Commercial Management — Sub-Service

Margin protection reviews — find the leakage before year-end does.

Leakage audits, forensic commercial reviews, recovery planning on distressed jobs, cost coding integrity checks. Independent review of where margin is being lost — and structured recovery planning to get it back.

Initial Commercial Risk Assessment Discuss this service

What this service is

Margin Protection Reviews — the discipline behind it.

Every contractor loses margin. The question is whether it's visible and understood, or invisible and denied. Margin protection reviews are the discipline of finding the leakage — unclaimed variations, absorbed scope creep, uncertified value, mispriced star rates, uncontrolled cost coding, un-recovered financing cost, defensive over-provision, silent write-downs.

This is unglamorous work. It requires independence from the project team that generated the position being reviewed. It requires senior commercial judgment about what the numbers actually mean. And it requires the discipline to report findings honestly even where the findings are unwelcome. Done well, it's one of the highest-return commercial exercises a contractor can commission.

Ashforte's service delivers structured margin reviews at project or portfolio level. Findings are documented. Recovery opportunities are quantified. Action plans are practical. Follow-through discipline is agreed upfront so findings translate into recovery, not just reports.

Delivered the Ashforte way

This service is delivered as part of Ashforte's shared senior capability model. Recurring workstreams run to standardized procedures. Senior review sits over every output. Applied consistently across one project or across your full portfolio — at materially lower cost than staffing the equivalent capability separately on each job.

When contractors bring us in

The trigger signals for margin protection reviews.

Most engagements begin at one of these trigger points. If any of them match your situation, the Initial Commercial Risk Assessment is usually the fastest way to establish scope.

Discuss an engagement

01Reported margin has diverged from expected outcome and the reasons are unclear.
02A distressed project needs an honest position review.
03Multiple projects on the portfolio are showing margin deterioration in different ways.
04Year-end is approaching and leadership wants an independent view before finalisation.
05A specific project has closed at a materially lower margin than forecast and root causes need to be understood for future projects.
06Auditors, funders or shareholders have raised questions about margin discipline.

Scope of work

What's actually delivered.

The scope below is illustrative — every engagement is shaped around the contractor's specific project, contract form and commercial exposure. Any element can be scoped standalone or bundled with adjacent workstreams.

Review scope

Contract sum vs earned reconciliation
Variation and claim recovery review
Cost coding integrity
Provision and write-down review
Subcontract exposure review

Forensic depth

Correspondence review
Notice discipline audit
Record base defensibility
Programme integrity check
CVR historical trajectory

Recovery planning

Recoverable position quantification
Recovery action prioritisation
Ownership and timelines
Escalation triggers
Follow-through discipline

Typical outputs

Documented. Defensible. Delivered.

Every engagement produces a defined set of tangible outputs. The client keeps everything — records, templates, dashboards, procedures. Ashforte's role is to build the discipline; the client's role is to run it.

01
Margin position report per project or portfolio.
02
Leakage inventory with quantum and recoverability assessment.
03
Recovery action plan with owners and timelines.
04
Cost coding integrity findings.
05
Provision and write-down commentary.
06
Executive summary for commercial director / COO.
07
Board-level margin briefing pack.
08
Follow-through review at defined intervals.

Engagement

Scoped for the situation. Sized for contractor economics.

Margin protection reviews are usually delivered as fixed-scope engagements — one project or one portfolio, defined findings, defined recovery plan. Follow-through review can be scoped as continuing support or absorbed into a Portfolio Retainer where broader commercial coverage is warranted.

Engagement models in detail

FAQ

Common questions.

Isn't this what internal audit does?

Internal audit tests compliance with procedures. Margin protection review tests whether the commercial position is real. The two are related but distinct. Where internal audit exists and is effective, our review complements it by adding senior commercial judgment about what the numbers mean commercially, not just procedurally.

What if the findings are unwelcome?

Then they're delivered honestly, with commercial context and recovery options. What we don't do is soften findings to avoid discomfort — that undermines the purpose of the review. What we do is present findings in a way that supports action rather than blame, because the objective is recovery, not accountability.

Next step

Discuss margin protection reviews for your project.

Every engagement starts with a scoping conversation. Reach out with the specifics of your situation — live project, contract form, current pressure — and we'll set up the right first step.

Start the conversation

Related sub-services.

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