The Method
The Commercial Control Method™
A practical commercial management system built for growing contractors.
As your contracting business grows, informal commercial processes stop being enough.
The Commercial Control Method™ puts the systems, information, routines and responsibilities in place to give you better control over margin, variations and cash.
Why it exists
Growth creates commercial complexity.
A £500k contractor can often operate successfully with relatively simple systems.
The owner knows most projects personally. Commercial decisions happen quickly. A few spreadsheets may be enough.
At £1m, £2m and beyond, the picture changes.
The problem isn't necessarily the quality of your work. Your commercial systems haven't grown at the same pace as your business. The Commercial Control Method™ is designed to fix that.
The framework
CONTROL
One practical method. Seven areas of commercial control.
01C — Commercial Baseline
Commercial Baseline
Start with the truth.
We establish the current commercial position of every relevant live project.
That means understanding contract value, expected revenue, costs incurred, commitments, outstanding variations, remaining costs and expected final position.
You know where every job actually stands today.
02O — Ongoing Profitability
Ongoing Profitability
Know what the job is going to make—not just what you've spent.
Traditional job costing often tells you what’s already happened.
Commercial control needs to look forward.
We establish a consistent Forecast Final Margin for each live project and track how that position changes.
Margin deterioration becomes visible while there's still time to respond.
03N — Notices & Variations
Notices & Variations
Stop letting legitimate entitlement slip through the cracks.
Variations need a consistent journey:
Each change has a value, status, owner and next action.
You can see what you're owed and what needs doing to recover it.
04T — Treasury & Cash
Treasury & Cash
Profit doesn't pay Friday's wages if the cash isn't there.
We create forward commercial visibility over applications, expected receipts, upcoming project costs and major commitments.
The aim is not to replace your accountant.
It’s to help you understand what project activity means for cash before it becomes urgent.
Fewer commercial cash surprises.
05R — Review Rhythm
Review Rhythm
Good information is useless if nobody reviews it.
We create a repeatable commercial rhythm so the right conversations happen consistently.
Not just when there’s a problem.
The review focuses on five questions:
- What is every job expected to make?
- What’s changed since our last review?
- What are we owed?
- What cash do we need?
- What needs action now?
Commercial decisions become proactive rather than reactive.
06O — Ownership
Ownership
Make commercial control part of the business—not just the owner's job.
We clarify who is responsible for identifying change, updating information, pricing, submitting, forecasting, reviewing and taking action.
Less information trapped in people's heads and less dependence on one person.
07L — Learn & Improve
Learn & Improve
Every completed project should make the next one stronger.
We compare:
- Where did margin move?
- What assumptions were wrong?
- What went well?
- What should change next time?
Real project experience feeds back into estimating and future delivery.
The Five Commercial Questions™
Every commercial review should ultimately answer five questions.
Not when there’s a crisis. Not when somebody remembers. Every week or month—these five questions are central to how the Method operates.
Your accounts tell you what has happened. Forecast Final Margin tells you where the job is heading.
- Original Margin
- Current Position
- Forecast Final Margin
- Movement
- Reason
The dashboard concept
One place to see the commercial position across live projects.
Management should be able to open one commercial view and see where every job stands.
“I think we're doing alright on that job.”
“Forecast margin has dropped from 14% to 8%. Here's why, and here are the three actions we're taking.”
That's commercial control.
Commercial Review
1Portfolio position
- Forecast margin
- £52k
- Variations outstanding
- £54k
- Projects at risk
- 1 of 3
2Project positions
| Project | Forecast revenue | Forecast cost | Forecast margin £ | Forecast margin % | Margin movement | Outstanding variations | Cash status | Risk | Next action |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Project A | £202k | £169k | £33k | 16.3% | −1.7 pp | £14k | Good | Green | Agree outstanding variation |
| Project B | £322k | £301k | £21k | 6.5% | −2.5 pp | £31k | Watch | Amber | Confirm supplier commitments |
| Project C | £129k | £131k | −£2k | −1.6% | −4.6 pp | £9k | Watch | Red | Review remaining costs |
3Needs action now
Project C forecast margin is below zero. Review remaining costs and pursue outstanding variations.
Implementation
One Method. Two levels of implementation support.
Your team implements it with our guidance, or our Chartered QS team leads the implementation with your team.