, major phases, and the target date for substantial completion, when the work is usable even though minor items remain. Ask for it in writing before work begins, and check it every month against the payments the contractor requests.
What belongs in a written schedule
A schedule names dates, not durations in the abstract. At minimum it should show when work starts, when major phases finish, and the target date for substantial completion: the point at which the project is usable for its intended purpose, even though small items still need to be corrected. That date matters beyond scheduling. It is also when warranties on the work begin.
"[Developed] to establish the date of Substantial Completion for the purpose of commencement of applicable warranties and to allow the Owner to occupy or utilize the Work."
Source: Instructions, G704 Certificate of Substantial Completion, American Institute of Architects
Everything after that date, the touch-ups, the missing hardware, the final cleaning, is not the schedule's finish line. It is a punch list: the list of items the contractor still has to complete or correct once the project is substantially complete.
A schedule of values is a different document
Boards sometimes confuse a project's timeline with its schedule of values, an itemized breakdown of the contract price used to certify progress payments as work is completed.
"Convenient and complete forms on which the contractor can apply for payment and the architect can certify that payment is due."
Source: Instructions, G702 Application and Certificate for Payment, American Institute of Architects
A schedule of values tells you how much of the contract price a phase is worth. It does not tell you when that phase happens. Ask for both documents, and check actual progress against the timeline schedule before approving a payment tied to the schedule of values.
When the schedule slips
Not every late finish is the contractor's fault, and not every late finish is excusable either.
"Excusable delays are unforeseeable and beyond the control of the contractor."
Source: Excusable and Non Excusable Delays, Cohen Seglias Pallas Greenhall and Furman
A delay within the contractor's control, poor sequencing, short staffing, works differently than one outside it, like severe weather. Whether a specific delay counts as excusable, and what remedy follows, is set by the contract your board signed, not by a general rule. See Managing delays for how to evaluate a slipped date once it happens.
Check yourself
Answer before you read the explanation, recalling it is what makes it stick.
Your contractor's payment application shows framing at 60 percent complete on the schedule of values and asks for payment. What should the board check first?
A hurricane shuts down the job site for two weeks and the contractor asks for a two week extension. How would this delay typically be classified?
The project reaches the date on its certificate of substantial completion, but touch-up paint and a missing door handle remain. What does this mean?
Sources
- Instructions, G702 Application and Certificate for Payment, American Institute of Architects
- Instructions, G704 Certificate of Substantial Completion, American Institute of Architects
- Excusable and Non Excusable Delays, Cohen Seglias Pallas Greenhall and Furman
Capital Projects
Next, see how a slipped date turns into a decision the board has to make in Managing delays.
Whether a schedule extension is automatic, what counts as an excusable delay, and what a board can do about a missed date are set by the construction contract itself, whether it is an AIA form, a ConsensusDocs form, or a custom document, not by a uniform industry rule.