Capital project administration · Water & wastewater
Pay contractors right, keep projects on budget.
A contractor's G702 pay application claims 60% complete. Someone verifies it against the schedule of values, holds retainage, and reconciles change orders before an overpayment goes out.
The reality
Progress billing is a reconciliation problem.
The contractor submits a pay application claiming 60% complete, and someone has to confirm the work was actually done, verify the stored materials, check retainage, match it to approved change orders, and make sure the cumulative draw doesn't exceed the contract. Skip a step and an overpayment is hard to claw back.
The operator owns project administration: it onboards the contractor and their insurance and lien waivers, validates each pay application against the schedule of values, routes change orders for review, processes the payment, and updates the running budget for every funding source.
How the operator runs capital project administration
Project WTP-19 · Contractor setup
onboarding- Executed contract on file
- COI verified — current
- Performance bond — requested
01Onboard the contractor
Collects the executed contract, certificate of insurance, bonds, and W-9, and confirms each is current before work starts.
Pay App #4 · Project WTP-19
validating- Schedule of values reconciled
- 10% retainage held
- Change order #2 — matching
02Validate the pay app
Checks the G702 against the schedule of values, confirms retainage, and matches it to approved change orders.
Budget · Project WTP-19
posting- Payment released
- Lien waiver collected
- SRF draw reconciled
03Pay & update budget
Processes the approved payment, collects the conditional lien waiver, and updates the budget against each funding source.
The outcome
−55% of project-admin work off the team
Projects on budget, contractors paid correctly.
- Every pay application checked against the schedule of values before a dollar moves
- Retainage and lien waivers handled the same way on every draw
- A running budget the engineer and finance both trust
Common questions
Capital project administration
- What does the Capital project administration operator do?
- The operator owns project administration: it onboards the contractor and their insurance and lien waivers, validates each pay application against the schedule of values, routes change orders for review, processes the payment, and updates the running budget for every funding source.
- What impact does the Capital project administration operator have?
- −55% of project-admin work off the team. Projects on budget, contractors paid correctly.
- How does the Capital project administration operator work?
- Collects the executed contract, certificate of insurance, bonds, and W-9, and confirms each is current before work starts. Checks the G702 against the schedule of values, confirms retainage, and matches it to approved change orders. Processes the approved payment, collects the conditional lien waiver, and updates the budget against each funding source.
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