9 November 2026

The handover pack: what has to exist before practical completion

At the end the argument is rarely about the work and almost always about the paperwork. What goes in the pack, why it is built during the job rather than after it, and the gaps that push practical completion out.

The plant runs, commissioning is signed off, the outstanding works are closed. Practical completion slips seven weeks because four test certificates and the operator training record are missing.

That is the norm rather than the exception. At the end of a job the argument is rarely about the work and almost always about the documents that go with it.

What goes in

• Work-as-executed drawings, not the construction set with mark-ups.
• Test and inspection records from the ITP, complete and dated, above all for anything now concealed.
• Certificates and compliance documentation for installed products, traceable to delivery dockets.
• The operation and maintenance manual: operation, service intervals, spares, contacts.
• Commissioning and training records with the names of the people trained.
• Closed NCRs and the outstanding-works list as at the date of practical completion.
• Manufacturer warranties where they run beyond your own defects liability.

Why it is built during the job

A test record for a concealed element cannot be created after it is closed. A delivery docket not filed at the time of installation is recoverable nine months later at considerable cost, or not at all. The pack is not an end-of-job task, it is the result of what should have been produced along the way.

The in-progress test is one question: could we hand the pack over today, at the current stage? If the answer is no and the reason is not work still to be done, something is already missing and it will cost more later.

The link to money

Practical completion is what releases the first tranche of retention on most subcontracts, and the defects liability period that follows is what holds the rest. A pack that is short of four certificates does not delay a formality, it delays the release of money that is already yours.

What the product does with it

In VariationFlow the pack assembles from the records the job produces anyway: the inspections, the NCRs, the approvals. What is missing shows as a gap while there are still people on site, rather than in the week before practical completion.

Decision support, not legal advice. What your subcontract requires at handover is in your subcontract.