Schedule Updating and Project Control - Construction Project Scheduling and Control - page 166

Subcontractors usually submit their pay requests to the general contractor, who
rolls these requests in with his or her own pay requests and submits them to the
owner. The owner requests a lien release or waiver from the general contractor
and all subcontractors and vendors before issuing the payment. This document
assures the owner that the signer has paid the subcontractors, workers, and ven-
dors for work performed on the project for the period covered in the document.
Once the general contractor receives payment, the general contractor pays the
subcontractors.
If you are updating every 2 weeks, you can start by doing the pay request at every
other update (i.e., every 4 weeks). However, the problem with doing this is that a
month is slightly longer than 4 weeks. Schedulers and project managers like to update
schedules on a certain day of the week (e.g., Wednesday). To circumvent the conflict
between the biweekly update and the monthly pay request, schedulers choose one of
the following five options:
1. If it is feasible for the project team, the updates are done on the 1st and 16th
of each month. If either of these dates falls during a weekend or a holiday, the
update is done on the closest workday.
2. When the update date is near the end of the month (say, within 1 or 2 days),
the project manager estimates the work “to be done” between the current data
date and the end of the month and counts this work as if it were done (with
its real dates). The main drawback to this approach is approving an amount
of work that physically has not yet been done. If this approach is used within
certain limitations, it can be relatively safe. The project manager and the owner
must agree on this practice. One argument may be made in support of this
practice: since reports take a few days and a payment check may take 2 to 4
weeks, the work done during that time almost always offsets the problem of
projecting a few days' work.
3. If the pay request must include work as of the end of day 30, the scheduler
does the routine update on time, say, on the 28th of the month. A few days
later, the project manager sends the work progress for days 29 and 30 to the
scheduler for a “minor update” for the sake of the pay request. The scheduler
must then separate “pure updates” and “pay request” schedules. This practice
is not recommended.
4. When the update date is several days (say, 4 to 6 days) before the end of the
month, the scheduler “skips” a week so that the next update is done during
the first days of the next month. For example, an update is done on the 12th
of the month. The next update is scheduled for the 26th of the month. It can
be postponed to the 2nd or 3rd of the next month, on the same day of the
week on which the 12th occurred.
5. If all contracting parties agree, the pay request may be a few days less or more
than a month (i.e., you can close it on the 27th, 28th, or 29th of the month,