Build a milestone payment schedule

Pick the programme events that clearly prove progress - foundations complete, watertight, services on, handover - and mark each as a payment milestone.

Neden: Payment on a verifiable event removes the monthly haggle over percentage complete. Choosing unambiguous milestones is what keeps the cash flowing without a dispute each cycle.

Attach a value to each milestone from the priced work it represents, and check the milestones sum exactly to the contract with nothing lost or double counted.

Neden: Front-loaded milestones flatter the contractor and worry the client; back-loaded ones do the reverse. Valuing each one off the real work keeps the schedule fair and fundable.

Agree the milestone schedule with the client as the contractual basis for drawdown, so both sides sign up to what triggers each payment before work starts.

Neden: A schedule agreed up front is a schedule that pays on time. Settling the triggers before the money is due is what stops each milestone becoming a fresh negotiation.

View the milestone payments across the programme as a cash flow forecast, so the client can plan funding and you can see when the money actually arrives.

Neden: Milestones set the timing of cash, and cash timing is what keeps a job solvent. Seeing the curve early lets both sides fix a lumpy month before it becomes a funding crunch.