
However, it’s common practice to stipulate a bonus for finishing ahead of schedule. Since time and materials contracts pay by the hour or day, there’s no real incentive to finish a project early. Doing a thorough job here means you spend more time crunching numbers and less time doing the work. Logging each and every material cost on a project is no small task, and failure to provide an accurate number upon completion means lower profit margins. Tracking time and materials is time consuming.Setting rules for what materials will be covered and what the hourly wage will be is simple with time and materials contracts. Time and materials contracts allow for simple negotiations.Since the customer reimburses the contractor for the cost of materials and pays an hourly wage, unexpected delays, roadblocks, and other changes to the scope of work are covered. Time and materials contracts are agile.Here’s an overview of the pros and cons of time and materials contracts: Pros of T&M Time and materials contracts reimburse contractors for the cost of materials and establish an hourly or daily pay rate. Time and materials contractsĪs opposed to lump sum contracts, time and materials (T&M) contracts work best for projects in which the scope of work is not well-defined. That’s why lump sum contracts are best suited for smaller projects with predictable scopes of work. Missteps mean you make less money, or, even worse, lose money on a project. The cost of those inevitable missteps and setbacks from sub-tiers comes right out of the lump sum price.Īs you can see, lump sum contracts involve a fair amount of risk for contractors because they don’t account for unexpected costs or delays after the project is started. If you’re working with subs and suppliers, there is no room for error. The bigger the project, the more room for loss.Since there’s one set price, unexpected setbacks or changes during a project cut directly into your profit margin. When drafting a lump sum contract, you need to account for every variable.

Because the price for the project is set in stone, finishing under-budget means you pocket the savings. Finishing under-budget means high profit margins.

Naming a total price rather than submitting multiple bids simplifies the selection process for owners and GCs. Here are a few key benefits and drawbacks of lump sum contracts: Pros of lump sum

However, as simple as the one price formula seems, lump sum contracts aren’t so cut-and-dry. Odds are most contractors have entered into multiple lump sum contracts in the past. For this reason, lump sum contracts are extremely common in construction. That’s because they outline one fixed price for all the work done under them. Lump sum contracts, also known as fixed price contracts, are the most basic type of construction contracts. The 5 main types of contracts in construction Lump sum contracts The 5 main types of contracts in construction.
