Can Pathizer attribute delay by contractor?

It attributes the movement on the driving path to the contractors assigned to those activities in the schedule. If the coding is missing or wrong, the totals will be too, so check the contractor source first.

How is exposure priced?

With the risk rate set on the phase milestone, which covers liquidated damages and general conditions. Days multiplied by that rate give exposure, not an adjudicated loss.

Is contractor exposure the same as legal liability?

No. Exposure is what the schedule record ties to a contractor's activities. Liability turns on the contract, the notices and the facts, and it is for the parties and counsel.

What if my schedule has no contractor coding at all?

Pathizer derives a 16-division MasterFormat code from activity names and WBS so the first analysis still has contractors to report. Treat that derived coding as a starting point and replace it with your own activity code when you have one.

Can I change the Contractor Source after an analysis?

Yes. A settings change marks the analysis stale; run it again and the totals follow the new source.

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Contractor delay attribution

Contractor Delay Attribution Software

See which contractors' activities drove each phase milestone's movement, update by update, from your schedule's contractor coding or a code Pathizer derives.

Review my schedule update

Why contractor attribution is harder than it looks

A CPM schedule is built to calculate dates, not to record responsibility. Some schedules assign each activity a resource that stands for the trade; some carry a responsibility or MasterFormat activity code; many carry neither consistently. Attribution by contractor can only be as good as that coding, and a total built on a missing or wrong code is wrong in a way that looks precise.

There is a second distinction worth keeping: the party coded on an activity is the party performing the work, which is not necessarily the party responsible for its delay. Exposure tied to a contractor's activities is a reading of the schedule record, not a finding of fault.

How Pathizer chooses the Contractor Source

On each analysis run, while the project is on the default source, the latest update decides. Resource assignments are used when the update has at least two distinct resources and three quarters of its work activities carry one. Otherwise Pathizer looks for an existing MasterFormat style activity code assigned to at least half the activities. Failing both, it derives a 16-division code from activity names and WBS, with Owner and General Contractor always present, a language model proposing each activity's division, and fixed rules covering anything the model does not return.

Work described as by owner goes to Owner, and voided activities are labelled Void. The derived code is an overlay: the uploaded XER is not edited. An activity code you choose as the Contractor Source in the analysis settings is never overridden. When resources are the source, assign no more than one resource per activity for the cleanest results.

Reading the contractor totals

For each phase milestone and window, the movement on the driving path is totalled by the contractor on each activity. Activities with no value in the chosen source are reported as Blank instead of being spread across the others. In the Executive Summary each contractor shows delay and recovery in calendar days, their sum, the estimated financial impact at the phase's risk rate, and links to the evidence.

Who It Is For

For owners and GCs who need contractor exposure they can trace back to the schedule

OwnersGeneral contractorsForensic analystsProject executives

What Pathizer Does

Take each activity's contractor from the schedule: its resource assignments, or an activity code you pick, such as a CSI MasterFormat code. When the file carries neither, Pathizer derives a MasterFormat code without editing the file.

Total each contractor's share of the movement on the driving path to each phase milestone, window by window.

Report activities with no contractor as Blank instead of spreading them across the others.

Open any contractor total down to the activities and update windows behind it.

Practical Outputs

What you get.

Contractor Risk Exposure per phase

Contractor totals per update window

A Blank line for activities with no contractor

The activities behind each total

Related Workflows

FAQ

Open your latest schedule update. Add last month's to see what changed. The free tools need no account.