Dayworks

Dayworks are work valued on the basis of time, materials and plant actually used at contract rates, instead of by measurement of the finished product at bill rates.

Dayworks exist for the work bills of quantities cannot describe: attending a collapse, chasing a live service, digging trial holes until the ground gives up its story. The valuation is honest labour arithmetic — hours times rate, plant hours, materials with invoices — recorded on sheets signed daily by someone with authority to sign.

The commercial risk is drift. Unsigned sheets, retrospective claims, dayworks where measurement would have served: each inflates the account quietly. The counter is boring and effective — agree the basis in advance, sign daily, and audit the arithmetic before it reaches the final account.

Related: variations · final account