Pending changes and your cash: the work you have done but cannot bill yet
Fourteen hotel changes remain pending on the mechanical contractor's log. Some materials and wages have already been paid, but the cash forecast has one hopeful owner receipt. The oldest submission has no named next reviewer or confirmed response date.
Age each pending submission and show its paid costs, confirmed receipts and unresolved next action beside the proposed change value. Use that view to prioritize commercial follow-up and update cash timing with accounts. Check any interim billing provision through the authorized project process. A directive or signed ticket may be relevant evidence, but it does not automatically mean that its cost can be billed or that payment will arrive this month.
Make the cash exposure visible by event
- Choose a common cutoff. Use the current change IDs and record original and revised submission dates separately. Age the item from a stated date; revising a price should not quietly make a long-running unresolved event look new.
- Reconcile paid cost and receipts. Link supplier payments and crew cost to the event on the accounts team's basis. Keep recorded-but-unpaid cost separate. Identify any approved portion already billed or received so the cash exposure is not inflated by counting it again.
- Identify what approval is waiting for. Name a scope question, missing support, price review or decision authority. Give each item an actual next action and owner. Chase the responsible decision rather than repeatedly asking a general mailbox whether the change is approved.
- Check permitted billing with the commercial lead. Review the contract's treatment of directives, agreed portions and supporting records. Record the decision and required submission basis. Do not convert an internal aging list into a billing claim without that review.
- Act on the oldest material items. Select the changes creating the greatest funding concern, including old low-value items where their pattern matters. Agree a follow-up date with the appropriate representative, preserve required notices and revise the cash forecast to reflect confirmed or explicitly uncertain timing.
Common mistakes
- Replacing the original aging date whenever a quote is revised.
- Confusing submitted value with cash already spent.
- Forecasting receipt on an approval date nobody has confirmed.
Action list
Review the oldest cash exposure
- Submission and revision dates.
- Paid cost and separate unpaid inputs.
- Amounts billed or received.
- Specific approval blocker.
- Authorized billing review.
- Next representative and follow-up date.
Check your understanding
A signed ticket supports work already paid for by your company. Should its proposed value become a firm receipt next month?
