What is the time schedule?

The time schedule is a contractual document between the client and the contractor that defines the forecast sequence and progress of the work and the contractual start, finish, and milestones dates. The schedule could contain the budget cost of the project which creates the project cash flow and could have the manpower as well which makes manpower histograms.

What does it look like?

Mainly the Time Schedule Template contains two main sections, a Bar chart and an activity list as per the photo.

What are the types of time schedules?

There are a few types of schedules depending on the stage of the project :

1- Tender schedule:

This is a schedule prepared by the contractor to the client in the very beginning stages of the project, even before the project is awarded to the contractor.

It is a summary schedule clarifying how the contractor intends to execute the project (sequence and duration). This schedule does not contain a lot of details and is issued as a part of the tender documents for future reference.

2- Master Time Schedule:

The Master Time schedule is the first schedule to be issued by the contractor after the project is awarded from the client and most contracts allow for a short duration (2 weeks approximate) to submit this schedule after the letter of award. However, the master schedule should contain more details about the project rather than the tender schedule and could include budget cost, project cash flow, and resource histograms.

3- Detailed Time Schedule:

The Detailed Time Schedule is a very important document and should be created carefully as per the client’s requirements, detailed schedule should have the budget cost, resources, and equipment assigned to each activity.

After issuing the master schedule, the planning engineer should proceed with the detailed schedule which contains more details and breakdowns such as (floor, area, zone, discipline of works …. etc). Once the detailed schedule is approved by the client or the client representative (Project or Program Manager) then it is called a BASELINE SCHEDULE.

4- Baseline Time Schedule:

The baseline schedule is the client-approved version of the detailed schedule (or sometimes the master schedule) and the progress of works will be monitored against it. The dates and the values in this schedule are fixed and can not be changed.

5- Updated Time schedule:

The Updated Time Schedule is a copy of the baseline schedule with actual dates and percentages which represent the progress of work at a certain date (Data Date).

Once actual values were applied to a baseline schedule it became an updated schedule with forecast completion dates for each activity that could be earlier than the baseline schedule which means (Ahead of schedule) or after the baseline schedule dates which means (Behind the Schedule).

6- Recovery Schedule:

A recovery Schedule is a schedule prepared by the contractor to recover delays in the updated schedule. From its name, it should recover all the project delays and maintain the contractual completion date of the project. The contractor should not develop a recovery schedule if the delays are caused by other parties such as the client, other contractors/subcontractors, and are not under the contractor’s scope of work. Alternatively, the contractor should develop a revised schedule as explained below.

7-Revised Time Schedule:

The revised schedule is a new version of the baseline schedule considering some changes, delays, new scope, or omitted scope of works. Mainly the changes are not under the contractor’s control so the contractor is entitled to a new version of the time schedule to reflect the actual site conditions and schedule works accordingly. The Revised schedule could recover some delays or not. As we said delays are not caused by the contractor so it is up to the contractor to recover some delays. Furthermore, the revised schedule usually is associated with an Extension of Time EOT claim to justify the delays.

8- Accelerated Time Schedule:

Sometimes, the client asks the contractor to accelerate the project schedule for a certain duration. In that case, the contractor might accept to do schedule crashing / fast tracking to fulfill the client’s requirements by working in parallel for some activities and/or working 2 shifts instead of 1 shift. In that case, the contractor is entitled to acceleration costs.

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