The subcontractor's schedule submission: what it shows and what it states
The subcontractor is asked to submit a programme by Friday. An old tender bar chart is available, but the current work areas and access arrangements differ. The estimator’s hours and the foreman’s intended crew do not yet describe the same plan.
Submit a schedule that explains how your trade intends to deliver its scope and what it needs from others. Connect activities, quantities, durations, crew demand, submittals and deliveries, then state the assumptions in a cover note. Check the current subcontract’s submission requirements before issuing it. A schedule is more useful when another reader can test the work and dependencies behind its dates, rather than simply seeing when you hope to arrive.
Build a submission that exposes the conditions
- Confirm scope and submission requirements. Identify the current package, information basis and required format or review process. Record qualifications and unresolved changes so an old tender programme is not silently presented as the current delivery commitment.
- Break the work into usable activities. Separate areas, significant operations, required checks and return visits. Give activities names that describe a result, and keep the work split consistent with how the general contractor will release areas.
- Check quantities, hours and crews together. Have estimating and the foreman compare the planned output with available crew capacity. Explain differences from the estimate’s work assumptions rather than compressing a duration until it matches a requested date.
- Name incoming conditions. Show required area releases, preceding work, approvals, power, access and shared resources as appropriate to this package. Distinguish an expected date from a confirmed commitment by the party controlling that condition.
- Connect submittals and deliveries. Work backward from installation to the required information and release decisions. Identify the owner of each input and keep supplier forecasts separate from confirmed delivery arrangements.
- Issue the assumptions with the programme. State the revision, status basis, crew plan and unresolved dependencies in a concise cover note. Submit through the agreed route, retain the issue record and respond to comments without losing the original assumptions.
Common mistakes
- Submitting the tender programme without checking changed work conditions.
- Showing installation dates while omitting the information release needed earlier.
- Burying a critical access assumption in an unrelated email.
Checklist
Before issuing the trade programme
- Scope and required submission process are confirmed.
- Activities match the intended area releases.
- Hours, quantities and crews have been compared.
- Incoming conditions and their owners are named.
- The cover note states unresolved assumptions.
Check your understanding
The general contractor requests a shorter duration, but the proposed crew and work quantity have not changed. What should the submission do?
