Dayworks Administration in GCC Construction: How to Record, Submit, and Recover Instructed Variation Costs

Why Most GCC Contractors Write Off Daywork Costs They Were Entitled To Recover

A contractor on a SAR 180M building project in Jeddah gets a verbal instruction from the Engineer's Representative to demolish and rebuild a section of blockwork that conflicts with revised MEP penetration drawings. The supervisor mobilises a team, works three days, and the cost is absorbed into the project without a single daywork record being submitted.

Six months later, the commercial team tries to recover the cost as a variation. The Engineer rejects it — no contemporaneous records, no signed sheets, no agreed rates. SAR 38,000 gone.

This scenario plays out on GCC construction sites every week. Dayworks is not a complicated mechanism, but it has precise requirements that most field teams do not understand — and most commercial teams do not enforce.

What Dayworks Is — and What It Is Not

Dayworks is a valuation method for variation work where it is not practical to price the job using BOQ rates or derived rates. Under FIDIC Clause 13.6, the Contractor can be instructed to execute work under daywork, and the rates used are those listed in the Daywork Schedule tendered with the original bid.

It is important to understand what dayworks is not:

It is not a catch-all for any small variation
It is not an alternative to pricing — it is a method of last resort when other valuation methods cannot be applied
It is not automatically recoverable without signed, submitted records

Dayworks is most appropriate when the work is unpredictable in quantity, the method differs significantly from the contract method, or the scope is genuinely not measurable at the time of execution.

FIDIC Clause 13.6: The Three Requirements You Cannot Skip

FIDIC Clause 13.6 sets three non-negotiable conditions for daywork recovery.

1. The Instruction Must Be Given in Advance

The Engineer must instruct the work to be executed on a daywork basis before it starts — not retrospectively. A verbal instruction confirmed in writing within 24 hours is acceptable on most GCC contracts. An instruction recorded three weeks after the work was done is not.

2. Daily Records Must Be Submitted Promptly

The Contractor must submit contemporaneous records each day the work is performed. These records must cover: labour names and hours, plant deployed and hours, materials consumed with quantities. Submission must happen within one to two days of the work being done — not at month end.

3. The Engineer Must Sign the Records

Without the Engineer's signature — or a formal written rejection — the records cannot be presented for payment. Getting that signature the same day, or at the latest the following morning, is the only reliable way to prevent disputes.

On Aramco projects, daywork instructions are formally issued via a Field Change Notice or equivalent. On NEOM projects, the instruction format is defined in the contract data. Check your specific contract before assuming a verbal instruction is sufficient.

The Four Failure Modes in GCC Dayworks Administration

Missing the Written Instruction

Field staff begin work on verbal direction and fail to obtain a written instruction before or immediately after starting. If the Engineer later disputes that a daywork instruction was ever given, there is nothing to stand on.

Incomplete Daily Records

Daywork sheets that record total hours but not individual names, or plant hours but not equipment registration numbers, will be rejected at the review stage. Each record must be specific enough to be independently verifiable against site attendance and delivery records.

Unsigned Sheets

Submitting daywork sheets that were never signed by the Engineer's Representative — because no one chased the signature or because there was a dispute and work continued anyway — makes recovery effectively impossible without formal adjudication.

Disconnected Submission

Daywork records that sit in a site supervisor's folder and never reach the commercial team are worthless. The submission cycle must run from field capture to commercial review to IPC inclusion within a defined window — typically 30 days on most GCC contracts.

What a Complete Daywork Record Contains

A properly maintained daywork sheet needs seven fields as a minimum:

Written instruction reference: FCN number, Engineer's instruction number, or RFI reference that authorised the work
Date of work and location: specific WBS or location reference to link the work to the programme and cost structure
Labour: name, trade, start and finish times, hours claimed — not just a total headcount
Plant: equipment registration or fleet number, type, operator name, total hours
Materials: description, quantity, unit, delivery note or store requisition number
Signature fields: Contractor's representative, Engineer's Representative, and date signed
Internal cost code: WBS cost code for GL posting and job costing integration

The record must be submitted to the Engineer's Representative for signature before the end of the following working day. On large GCC projects with multiple site teams, foremen must understand that unsigned daywork sheets are uncollectable revenue.

The Submission Cycle That Closes the Loop

Day 0: Written instruction received and confirmed in writing within 24 hours.

Day 1: Daily record completed on site and submitted to the Engineer for signature before end of shift.

Day 2: Signed record received and entered into the central dayworks register.

Week end: Dayworks register reviewed commercially — missing signatures chased immediately.

Month end: Dayworks compiled into the daywork account and submitted with the IPC.

The daywork account in the IPC should show: instruction reference, brief description, period, total labour hours, total plant hours, material quantities, and the gross value at Daywork Schedule rates. On projects where the Daywork Schedule includes percentage additions for off-site overheads, site overheads, and profit, these must be transparently itemised. Engineer's Representatives on Aramco and NEOM contracts will challenge percentage additions that are not clearly shown against their contracted basis.

GCC Client-Specific Requirements

Aramco

Daywork instructions are normally issued by the Senior Construction Coordinator. The Aramco Daywork Sheet format is defined in the contract — never use a non-compliant format, as rejection is automatic. Submit the signed daywork sheet as part of the daily report package.

NEOM

Check the contract data annex for instruction authority. Only designated personnel can issue daywork instructions. Photographic evidence of the work in progress, referenced to the sheet, is now a standard expectation on most NEOM packages.

ROSHN

Daywork is relatively rare on ROSHN packages, which favour BOQ re-measurement. When instructed, standard procedure follows FIDIC closely — written instruction before start, same-day sign-off, and a monthly daywork account submitted with the IPC.

When Not to Use Dayworks

Some contractors default to dayworks for all small variations to avoid the effort of formal pricing. This is commercially counterproductive for two reasons.

First, daywork rates are typically lower than the true cost for complex or specialist work because the Daywork Schedule rates were tendered competitively without contingency for difficult conditions.

Second, using dayworks when a proper BOQ or derived rate could be agreed weakens your position if the Engineer later argues that dayworks is the appropriate valuation basis for a larger, more valuable variation. Clause 13.6 is a tool — not a default.

Five Starting Steps

Audit your last three months of variations to identify any work done on informal verbal instructions without daywork records or signed sheets. Quantify what was written off.
Create a one-page daywork site instruction for foremen: what to do when the Engineer's Representative gives a daywork instruction, how to fill the sheet, and why the signature matters before anyone leaves site.
Set up a central dayworks register tracking: instruction reference, date issued, work description, daily record status, signature status, and IPC inclusion status.
Embed daywork submission in your IPC compilation cycle. Every unsigned or missing sheet should appear on the commercial team's weekly chase list — not surface as a write-off at payment application stage.
Check your Daywork Schedule rates. If the schedule was tendered more than 18 months ago and labour or material costs have moved materially, ensure you understand the contractual basis for any percentage additions and whether a rate adjustment mechanism applies.