A Tuesday morning walk on the third floor of a residential tower. The Engineer's resident engineer stops at the corridor and says the ceiling bulkhead should drop 200 mm to clear the new duct route, on every floor. The foreman nods and tells his gypsum crew. By Friday two floors are done. Nobody writes anything down. Four months later the contractor submits a variation for the change. The consultant replies that there is no instruction on record and the work is treated as coordination within the contract scope.
What it costs
A verbal instruction costs nothing on the day it is given. The cost comes later, when the contractor has to prove three things: that the instruction was given, who gave it, and when. Without those, the extra work becomes the contractor's own risk, and the time it took is lost with it.
The bulkhead change covers 18 floors at about AED 4,500 per floor, so AED 81,000 of extra work, plus six days on the finishes sequence. With no written record, the variation is rejected and the contractor absorbs the full amount.
How it is usually handled
- The foreman remembers it. Then the foreman moves to another project.
- Someone sends a WhatsApp message to the resident engineer. It is never answered, and it never reaches the commercial team.
- A confirmation letter is planned for "when we know the cost". It goes out weeks later, or never.
- The instruction appears in the meeting minutes as "bulkhead levels discussed", which proves nothing.
Every one of these leaves the variation without a starting point. The quantity surveyor ends up pricing work that, on paper, nobody asked for.
How Quanto Management handles it
The first step is a record on the day. In Quanto, "instructions" is one of the 14 types of site event, so the site engineer records who gave the instruction, where and when, from the phone's browser. Photos and videos taken before and after the work are tagged by area and linked to the event and later to the variation.
Where the Engineer or the owner uses Quanto, the instruction itself can be issued in the system. The contractor answers each instruction as no cost, variation or disputed, so nothing stays half-agreed.
From there the variation follows one trail:
- Priced by item and submitted by the contractor.
- Reviewed by the consultant and approved by the owner, with every step dated and named.
- Once approved, it is added to the revised contract sum, which is always up to date.
- Variations are watched as a share of the contract sum, so the trend is visible early.
If the instruction was only spoken, the confirmation goes out as a numbered letter on your letterhead, signed before it is sent. Parties on Quanto receive it in their inbox with a read receipt and a reply-by date, and the reply stays in the same thread.
A short checklist
- Ask for a written instruction before work starts. If you cannot get one, confirm the verbal one in writing the same day.
- Record who gave it, where, when, and the exact words if you can.
- Take photos of the area before the change and after it.
- Do not wait for the price. Confirm the instruction now and price it later.
- Read what your contract says about confirming verbal instructions and how long the other side has to object.
- Keep the meeting minutes specific: what was instructed, by whom, for which areas.
Tomorrow: a payment certificate issued late.
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