In this presentation, Cian Dillon Brennan, CEO of Quantum Contract Solutions, explains the critical role of a contracts administrator in construction firms and how the function can protect cash flow, margins, and reduce risk. He outlines the construction industry's high insolvency rate and the financial dangers of poorly managed contracts, then walks through the contracts administrator’s responsibilities across the project lifecycle. In the pre‑award phase, the administrator helps assemble tender documents, negotiates contract terms, and pushes back on unfavorable clauses, typically achieving 80‑90% of requested concessions. In the post‑award phase, the administrator ensures compliance, documents non‑fault delays, captures variations, change orders and extensions of time, and submits paperwork promptly to secure payment. Finally, he stresses the importance of dispute‑avoidance strategies and settlement negotiation, noting that disputes are a race to lose the least money. Brennan differentiates between low‑cost “paper pushers” and high‑cost experts who can add strategic value, advising firms to balance both skill sets. He concludes with a call to contracts administrators to master negotiation, compliance paperwork, and dispute strategy to become indispensable to their companies.
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Hey, Construction Legends. So today we're going to talk about what is a contracts administrator, what's their purpose, how they can help your business. Let's get into it. So for those of you who don't know me, my name is Cian Dillon Brennan. I'm the CEO of a company called Quantum Contract Solutions. And the reason we make these videos is there's so many companies out there that are losing money. They're not getting paid for what they should get paid for. The cash flow is tight. They're signing risky contracts. And hopefully by listening to this podcast, you're going to get the skills that you need to be able to negotiate better contracts, have better cash flow, and protect your margin. So let's get into it. So contracts administration is, it is such an important part of construction. Now there's a couple of things that we know for sure, right? The biggest and best construction companies have teams of contracts people. So it can be different names for contracts people. They can have a contracts engineer, a contracts advisor, contracts manager, can have a quantity surveyor, you can have a contracts administrator. So lots of different names, really. Most of them are doing roughly the same thing, but with various different levels of skill sets. Okay. And I'll explain that in a second. So the reason we need, and the problems that we have in construction are basically this, that construction is essentially two parts, right? Obviously it's a little bit more complicated, but from a high level, one is you have to build the thing that you've promised to build or construct the thing that you've promised to construct or deliver the thing, whatever you've promised, right? So you've got to fulfill your obligation to deliver the thing, essentially. And that's obviously very, very important. But the second part of construction is getting paid. Now, construction has a really, really high insolvency rate. So it's 26% in most countries. It's roughly there, thereabouts of all insolvencies comes from the construction industry. And this is because a lot of people don't understand that it is that important to get to be— have your ducks in a row with regards to the contract to make sure that you get paid. Now everyone has different motivators, right? So obviously if you're a tier 2 constructor, so a subcontractor, right, I'm kind of talking to you guys. Everyone in some capacity except for the client is going to be reporting up the way. So it applies to the tier 1s as well, the general contractors, main contractors, and 2. But ultimately the people up the line have different motives to you. They obviously want to make a profit, they want to save their own costs. And in the world we're living in now, if they can save costs by not paying you for work that you've done properly, because you haven't complied with the contract, they won't. If they can manage the contract in such a way that they can get you to fund most of it for them, they can have most of the cash, you can do most of the cash flowing for them, it makes their business better. So there's a lot of competing things that you need to understand. So you obviously don't want to fall into that trap where you're not getting paid for extensions of time that you've been delayed, like, unfairly, no fault of your own. You don't want to be in a situation where you're not getting paid for your change orders. Not getting paid for proper payment claims on time just because they're wanting to push their will onto you, right? So you need to be able to understand the contract and push back and understand that the best and biggest construction companies have contracts teams for a reason. It is to sign a lower risk contract. It is to have better cash flow. It is to make sure that you get paid and it is to ensure that you avoid disputes at all costs. Okay, now this is where the contracts administrator comes in. Contracts administrator, what he's going to do, really good. So I've given you a list of the different company, the different types of people, but I'm going to give you their job from start to finish, right? And depending on where you are in the chain, but generally a contracts administrator might help with your contractual documents and your tender or bid submission. Okay. He won't do the estimating. I wouldn't imagine. He will help put the documents together. He or she will help put the documents together and submit them as part of your bid or look for work, essentially. Then you're going to get given, yeah, you're going to be part of a tender. As part of that tender, the bid that you're submitting, there's going to be a contract in there. In that contract, they have essentially given you their worst terms and conditions possible. And so what you need to do is play the game and you need to say, hey, here are all the things that we don't agree to. Now, honestly, from having done over 2,500 of these in our business, you can get 80 to 90% of these what you ask for across the line. They are expecting you to negotiate. If you think by not doing it, you're doing yourself a favor, you're going to look easier to deal with, you're not. They look at you and they think you're green, you don't know what you're doing. Why is this guy not like pushing back? Right? Because everyone pushes back. So push back, you'll get 80% to 90% of things across the line. When you understand what to negotiate in the contract, the risk is going to be way, way less. You're going to set yourself up to have better cash flow during the construction. And generally, you're going to set yourself up to be more and more successful. So that's on the front end. So that you need is the contracts administrator needs the skills to understand what's in the contract, what to negotiate, how of what I negotiate impacts the project, right? What to bother negotiating for, what to— what not to bother negotiating for. Got a contract administrator that can do that, it's very, very powerful, a very, very good contracts person. In post-award, all right, so you've signed the contract, now you've got to essentially— there's 3 things you got to do, right? You've got to make sure that you get paid for all, all of the delays that are not your fault. So you're going to document them, make sure that that you're following the contract to make sure that you're compliant so that you get paid for the delays. You don't wanna take on someone else's delays. You wanna make sure that you get paid for all the additional work that you do. This is where the money is, right? So please understand that the biggest companies, oftentimes they will bid for a project at a loss knowing that they've got this part of the business sorted and they're gonna make up all of their profit in the post-award phase. So you gotta get that. That's where the money is. So get your variations, get your change orders, EOTs, whatever they're called in your contract, sorted, get them— get that process like clear as day, perfect. Okay, again, if you start off submitting your paperwork, they're just going to think you're very professional, you know what you're doing. If halfway through the project all of a sudden you're like, oh, we're not getting paid for stuff, we're going to start submitting paperwork, they're going to be like, whoa, why do you submit all this paperwork for? So start professional and they'll think, oh, these guys are very commercially savvy, they're very good. Okay, so that's the first thing. Now at the end, you need a contracts person who can understand disputes. And so when you understand what to do next, what's the strategy of a dispute, that makes a huge difference to your company. Now, there's lots of dispute experts out there, there's a lot of lawyers out there. I can guarantee you that if you're in a dispute, it is a race to see who loses the least amount of money. Nobody wins in a dispute. So avoid disputes at all costs. Even take a hit, it's worth taking a hit to avoid a dispute. Small hit to keep the relationship, to get a resolution, get money into your bank account quicker, it's definitely worth doing that. So you want to be able to devise strategies to be able to negotiate a settlement of some kind to get it done in an organized way. So if you can get a contracts administrator that has those skill sets, that one can negotiate contracts in the front end, they can do all the paperwork during the contract and can make sure that they can give you the contractual advice and help to make sure that you avoid a dispute, you're on to a win. And if you're a contracts administrator looking to see how can I be the best in my area, that's what you need to be able to work at. That's what companies will look for when they're looking for a good contracts administrator. Now, sometimes people won't pay a lot of money for a contracts administrator, and that contracts administrator is probably just going to be a paper pusher, right? Person that might do the post-award stuff, just from a paperwork point of view, doesn't really understand it. Definitely can't help you negotiate front end and definitely can't help you with a strategy. Sometimes you can get those guys who are very, very expensive. They know the front end, they know how to avoid disputes, and that's obviously very valuable to your business. But are they going to do the paperwork day to day? It's very hard to get those. So a lot of companies end up having both in their business to make sure that they have all of those things sorted. So that's it. So if you want to be a good contracts administrator, learn how to negotiate what's in the contract, Learn how to do all the paperwork to make sure that you're contractually compliant, that you get paid for everything you're supposed to get paid for. And lastly, make sure you understand strategies on how to avoid disputes. That's it. I'll see you in the next one.
