For general contractors, subcontractors and owners
CPM scheduling services in Primavera P6
Baseline schedules, look-aheads, updates and delay analysis built with the Critical Path Method, in Primavera P6 or Microsoft Project, to the scheduling specification in your contract.
- Primavera P6 and Microsoft Project
- Cost-loaded and resource-loaded
- Built to your contract specification
In short
CPM scheduling at a glance
CPM scheduling is the planning of a construction project with the Critical Path Method: every activity is listed with its duration and linked to the activities before and after it, and the longest chain of linked activities, the critical path, sets the finish date. MassBid Estimation builds Primavera P6 CPM schedules: baselines, resource-loaded and cost-loaded schedules, look-ahead schedules, monthly updates and delay analysis in Primavera P6 and Microsoft Project, for general contractors, subcontractors and owners. A schedule can be built from the same quantities as your estimate, so time and cost describe the same job.
- Method
- Critical Path Method (CPM)
- Software
- Oracle Primavera P6 and Microsoft Project
- Schedules
- Baseline, resource-loaded, cost-loaded, look-ahead, update, recovery
- Analysis
- Critical path, float, delay and time impact analysis
- Built from
- Your drawings, contract milestones and the scheduling specification
- You receive
- The native schedule file, a bar chart in PDF and a written narrative
- Pairs with
- A MassBid estimate, so quantities and durations match
- Quote
- Free. Price and delivery time are quoted from the documents
Notice to proceed · Day 10
The contract asks for a baseline schedule in two weeks, and nobody in the office builds them.
Most contracts above a certain size require a CPM schedule: a baseline soon after award, an update with every pay application, and an analysis whenever the finish date is threatened. Owners reject schedules that do not meet the specification, and a rejected schedule can hold up payment.
Building one takes software that most small and mid-sized contractors do not use every day. Four things decide whether a schedule is accepted and then stays useful.
Four ways a construction schedule fails
01 · The logic
Activities with no ties
A bar chart drawn by hand shows when things happen but not why. Without a predecessor and a successor on every activity, there is no critical path and the dates do not move when something slips.
What changes
Every activity is linked, so the schedule recalculates and the critical path is real.
02 · The specification
A schedule the owner sends back
Scheduling specifications set rules: maximum activity durations, required milestones, cost loading, calendars, and limits on constraints and lags.
What changes
The schedule is built to the specification section in your contract, and checked against it before delivery.
03 · The durations
Durations that are guesses
A duration should come from a quantity and a production rate, not from a round number.
What changes
Where we also prepare the estimate, durations are taken from its quantities and labor hours.
04 · The updates
A baseline that is never updated
A schedule that is not updated stops matching the job within weeks, and cannot support a time extension later.
What changes
Updates record actual dates and remaining durations each period, with a narrative of what changed and why.
Then and now
The schedules a project needs, in order
Each one is built from the one before it.
Baseline schedule
The plan at the start: every activity, its duration and logic, the contract milestones and the critical path. It is the yardstick every later update is measured against.
Cost-loaded and resource-loaded schedule
A cost-loaded schedule puts a dollar value from the schedule of values on each activity, so the activities add up to the contract sum, the schedule produces a cash flow curve, and pay applications can be measured against percent complete. A resource-loaded schedule assigns crews or labor hours instead, to show manpower peaks.
Look-ahead schedules
A three-week or six-week window taken from the master schedule, in the detail a superintendent and the trades work from.
Updates, recovery and delay analysis
Monthly updates with actual progress, a recovery schedule when the date slips, and a time impact analysis when a change or delay has to be shown.
What you receive
CPM scheduling deliverables and when each is used
A scheduling engagement is priced by the deliverables the contract calls for. These are the ones requested most often.
Tell us which the specification requires. If you are not sure, send the specification and we will list them for you in the quote.
Deliverables are prepared to the scheduling specification in your contract. Where the specification names a software version or file format, the schedule is delivered in it.
| Deliverable | What it contains | When it is used |
|---|---|---|
| Baseline CPM schedule | Activities, durations, logic, calendars, milestones and the critical path | Within the period the contract sets after award |
| Cost-loaded schedule | A dollar value on each activity, adding up to the contract sum | Where pay applications are tied to the schedule |
| Resource-loaded schedule | Crews or labor hours on each activity | To check manpower peaks and trade stacking |
| Look-ahead schedule | The next three or six weeks in field-level detail | Weekly coordination meetings |
| Schedule update | Actual start and finish dates, remaining durations and a narrative | Each month, usually with the pay application |
| Recovery schedule | Resequenced or accelerated work to regain lost time | When an update shows a late finish |
| Time impact analysis | A fragment of new activities inserted to show the effect of a change or delay | To support a request for a time extension |
Who it is for
Who uses our scheduling services
General contractors
Baseline and monthly updates for the owner, look-aheads for the field.
GC estimatingSubcontractors
A schedule of your own trade, to coordinate with the general contractor's.
Commercial estimatingDevelopers and owners
An early schedule beside the budget, before a contractor is on board.
Preliminary estimatingTeams working in BIM
A schedule linked to the model for 4D sequencing.
BIM estimating
Schedules and analyses we prepare
- Baseline schedule
- Bid schedule
- Cost-loaded schedule
- Resource-loaded schedule
- Three-week look-ahead
- Six-week look-ahead
- Monthly update
- Schedule narrative
- Recovery schedule
- Time impact analysis
- Delay analysis
- 4D schedule
How it works
From contract documents to a finished schedule
Send the documents
Drawings, the scheduling specification, the contract milestones and completion date, and your estimate or schedule of values if you have one.
Free quote
We review what the contract requires and reply with a price and a delivery date for each deliverable.
Build and review with you
We build the activity list and logic, then go through sequence, durations and crew assumptions with you, because the schedule has to reflect how you plan to build.
Delivery
You receive the native Primavera P6 or Microsoft Project file, a bar chart in PDF and a narrative, ready to submit.
The work is done in-house by more than 20 estimators, typically with 7 to 10 years of industry experience.
What it costs
What CPM scheduling costs
- Baseline schedule
- Quoted from the drawings and the scheduling specification.
- Updates and look-aheads
- Quoted per update, or as a monthly arrangement for the length of the job.
- Schedule with an estimate
- Quoted together when we prepare both.
Contractors who do not keep a full-time estimator use this as outsourced cpm scheduling: send the drawings when a bid comes up and pay per project.
Every job is quoted individually from the drawings, and the quote is free. See all pricing
Questions
CPM scheduling FAQ
CPM stands for Critical Path Method. Every activity in a project is given a duration and linked to the activities it depends on. The longest chain of linked activities is the critical path, and it sets the earliest date the project can finish. A delay to any activity on that path delays the finish.
The sequence of linked activities with no float, meaning no spare time. If any one of them takes a day longer, the project finishes a day later unless time is made up elsewhere.
The amount of time an activity can slip without delaying the project finish. Activities on the critical path have zero float. Float is a shared resource on most contracts, which is why owners and contractors both watch it.
The approved plan at the start of the job, showing how the contractor intends to build it within the contract time. Every later update is compared with it to measure progress and delay.
Both. Tell us which the contract requires. Schedules are delivered as the native file, a PDF bar chart and a written narrative.
A cost-loaded schedule is a CPM schedule in which each activity carries a dollar value from the schedule of values, and the activities add up to the contract sum. It produces a cash flow curve, and many owners pay monthly against the percent complete of each activity.
Each line of the schedule of values is assigned to the activities that perform it, as resource or expense costs in P6. We then check that the loaded costs add up to the contract sum and that the cash flow curve is reasonable before the schedule is submitted.
A Critical Path Method schedule built in Oracle Primavera P6, the scheduling software many public owners and large contractors require. It holds the activities, durations, logic links, calendars and costs, and is delivered as a native .XER file with a PDF bar chart.
A short window of the master schedule, usually three or six weeks, shown in the detail the field works from. It is used in weekly coordination meetings.
Yes. When we prepare both, durations are taken from the estimate's quantities and labor hours, and a cost-loaded schedule uses the estimate's figures, so time and cost describe the same scope.
The drawings, the scheduling specification, the contract milestones and completion date, and any phasing, access or working-hour restrictions. An estimate or schedule of values helps with durations and cost loading.
Both depend on the size of the project and what the specification requires, so they are quoted from the documents. The quote is free and states the price and delivery date for each deliverable.
Related services and service areas
Need a schedule the owner will accept? Send the documents.
Send the drawings and the scheduling specification for a free quote. You get a price and a delivery date for each schedule the contract requires.