Dayworks is a method of valuing work by the actual labour, plant and materials used, rather than by measured quantities or an agreed price. It is used for small or urgent jobs that cannot be priced in advance, and it is supported by daywork sheets signed by the Client's representative.
Rates come from the contract or from a recognised published definition of prime cost of daywork, with percentages added.
Worked example
A Main Contractor is instructed to carry out a small amount of unplanned drainage work, to be valued as daywork. Two operatives work for a day at the contract's daywork rates, a mini-digger is hired, and £240 of materials are used.
| Item | £ |
|---|---|
| Labour, 2 operatives, 8 hours each, at £32/hour | 512 |
| Plant, mini-digger, 1 day | 180 |
| Materials at invoice cost | 240 |
| Subtotal | 932 |
| Percentage addition at 12% | 111.84 |
| Total daywork value | 1,043.84 |
The rates and the percentage are examples. The real ones come from the contract's daywork schedule.
Dayworks in the cost report
Dayworks cause trouble because cost arrives before value. The labour is paid, the invoice is booked, and the client has not yet signed the sheet. On a CVR, put each daywork instruction in its own Variation line, forecast the value at the sheet total, and treat unsigned sheets as at risk. The usual fixes are simple:
- Get the sheet signed the same day or the next morning.
- Check the instruction before work starts.
- Send the sheets with the next application for payment.
For subcontractors, the same discipline applies one level down. A main contractor will find it hard to recover daywork from its client without a signed sheet, so it will expect the same record from its subcontractors.
Related terms
Variation, Time and Materials (T&M) Contract, Schedule of Rates, Valuation, Billable Rates, Quantum Meruit.
Planyard's variations let you log each daywork instruction against the job, so cost and agreed value sit side by side in the CVR.
