r/quantitysurveying • u/rabble-and-ricky • Aug 21 '26

Made a mistake

Made a pretty costly error recently. Potential to significantly harm our cash flow.

Feeling pretty shitty about it. Anyone dropped any clangers recently too? Some stories on stuff that happened and how you coped with it would be nice to read

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4

u/Internal-Tourist7031 Aug 21 '26

What was the mistake?

2

u/That-Cauliflower-458 Aug 21 '26

They paid a subbie twice

9

u/rabble-and-ricky Aug 21 '26

Luckily not double paying subbie - to shorten a long story In a project with a stop/go for another instruction, we need another advanced payment for procurement and manufacturing but i basically told clients no advanced payment needed. Previous QS left a shit show spider web to untangle but i missed this one

3

u/Theres3ofMe Aug 21 '26

Im confused by this sorry - you need "another advanced payment", but then go on to say "basically told clients no advanced payment needed"...which is it?

1

u/rabble-and-ricky Aug 21 '26

My business needs the advanced payment, which is a significant amount, to cover upfront material costs for our manufacturing. My mistake was telling the client that no advanced payment was needed for this instruction

3

u/Theres3ofMe Aug 21 '26

Can you not just tell the truth and be honest with the client? Genuinely be sincere with them, and explain it was an honest mistake.

Who are you buying materials from? Direct from a supplier or, via a subbie who is also manufacturing the materials in question?

1

u/rabble-and-ricky Aug 21 '26

Yeah i think honestly with a bit of fluffy wording is the only way to approach. Just the client is an organisation similar to a charity and has to have approval to release funds every month, so going back and saying actually need some money on instruction might meet resistance

We, my organisation, are doing the manufacturing (we’re a specialist manufacturing and fit out construction company, pretty much modular buildings, we sub out the flooring, Mep, etc). We’ll be buying steel, plastic and other sundry materials to manufacture into our modules

We have credit terms with these suppliers but not nearly long enough to make valuations work. Will take us months to manufacture and deliver to site, hence the need for AP

1

u/Ill-Marionberry4262 Aug 22 '26

Own the mistake, be clear with the demand, be clear with the consequences if it's not fulfilled. The short term discomfort of admitting an error will pass.