30 January 2026 · Case Study
Case Study: Stepping In When a Project Coordinator Resigned Mid-Build
Details have been generalised and client information withheld at their request.
The situation
A residential builder was seven weeks into a $1.4M whole-of-house renovation in Melbourne's west — an occupied renovation with a complex programme, four active subcontractor trades, and a client with weekly progress reporting expectations.
Their project coordinator — the person running the cost reports, processing subcontractor invoices, and maintaining the variation register — resigned with two weeks' notice. The builder had no internal candidate to step into the role immediately, and the next payment cycle was eleven days away.
The immediate priority
The handover from the outgoing coordinator took place over three sessions across two days. It became clear quickly that the documentation state was mixed: the cost plan was four weeks out of date, the variation register had six items but the builder estimated twelve to fifteen had been instructed, and the subcontractor invoice files were organised by trade but not cross-referenced to the cost plan.
The immediate priority was to have a defensible cost plan and a complete variation register before the next payment cycle — not to perfectly reconstruct the entire project history.
What we did
Day 1–2: Worked through the variation register with the builder's principal and site supervisor. Reconstructed undocumented variations from emails, WhatsApp messages, and the site supervisor's notebook. Eleven additional variations were identified, of which nine had been instructed and two had been verbally discussed but not formally authorised.
Day 2–3: Updated the cost plan to reflect the current contract sum (original plus approved variations), the subcontractor commitments, and the remaining work to complete. For the four active trades, reviewed invoices against the updated cost plan and current site progress.
Day 3–4: Prepared the payment cycle documentation. Two of the four trade invoices required adjustments — one overstated progress on tiling that was visible from site photos, one claimed a variation that wasn't in the variation register and couldn't be attributed to an instruction.
Week 2: Established a weekly rhythm: a 30-minute call with the builder's principal each Monday, a site visit every fortnight, and a cost plan update after each payment cycle. This rhythm gave the builder visibility without creating overhead.
The transition back
By week eight of the engagement, the builder had recruited a new coordinator. The transition out of our involvement was planned — three weeks of parallel running, where we completed tasks alongside the incoming coordinator rather than handing over a pile of documentation at the end.
The new coordinator took over a fully documented project: current cost plan, complete variation register, organised payment records, and a note summary of the outstanding items for the remainder of the works.
What this engagement showed
The most valuable part of this engagement wasn't the cost plan or the invoice review. It was being available immediately, with enough context to be useful within 48 hours of engagement. When a key person leaves mid-project, the damage isn't usually to the documentation — it's to the continuity of oversight. That's what needed to be maintained.
If a key person has left your project team and you need someone to step in immediately, contact us — we can typically be operational within 24–48 hours of engagement.
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