NEC4 Mobilisation Checklist: Commercial Manager Day One

Before a single spade breaks ground, most of your commercial risk is already set. The contract data is either correct or it isn't. The secondary options are either understood or they'll ambush you in month three. The programme obligation is either confirmed or you'll spend the next twelve months arguing about what the baseline actually was.

This is your NEC4 mobilisation checklist — what a commercial manager must verify, set up, and brief before the start date under an NEC4 Engineering and Construction Contract. It covers contract data, the X-clause setup, programme obligations, the early warning register, and how to brief site teams so the notification machinery actually runs. Save this as a PDF. Work through it on every new contract. The half-day investment on day one protects more commercial value than most things you'll do in the next six months.

1. Contract Data Review — Know What You’ve Actually Signed

The Contract Data Parts 1 and 2 are the DNA of your NEC4 contract. Everything downstream — pricing options, time bars, payment intervals, X-clause activation — flows from what's in those two documents. I've seen commercial teams arrive on site without having properly read them. That's not a criticism; it happens when mobilisation overlaps with tender close-out and everyone's stretched. But it's expensive.

Part 1 (Employer’s data) — check these without fail:

• Contract type and Option confirmed. Is it Option A (priced contract with activity schedule), B (bill of quantities), C (target cost with activity schedule), D (target cost with BOQ), E (cost reimbursable), or F (management)? If you tendered Option C and the issued contract says Option B, that's a commercial catastrophe waiting to happen. Check it. See the ECC Options explained guide for a full breakdown of what each option means for risk and payment.
• Completion Date. Does it match what you priced? Does it align with your programme? If there's a discrepancy between the Works Information and the Contract Data completion date, notify it before work starts.
• Defects date and defects correction period. Different from JCT's defects liability period. Understand the distinction.
• Assessment interval. Monthly is standard. Fortnightly is possible. This drives your payment application cycle — make sure finance knows.
• Delay damages rate (if X7 is active). Check the £/day figure. It should match the tender documents. If it doesn't, query it before contract execution, not after practical completion.
• Compensation event notification period. Under clause 61.3, the default is 8 weeks from the date the Contractor became aware of the event. Some contracts modify this through the Contract Data. Check whether it's been amended.

Part 2 (Contractor’s data) — verify your own submissions are correct:

• Activity schedule or bill of quantities — is this the final tendered version, or has it been superseded during negotiation?
• Defined Cost rates for people and Equipment — these are used in compensation event assessments. Errors here affect every CE quotation you submit.
• Proposed subcontractors requiring Project Manager consent (if listed).

Common problem: The issued contract has been amended from the tender version but nobody told the commercial team. Run a change comparison against the tender documents. It takes an hour. It's worth it.

2. Secondary Options (X-Clauses) — Activated, Understood, Tracked

Secondary options are where NEC4 gets complicated fast. Not because they're conceptually hard, but because a clause activated in the contract data creates obligations that most site teams have never heard of. The commercial manager's job is to know which X-clauses are live and make sure the right people know what that means.

Clauses Y(UK)1 and Y(UK)2 are mandatory in UK construction contracts subject to the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996. Y(UK)2 sets the payment notice and pay less notice regime. Make sure your payment application process is aligned.

Don't assume that because a clause isn't mentioned in a site briefing, it's not active. Check the Contract Data. I've seen X4 parent company guarantee obligations completely missed because the commercial team assumed someone else was tracking it.

3. Programme Obligation — Confirm the Baseline Before Work Starts

The Accepted Programme is not a Gantt chart you submit and forget. Under NEC4, it's a live contract document that underpins every compensation event assessment, every delay claim, and every challenge to the Project Manager's decisions. Getting the programme established and accepted before work starts is one of the most commercially important things you can do.

What must the first programme show (clause 31.2):

• The starting date and every Completion Date (including sectional completion under X5)
• The order and timing of all operations — both permanent works and temporary works
• Float (total float and free float, shown explicitly — not hidden in logic links)
• Time risk allowances (contractor's risk contingency — shown separately from float)
• Health and safety requirements
• Resource requirements where stated in the Works Information
• The method of work for the Site and Contract Data

The acceptance clock: Once submitted, the Project Manager has two weeks to accept or reject the programme (clause 31.3). If there's no response in two weeks, the programme isn't automatically accepted — but the PM's failure to respond may have consequences for their ability to assess CEs prospectively. Track the submission date and chase for a response.

What “not accepted” means: If the Project Manager rejects the programme, they must state reasons. Those reasons must be one of the grounds in clause 31.3 (not showing something required, not realistic, or not showing the contractor's plans). An arbitrary rejection is itself a compensation event under clause 60.1(9).

For a deeper treatment of programme management under NEC4, including what a compliant programme must contain and how it interacts with delay assessments, see the NEC4 programme management guide.

Practical checklist for day one:

• Programme submitted to Project Manager before or on the first assessment date
• Submission date recorded in the CE register (clock is running)
• Programme shows all float explicitly — not buried in logic links
• Programme shows time risk allowances as a separate activity or column
• Sectional completion dates mapped if X5 is active
• Programme baseline saved as a locked file — this is your reference point for all future CE assessments

4. Early Warning Register — Open It Now

The early warning register isn't a formal contract requirement in the same way the programme is — clause 15 doesn't mandate a specific register format. But running the contract without one is commercially reckless. Every early warning given (clause 15.1) and every Risk Reduction Meeting (clause 15.4) should be traceable.

Why It Matters Commercially

Under clause 63.7, if the Contractor didn't give an early warning of a matter that an experienced contractor could have given, the compensation event is assessed as if the early warning had been given. If you fail to warn about something you should have anticipated, the PM can reduce your CE entitlement to what you'd have got had you warned in time.

I've seen a QS team lose £180,000 on a single CE because they couldn't demonstrate they'd raised an early warning on a known risk that materialised. The PM argued clause 63.7, the adjudicator agreed — no register, no evidence of when the Contractor became aware.

Day-one register setup:

• Register created with columns: EW number, date raised, raised by, subject, risk description, impact on time / cost / quality, status
• All risks from the tender risk register reviewed — any that remain live are early warning candidates
• Briefed to Project Manager on day one that the Contractor will manage risks through the EW register
• First entry made in the register — even “no current risks identified” establishes it as a live document from the start date

What to warn about (not exhaustive):

• Ground condition risks not covered by the site investigation (clause 60.1(12))
• Third-party approvals where the timeline is uncertain
• Utility diversions that are outside the Contractor's control
• Design obligations where information is expected but not yet received
• Any contractor-side risk that could affect the Completion Date — yes, you warn about your own risks too

For the records and compliance framework that underpins this — including what records you need to support CE assessments — see the NEC4 records and compliance guide.

5. Notification Procedures — Brief the Site Team Before Week One

All the commercial groundwork above is worthless if site teams don't know what to do. The 8-week time bar under clause 61.3 runs from when anyone in the Contractor's organisation became aware — not when the commercial manager found out. A site supervisor's notebook entry on 4 March starts the clock even if commercial doesn't hear until 3 May.

The briefing must cover:

1. What a compensation event is. Your site team doesn't need to know the 19 categories of clause 60.1 by heart. They need to know: if the Client, the Project Manager, or anyone working for them does something that affects our cost or time, tell the commercial team immediately.
2. What the 8-week rule means. If we don't notify within 8 weeks of becoming aware, we lose the entitlement. Not just delay that bit — we lose it entirely. The NEC4 eight-week time bar guide is worth sharing with the team.
3. What counts as “becoming aware.” Receiving a late instruction. Being told by the Project Manager that information won't arrive on the required date. Discovering a ground condition that doesn't match the site investigation. Any of these start the clock.
4. The early warning process. For risks (not yet events), the site team should flag anything that could go wrong — including contractor-caused risks. These go into the early warning register.
5. Who to tell and how fast. Establish the escalation path: site supervisor or site engineer → site commercial manager → lead QS. Target: any potential CE notified to the commercial team within 24 hours of the site team becoming aware.

A brief site team briefing agenda (30 minutes, week one):

• What NEC4 ECC is and why it's different from JCT
• The three things that protect commercial value: programme, early warnings, CE notifications
• What to do if something changes or goes wrong: tell commercial within 24 hours
• The 8-week rule: simple, specific, non-negotiable

Don't underestimate this briefing. On a £50M highways package, the difference between a site team that understands the 8-week rule and one that doesn't can be seven figures in final account value.

6. Contract Health Check — a Parallel Exercise

The mobilisation checklist covers what to do on day one. But alongside it, run a NEC4 contract health check that reviews the contract documents for the commercial risks you inherited at tender. The health check looks at:

• Unusual Z-clause amendments that modify the standard NEC4 terms
• Works Information inconsistencies that could generate disputes about scope
• Client obligations and required information dates — when must the Client provide design, approvals, or access?
• Risk allocation in the Contract Data that differs from NEC4 defaults

These aren't day-one operational tasks — they're strategic risks the commercial manager needs to own from the start.

Mobilisation Checklist Reference Table