Construction Contract Administration and Claims Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Contract Administrators, Project Managers and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 7 Nov 2026 Course code SD-L-008

Before you join: Participants should have basic experience working on construction or engineering projects and familiarity with common project documents such as drawings, specifications, programmes, payment applications or change instructions.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Construction projects frequently lose time and money because notices are issued late, records are incomplete, instructions are informal, or contract mechanisms are misunderstood. Contract administrators must protect entitlement while maintaining workable relationships between employer, contractor, consultant and subcontractor teams. Claims often become disputes not because the underlying event is unclear, but because the contractual procedure, evidence trail, cause-and-effect analysis or valuation has been poorly managed.

This course develops the practical contract administration and claims skills needed to manage events from instruction through assessment and close-out. Participants examine contract formation, roles, communications, change control, notices, payment, extensions of time, disruption, acceleration, suspension and termination. The course uses common international contract approaches, including FIDIC, NEC4 and JCT, while showing how to read and apply the actual contract clauses governing a project. Participants learn to establish contemporaneous records, assess entitlement, prepare substantiated claims and respond to claims with defensible reasoning.

Teaching combines focused legal and commercial briefings with construction cases, clause-reading tasks, notice drafting, record reviews, claim assessments and negotiation simulations. Participants work through realistic scenarios involving design changes, delayed access, unforeseen conditions, delayed approvals and disrupted productivity. They leave with a practical contract administration toolkit containing notice, instruction, change, records and claim-analysis templates that can be adapted to their projects.

The course is suited to project personnel who administer construction contracts, manage commercial risk or contribute evidence to claims. It is particularly relevant where participants need stronger control of contract procedures before issues escalate into formal dispute resolution.

What you will be able to do

  • Interpret contract documents, precedence clauses and risk allocation for project events
  • Administer notices, instructions and communications using contractual time-bar procedures
  • Establish contemporaneous project records that support entitlement and factual causation
  • Assess variations using scope, valuation, measurement and change-control methods
  • Analyse delay using critical path, contemporaneous programme and time-impact principles
  • Prepare extension-of-time and prolongation claims with evidence-based cause-and-effect reasoning
  • Evaluate disruption, acceleration and payment claims using appropriate contractual tests
  • Develop a contract administration action plan for active project risks and claims

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Draft timely notices that preserve contractual entitlement
  • Recognise weak records before they undermine a claim
  • Assess delay and change events with clearer commercial reasoning
  • Contribute credible evidence to negotiations and claim reviews
  • Build a reusable workflow for administering live construction contracts

For your organisation

  • Fewer time-bar losses caused by missed notices and deadlines
  • Better project records supporting defensible entitlement decisions
  • Earlier resolution of changes before they become formal disputes
  • More consistent assessment of contractor and subcontractor claims
  • Improved control of delay, payment and variation exposure

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can identify governing contract documents, allocated risks and applicable administrative procedures.

  • Contract formation, scope definition and conditions precedent affecting enforceability
  • Document hierarchy clauses resolving conflicts between drawings, specifications and schedules
  • Risk allocation matrices linking events to responsible contractual parties
  • Express terms, implied terms and incorporated documents within construction contracts
  • Reading operative clauses: obligations, triggers, deadlines, consequences and exceptions
  • Project document registers controlling revisions, approvals and contractual status

Participants can manage contractual communications through authorised roles, channels and decision routes.

  • Employer, engineer, architect and project manager authority under standard forms
  • Contractor and subcontractor obligations for coordination, reporting and compliance
  • Delegated authority limits and consequences of unauthorised site instructions
  • Formal correspondence protocols: addresses, delivery methods, receipt and acknowledgement
  • Without-prejudice communications distinguished from operational and contractual correspondence
  • Communication registers tracking actions, responses, deadlines and outstanding decisions

Participants can issue, receive and administer notices without losing contractual rights.

  • Notice clauses: trigger events, prescribed content, recipients and deadlines
  • Time-bar provisions and the consequences of late or defective notice
  • Early warning procedures under NEC4 and collaborative risk reduction
  • Drafting notices that state event, cause, entitlement and reserved rights
  • Notice registers recording issue dates, acknowledgements, responses and follow-up actions
  • Distinguishing notification, claim submission, quotation and final determination stages

Participants can control changes from instruction through valuation and contract record completion.

  • Valid variation instructions distinguished from requests, comments and site discussions
  • Change-control workflow from scope clarification through approval and implementation
  • Variation valuation using contract rates, fair rates and daywork records
  • Measurement rules, bills of quantities and remeasurement contract mechanisms
  • Design development, errors and omissions assessed against allocated responsibility
  • Change registers linking instruction status, cost forecast, programme effect and approvals

Participants can administer payment processes and assess common financial claim components.

  • Interim payment applications, valuations, certifications and payment notice requirements
  • Retention, advance payments and security instruments within contractual payment arrangements
  • Payment schedules reconciling measured work, variations, deductions and prior certificates
  • Interest claims arising from late certification, late payment or withholding
  • Set-off, withholding and contra-charge procedures tested against contract provisions
  • Final account management, reconciliation and release of outstanding contractual claims

Participants can assess extension-of-time entitlement using programme evidence and contractual tests.

  • Baseline programme acceptance, update cycles and programme quality indicators
  • Critical path method identifying activities controlling planned completion dates
  • Delay events classified as excusable, compensable, concurrent or contractor-caused
  • Time-impact analysis using contemporaneous programme updates and fragnet logic
  • Extension-of-time submissions connecting event, delay mechanism and completion impact
  • Concurrency analysis distinguishing overlapping delays and contractual entitlement outcomes

Participants can distinguish and substantiate time-related, productivity and acceleration claims.

  • Prolongation costs separated from disruption, acceleration and inefficiency losses
  • Cause-and-effect analysis linking compensable events to measured resource impacts
  • Measured mile analysis comparing impacted and unimpacted productivity periods
  • Acceleration claims: directed, constructive and voluntary acceleration distinctions
  • Site overheads, head-office overheads and financing cost recovery methods
  • Loss-and-expense substantiation using payroll, plant, invoices and contemporaneous records

Participants can assemble a structured claim file supported by relevant contemporaneous evidence.

  • Contemporaneous records hierarchy: programmes, diaries, photographs, correspondence and cost data
  • Daily reports capturing labour, plant, weather, access and workfront conditions
  • Claim narratives structured around entitlement, causation, quantum and contractual compliance
  • Evidence matrices mapping each allegation to documents, witnesses and calculations
  • Chronologies establishing sequence, knowledge dates, notices and decision milestones
  • Quantum schedules reconciling claimed amounts to source records and contractual valuation

Participants can evaluate claim submissions, prepare reasoned responses and negotiate settlement positions.

  • Claim review checklist testing jurisdiction, entitlement, causation, quantum and mitigation
  • Responding to claims with clause references, factual findings and reservations
  • Mitigation duties and reasonable steps to reduce time and cost
  • Entitlement matrices comparing asserted events with contractual risk allocation
  • Negotiation preparation using issue lists, evidence strengths and settlement ranges
  • Without-prejudice meetings structured around agreed facts, differences and action points

Participants can select proportionate escalation routes and strengthen project contract controls.

  • Dispute avoidance boards, adjudication, mediation, arbitration and litigation compared
  • Escalation clauses and senior-management negotiation before formal dispute proceedings
  • Adjudication referral requirements, timetables and evidence preparation considerations
  • Settlement agreements addressing releases, confidentiality, payment and outstanding obligations
  • Lessons-learned reviews converting recurring claim causes into contract administration controls
  • Personal action plan prioritising notices, registers, records and programme improvements

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Contract notice drafting template
  2. Change-control register template
  3. Contemporaneous records checklist
  4. Extension-of-time claim structure
  5. Claim assessment matrix
  6. Project contract administration action plan

Who should attend

  • Contract Administrators — manage notices, instructions, changes and payment procedures
  • Project Managers — control contractual risk while directing delivery decisions
  • Quantity Surveyors — value variations and assess commercial claim submissions
  • Commercial Managers — oversee entitlement, records and claim strategy
  • Engineers and Construction Managers — create records supporting technical and programme events
  • Employer Representatives — assess contractor claims and maintain procedural compliance

Skills and tools covered

Contract interpretationNotice administrationChange controlDelay analysisClaims preparationDispute avoidance

Tools and standards

FIDIC Conditions of Contract, NEC4 Engineering and Construction Contract, JCT Standard Building Contract, Society of Construction Law Delay and Disruption Protocol

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course combines short instructor briefings with clause-reading tasks, construction case work, small-group reviews and facilitated simulations. Participants examine project correspondence, programmes, site records, instructions and claim extracts to identify contractual issues and evidence gaps. Notice drafting, variation assessment and claim-response activities build procedural confidence. Delay and disruption scenarios use structured cause-and-effect analysis rather than abstract legal discussion. Each participant completes an application plan identifying procedures, records and controls to strengthen on current or future projects.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have basic experience working on construction or engineering projects and familiarity with common project documents such as drawings, specifications, programmes, payment applications or change instructions. They should understand the roles of employer, contractor, consultant and subcontractor. Prior exposure to FIDIC, NEC, JCT or another standard form is useful but not essential. This is not a course for people entirely new to construction projects. No law degree, quantity surveying qualification, claims certification or specialist planning software experience is required.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

You should have basic construction project experience and familiarity with project documents. You do not need a law degree, claims qualification or previous experience with every standard contract form.

Bring a laptop or tablet if possible, plus a redacted contract clause, notice, programme extract or claim issue from your work if organisational policy permits. Course materials and case documents are provided.

It is designed for contract administrators, project managers, quantity surveyors, commercial managers, engineers and employer representatives. It suits people who administer contracts or need to contribute evidence and decisions on claims.

This course focuses on day-to-day contract administration before and during claim events. It addresses practical notices, records, changes, payment, delay and claim preparation rather than detailed court procedure or legal theory.

Participants can use the notice, change-control, records and claim-review materials immediately. The final application plan helps identify procedures that require attention on a current project.

The programme runs from 08:30 to 16:30 each day, with about 6.5 contact hours daily. Time is divided among instructor briefings, case analysis, document reviews, group work, simulations and application planning.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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