Keeping the consultant list a project needs

A development engages a planner, a surveyor, an engineer, an acoustic consultant, a certifier and several others. Each one is a relationship with a fee, a turnaround and a track record. Most of that lives in an email thread nobody will read again. The traffic engineer who turned a six week job into four is worth remembering, and two projects later nobody can recall their name.

What a consultant record holds

• Their discipline, and the authorities they deal with regularly.
• The fee basis, whether fixed, hourly or per lot.
• Their real turnaround, measured rather than quoted.
• The projects they have worked on, with how each went.
• Their professional indemnity expiry, which a financier eventually requests.

None of that is exotic, and all of it gets asked at the start of the next project. Diract CRM holds each one as a real field rather than a note, which is what lets a filter answer a question. The professional indemnity expiry is the field most often missing. A certificate that lapsed in March gets discovered in June, by a financier or by a problem. Our guide to insurance renewals covers holding those dates where a filter reads them.

Turnaround is the number worth measuring

A consultant quoting three weeks and delivering in six changes the programme, and the programme is the budget. Recording the date a brief went out and the date the report arrived builds that figure over a few projects. Diract CRM keeps both as dates, so the real turnaround appears without anybody counting backwards. A quoted turnaround is a hope. A measured one is a planning input, and the gap between them is usually three weeks.

A queue is not a delay

A good consultant is busy, and their four week wait is part of their value rather than a failure. Our guide to the development programme covers booking them against the programme rather than ringing when the task arrives. A developer who books early gets the good consultant and the quoted date. One who rings on the day gets whoever is free, which is a different and more expensive outcome.

Fees belong beside the scope

A fee with no scope invites a dispute, and a scope with no fee is a variation waiting to happen. Our guide to consultant fees covers what belongs in the engagement itself. The brief belongs on the record with its date. A consultant engaged by a phone call and confirmed in a forwarded email has a scope nobody can produce six months later. The brief on the record settles a variation conversation in minutes rather than days.

One consultant, several projects

A planner working on three of a developer's projects should show all three from their own record. That view answers two questions a developer actually has. The first is whether to give them a fourth. The second is whether one consultant is running late everywhere, which looks like three separate problems until somebody puts them together. Diract CRM shows every project a consultant touched from their contact record.

Record the authority relationships

A consultant who deals with a particular council weekly moves faster there than one who does not. That is a genuine selection criterion rather than a nicety. It only exists as information where somebody wrote it on the record. Diract CRM keeps the authorities on the consultant beside their discipline, so the next project's shortlist starts from a filter.

Their team matters as much as the firm

A consultancy performs the way its assigned engineer performs, and that person changes between projects. Recording who actually did the work, rather than only the firm, makes the track record meaningful. The same applies to the ones who disappointed. A consultant who was late twice, or whose report needed rewriting, is information worth more than a blank. Recording it factually, without comment about people, keeps the note usable and fair.

The documents belong with the project

A report emailed to one person is a report the next person cannot find, and reports get referenced for years. Diract CRM stores the document against the project with the consultant linked, so both paths reach it. A developer between projects has no site and no budget, and still has a list of people who deliver. That list is most of what makes the next project faster, and it is also the easiest thing to lose.

The consultant list inside Diract CRM

Diract CRM holds each consultant as a contact with their discipline, fee basis and professional indemnity expiry as real fields. Brief sent and report received record as dates, so a real turnaround figure appears across several projects. Every project a consultant touched shows from their own record. The list outlives the project that built it, which is what gives the next one a head start.

What to change first

• Each consultant has a record with discipline, fee basis and contact
• Brief sent and report received dates build a real turnaround figure
• Consultants get booked against the programme rather than on the day
• The fee sits beside the scope it covers
• Professional indemnity expiry is a real date field
• A consultant's record shows every project they touched
• Reports store against the project with the consultant linked