Robert Merry is an independent Stone Consultant and Project Manger who also runs training courses on project management. He continues this series setting out some guiding principles for successful estimating and project management with a discussion of: The Lexicon of Contracting.

For an industry striving to be environmentally responsible we don’t ‘arf produce a lot of paperwork.

Below is a lexicon of the most common terms – as easy as ancient Greek, especially for ancient Greeks.

RFI – Request for Information. When a drawing has a missing dimension that is critical, for example, you send the RFI (numbered) to the builder, asking for the missing dimension. The builder passes this on to the design team who will send a reply… eventually.

CVI – Confirmation of Verbal Instruction. This comes from you and goes to the builder (as a record) or comes from the builder or architect to you (numbered). When a CVI is issued to you it is to confirm additional works, which you then record on your day work sheet.

Day Work Sheet – (Two copies: one for your file and one for the builder). This includes names of workers, what they were doing on that day for how long and related to which CVI (remember they are numbered).

Valuation – your monthly request for money. This is not an invoice but your estimate of the works completed. If reasonable and justifiable, it will be paid in full… except the last one, of course.

Self Billing – HM Revenue & Customs devised this little nugget. They say: “You retain control of how much you're invoiced for”. Sounds to me like the builder gets all the cookies and then decides how much they want to pay for them. Might not work at Tesco’s but, hey, this is contracting.

NPO – Non-productive overtime. This is often the cause of some friction. It is when your works are delayed through no fault of your own and you incur standing (around) time or are asked to work out of hours, including weekends, to accommodate the site programme. This is what you record on your day work sheet. Rates of pay are potentially complicated. You are already being paid to fix the material at your tender rates. The only additional hourly rate should be for the extra money you are paying the fixers outside their normally contracted day plus profit and overheads, whereas the standing time will be at the full amount of your labour rate, which will probably be tied to RICS rates.

RICS Rates. The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors publishes a guide to the rates for most site trades. There is no rate for skilled masons that bears any relationship to what they actually earn. You do not have to accept these rates. Make sure you have agreed your rates with the main contractor’s quantity surveyor at the beginning, before you start work.

JCT – Joint Contractors Tribunal. An odd title for the most common form of main contract (70%). It is a weak contract in comparison with NEC.

NEC – New Engineering Contracts. Rising in popularity (13% of all contracts) it is a much stricter contract than JCT – some would say more onerous.

GC / Works Contracts – This is a public sector civil and building contract, the public sector equivalent of the JCT.

If you have all this memorised and you know your RFI’s from your JCTs and your CVIs from your NPOs, then ancient Greek should be a doddle.