Call-up sheets

A call-up sheet tells a subcontractor when they are needed. The Call up view generates them from the schedule, so the dates come from the programme rather than from somebody’s memory.

Call up (weeks)

Call up (weeks) on a task is how far ahead that trade needs telling.

Set it per task, because trades differ enormously:

Trade	Typical notice
Concrete	1 week
Carpenter	2 weeks
Plasterer	2 weeks
Roof tiler	2 weeks
Cabinetmaker	6 weeks — it is a manufacturing lead time
Windows	8 weeks — ordered, not called up
Crane	1 week, and confirm the day before

Ask each of your regular subcontractors what notice they want and set it once. It is the difference between a trade turning up and a trade being on someone else’s job.

Long-lead items are orders, not call-ups

Cabinets and windows need ordering months ahead, not calling up two weeks ahead. If a long-lead item is only in your schedule as a call-up, it is already late. Put the order date in the schedule as its own task.

Running the weekly call-up

The Call up view shows what is due to be called based on each task’s notice period and its scheduled start.

A workable routine, same time each week:

1. Open the Call up view.
2. Work down what is due.
3. Send each call-up.
4. Note the ones that need confirming — see Bookings.
5. Chase last week’s unconfirmed ones.

Twenty minutes on a Monday morning, across every job.

What a call-up should say

Four things, and the sheet carries them from the task:

• What the work is — the task name, which is why naming tasks properly matters
• When — the date, and how long you have allowed
• Where — the site address, from the project
• Anything they need to know — access, materials, who else is on site

Concrete, Tuesday is not a call-up. Slab pour, 18.6 m³ N32, Tuesday 14 Oct from 7am, 18 Beach Road Torquay, pump booked, access via rear lane is one.

Confirm, do not just send

A call-up that has been sent is not a trade that is coming. Confirmations are tracked in Bookings, and the gap between sent and confirmed is where lost days live.

When the schedule moves

If a task moves after its call-up has gone out, tell the trade — and say what changed rather than just sending a new date.

A subcontractor who receives a second sheet with a different date and no explanation often assumes the first was wrong, or ignores it. One who is told “the frame inspection slipped, so you are now Thursday not Tuesday” re-plans around you.

Call-ups and orders

A call-up is not an order. The order commits the money and the scope; the call-up says when to come.

Both usually go to the same subcontractor for the same work, and both are needed. A trade with an order but no call-up does not know when; a trade with a call-up but no order has no agreed price.