You learn more from your mistakes than your successes.

Demodarlin':

Why is the job T&M and not hard money?
We do a lot of T&M and I have not been beat up that bad. I did not see that you stated why the project was T&M.
The most important thing I have found is to have a system for processing billing.
Is the project billed as AIA(monthly) or weekly?
If monthly make sure you work out when you will final totals for the month end so that you don't lose a week of invoicing at the end of every month.

If the 330 is rental make sure they don't try to get out of paying when it is not running. (sometimes called idle time / and you are entitled to charge for this)

Make sure tickets are signed everyday!!!!! No exceptions

Give your foreman a schedule of equipment to list on tickets so that the office can process the bill more easily.

neyc, good questions. Here's the story (short form).

I come from "concrete" background and was offered an administator position for this demo co. The co. owner decided T&M, with this being a "city" job, the contractor had to have a DBE on the project, well, we were the only ones.

They have agreed to pay out wages and fuel weekly, the rest would be monthly?. However, the majority of the "rest" will be equipment and I am going to shoot for weekly with that. And they have agreed, NO retainers.

Please keep in mind, concrete work is generally hard money, and I am learning the demo business or should I say, doing my homework. all the help I can get is appreciative. I am thrilled that I found this forum.

neyc, since you do a lot of T&M can I, PM or email you or anyone else that can offer advise, there is more to this story, and rather not share it to the cyber world. Just let me know. Thanks guys!

demodarlin', that Bobcat rental rate sounds really low. they should give you at least 25-30 just for the machine. Do you have a loaded labor rate? I use a "skilled labor rate" that covers the man and tools etc. PM me if you want to talk rates.

I brought that up to the GC, and he gave me some line about a "big book" and said that was the cost. BULLS**T!

We broke it down, equipment w/o/op & op rate seperate. We actually broke everything down just in case.

Boy this is getting interesting

I agree with RDZ, you are just going to become the GC's labor pool.

I think the "big Book" they are talking about is actually the Blue Book of Rental Rates; the rates listed in there are standard for some federal and state projects.

This is why it is always best to have all your equipment in a separate company, this way the demolition portion can “rent it” from the equipment side of the company, and you can use “dummy” invoices that can be used to submit to the contractor for payment.

The other way around this is to rent all your equipment from a rental yard; therefore there is now question on what they have to pay you.

__________________
Still just visiting? Come say Hello!
We have some open advertising spots available

Thanks James for clarifying the "big book". We will be doing plenty of state jobs in the future, I will have to invest in the blue book.

Good point about the equipment, I will definitely take that in consideration.

Here is the site for The Rental Blue Book. Looks like they have gone up in price again.

Most libraries should also carry them.

__________________
Still just visiting? Come say Hello!
We have some open advertising spots available

Look's like I will be visiting the library.