List commitments by their actual trigger
Separate preliminary work, the building contract, owner-appointed advisers, direct purchases and operating setup. For each item, record what authorises the payment and the expected date or milestone. Keep quotes, commitments, invoices and paid amounts as different states.
Use the payment terms in the reviewed contract rather than a generic schedule from another project. A calendar based on assumed stages can be misleading if the contract uses different milestones or the owner’s work falls outside them.
Show funds available beside payments due
Record confirmed available cash and any funding arrangements with their own conditions and timing. A proposed facility is not the same as money available for the next payment. Ask the relevant provider and adviser which records are needed for a draw.
Keep personal funding choices and lender assessment outside an unsupported website calculation. The project model should expose its assumptions, including when funding is expected, rather than imply that a particular borrowing arrangement is available to every owner.
Model the cash effect of an unresolved decision
A service route, delayed selection or site issue can shift both the work programme and its payments. Keep the reason for the change and update the affected rows. Do not re-date the whole model without showing what moved.
Use a separate scenario for a delay and a separate scenario for a scope change. They may have different cash effects. CAV’s contract-change guidance provides the starting point for keeping changes documented; project-specific payment and timing terms still matter.
Start rent at the operational milestone
Construction completion, possession, readiness to advertise, signed tenancy and first collected rent are different dates. A cash model should not start all rooms at full occupancy merely because the builder reaches the last payment stage.
Show completion documentation, outstanding owner work, furnishing where applicable, utility arrangements and letting tasks before the first receipt. The building permit identifies the relevant completion document. Build the operating ramp from explicit assumptions or actual evidence as the project progresses.
Review the cash position without relabelling a projection
For each period, reconcile opening cash, receipts, payments and closing cash. Keep planned and actual columns so changes remain visible. If the model uses rental assumptions, leave the label in place after exporting a chart or summary.
A project-period cash result and an annualised return answer different questions. Where return analysis is needed, use actual dated cash movements and the appropriate professional input. Construction delivery does not turn a scenario into a guaranteed financial outcome.
Documents to take to the next conversation
- Payment triggers and dates from the current contract and supplier terms.
- Funding availability and outstanding draw conditions.
- Separate timing and scope-change scenarios.
- Completion-to-first-rent tasks, with planned and actual cash columns.
Questions owners ask
Should rent begin on the final construction payment date?
Not automatically. Completion documentation, owner work, operating setup, letting and the first collected payment have separate milestones.
Why model timing if the total project cost is already known?
Timing determines when cash is needed. The same total can create different funding requirements when claims, owner work or first rent move.