Practical Commercial Control

Most project disasters don't begin as disasters.

They begin as small commercial problems nobody deals with properly. Learn how to spot trouble early, keep control of money and changes, and prevent an ordinary disagreement becoming an expensive dispute.

See the course

Commercial Control Before Things Go Wrong

A practical course for contractors, developers, project owners and managers who need enough commercial knowledge to recognise danger before it becomes expensive.

You do not need to become a quantity surveyor or contract lawyer. You do need to know what must be controlled, which questions to ask, and when something is starting to go wrong.

A variation is not recorded. A programme slips. Someone gives a verbal instruction. The forecast is not updated. Everybody agrees they will sort it out later.

Six months later the project is late, the budget is wrong and everyone has a different version of what happened.

This course is designed to stop that sequence early.

What you'll learn

MODULE 01

Know where you really stand

Understand the difference between a spreadsheet and genuine commercial control.

  • Original budget
  • Approved changes
  • Committed costs
  • Actual costs
  • Forecast cost to complete
  • Commercial exposure
MODULE 02

Get the agreement clear

Most disputes start long before anybody calls them a dispute.

  • Scope
  • Exclusions
  • Responsibilities
  • Assumptions
  • Price
  • Timing and risk
MODULE 03

Build a budget that can survive reality

Learn how to recognise when the original budget is no longer credible.

  • Estimates
  • Allowances
  • Contingencies
  • Procurement
  • Cash flow
  • Forecasting
MODULE 04

Spot trouble early

The earlier a problem is seen, the more choices you normally have.

  • Programme slippage
  • Unexplained overspend
  • Missing information
  • Repeated changes
  • Delayed decisions
  • Rising claims
MODULE 05

Control changes

Projects change. Uncontrolled changes create commercial damage.

  • What changed?
  • Who requested it?
  • What will it cost?
  • What does it do to time?
  • Who approved it?
  • Where is it recorded?
MODULE 06

Keep the records you'll wish you had

Good records are not aggressive. They are memory.

  • Instructions
  • Decisions
  • Programme changes
  • Variations
  • Approvals
  • Meeting and cost records
MODULE 07

Understand claims before you have one

Learn how ordinary project problems eventually become formal claims.

  • Cause
  • Effect
  • Entitlement
  • Time
  • Cost
  • Evidence and notice
MODULE 08

Keep disagreements from becoming wars

Not every disagreement needs to become arbitration or litigation.

  • Separate facts from positions
  • Identify the real commercial issue
  • Know what evidence exists
  • Understand exposure
  • Know when outside help is required
MODULE 09

Run a Commercial Reality Check

Use a simple monthly discipline to stop unpleasant surprises.

  • Where are we on time?
  • Where are we on money?
  • What has changed?
  • What remains unresolved?
  • What could hurt us next?

Built from real projects, not textbooks

Garth Gaenssler has spent decades working with contractors, developers, consultants and commercial teams on projects in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

His experience includes major construction and infrastructure projects, claims, dispute resolution, commercial management and the establishment and management of project commercial teams.

The most useful lessons often come from seeing what went wrong. This course is about learning those lessons before you have to learn them the expensive way.

Practical tools included

Project Commercial Health Check
Monthly Commercial Reality Check
Variation Register
Decision & Instruction Log
Cost-to-Complete Checklist
Claims Warning Checklist
Project Risk Checklist
Pre-Commitment Review
Commercial Close-Out Checklist

Who this is for

Contractors
especially businesses without a large commercial department.
Property developers
who are committing substantial amounts to projects.
Project owners
who need to understand what their professional teams are telling them.
Managers
responsible for project cost, programme, subcontractors or risk.
Business owners
for whom one badly managed project can damage the whole business.
Emerging developers
who need commercial discipline before committing serious capital.

Learn to see the problem while it is still small.

You do not need to know everything a quantity surveyor, lawyer or project manager knows. But if it is your money or your business at risk, you should know enough to recognise when something is not right.

Join Commercial Control Before Things Go Wrong

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