EXPERTS IN CONSTRUCTION & MAINTENANCE COST CONTROL SOLUTIONS
ABOUT US
Grabianowski & Associates LLC is a niche firm specializing in the detection, prevention and recovery of overbillings and waste for construction and maintenance projects. We differentiate ourselves by providing advisory services for the entire procure-to-pay business cycle in addition to cost validation and audit services. Our unique front-end approach not only controls costs but strengthens partnerships with contractors and ensures a better project outcome. We leverage the talents of both engineers and experienced auditors with deep industry knowledge to provide a superior level of service to our clients.
OUR PROCESS
What differentiates our firm from the competition is our unique approach to saving our clients money. While some firms focus on cost recovery audits our approach is to PREVENT the overbilling to be paid in the first place. The way that we do this is by partnering with our customer’s project teams. We prefer to engage on a project in the preliminary stages, this enables us to identify and mitigate risks to the project going over-budget as early as possible.
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For the cost of a typical recovery audit our team can provide all the benefits shown in the project timeline below. With our approach we will feel like an extension of your project team and our clients get more for their money.
OUR PROCESS
We perform a project risk assessment and test of controls. Over 500 review questions and tests of controls related to: Project organization and execution plan, scope management, estimating and cost management, procurement, contract development and execution, risk management, schedule management, quality management, EH&S management and compliance. We can custom tailor an assessment or audit based on the needs of the client.
VS RECOVERY AUDIT
Project Planning & Design
We also offer services helping our clients in conducting bid evaluations and negotiation.
Bidding & Procurement
Construction
During construction we offer field validation services and can consult on the front-end concerning your laydown yard and site security. We have experience of implementing internal financial controls for care, custody and ownership of client-owned assets and materials.
Our team will support your project team by conducting concurrent invoice reviews. We agree invoices to the contractual terms and conditions and give our clients assurance that invoices have been billed correctly prior to approval. We partner with your field personnel for this step. Our process is very comprehensive, we consider over 200 review areas and test steps for agreeing payment for the entire project.
Close-out
At the close-out phase our work should be minimal as we have been agreeing payment applications for the duration of the project. Some on-site review may be required at the contractor’s location; however, it will be minimal and not as taxing to them as a full recovery audit.
A typical recovery audit will occur at the close-out phase or in many cases after all payments have been already made. While our firm can certainly provide this service, it is our comparative advantage helping our clients prevent money being paid unnecessarily.
Benefits to a front-end approach:
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Time Value of Money – no lost interest from overpayments.
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Risks to Both Parties are Identified and Mitigated Earlier - This is not just shifting risk to the contractor, identifying gaps and mitigating risks to both owner and contractor helps to maintain long-term partnerships. These are typically destroyed when projects go significantly over budget and a recovery audit is engaged.
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We Save More Money – typical recovery audits often end in negotiated settlement amounts. Our process proactively prevents overbillings and identifies cost savings opportunities throughout the whole project life cycle.​
Who can benefit the most from our process:
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Project teams with recent or high turnover.
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Project teams with less experienced project and construction managers.
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Project teams with resources spread thin.
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Organizations experiencing projects going over budget more times than not and unsure why.
See below the list of services we offer; we can conduct a complete review as described above or individual services based on the needs of the client.
OUR SERVICES
Capital & Construction
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Complete project controls risk assessments and/or audit (noted above).
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Early engagement on contracting strategies, scope development and RFP
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Pricing model selection advisory services
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Contract review – partnering with client legal representation serving as an SME
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Contract compliance review
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Labor rate buildup, equipment rate and material markup analysis and negotiation assistance
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Risk register assessments
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Competitive bidding best practices and bid evaluation
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Subcontractor risk analysis
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Project manager/invoice approver training ahead of project
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Parallel invoice approval – partnering with project managers to ensure billings are correct prior to payment
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Site services – equipment use and materials validation
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Change order validation/challenge process
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Dispute resolution support
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Post-completion reviews
Outages, Shutdowns & Turnaround Events
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Early engagement on contracting strategies, scope development and RFP
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Pricing model selection advisory services
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Labor rate buildup, equipment rate and material markup analysis and negotiation assistance
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Risk assessment for event
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Competitive bidding best practices and bid evaluation
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Subcontractor risk analysis
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Project manager/invoice approver training ahead of event
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Parallel invoice approval – partnering with project managers to ensure billings are correct prior to payment
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Change order validation/challenge process
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Dispute resolution support
Audit
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Contract close-out audits
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Contract compliance audits
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Contractor and vendor audits – individual project and all business
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Payroll true-up audits
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Discount/rebate audits
MANUFACTURING
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ENERGY
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COMMERCIAL CONSTRUCTION
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MUNICIPALITES & PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS
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CUSTOMERS WE SERVE
We offer a wide range of services to our clients, below are a few examples of who our potential clients are and what potential projects and associated problems they may have:
A Small Family-Owned Manufacturer has seen a significant increase in business and is planning to double their capacity by expanding. They only have a buyer that has never negotiated or issued a contract for a large capital project. Additionally, the plant engineer (who will be doing double-duty) will be overseeing the construction. This individual will not have the time to review reimbursable invoice support and is unaware of the risks with a project of that size.
​A Large Continuous Manufacturer has a multi-year expansion project the strategic sourcing team from the company’s headquarters has negotiated. The GC has been awarded an IPD (Integrated Project Delivery) contract for the work and it is felt that the risk of the project going over has been mitigated by selecting the IPD model. Nearing the end of year-one there are rumors the project may go over budget. It has been heard that contingency has been drawn down at a high rate due to unforeseen issues and significant weather delays. Additionally, there are rumors that verbal approvals have been given for change requests. The plant controller has read the contract and is concerned that the markup on subcontractors will actually allow the GC to recoup lost profit if the overruns are great enough due to how the contract was written. The construction manager has been approving invoices all year without support and since it was felt it was unneeded, but now the plant controller feels a construction audit may be required and is sorry a consultant wasn’t brought in at an earlier phase.
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A Commercial Real Estate Developer has only been in business for a few years and is about to take on the development of their largest building to date. A new investor has been brought in to finance the project and there is significant pressure to execute the project on time and at or below budget. The developer’s project manager has been spread thin overseeing concurrent projects. It is felt that a third party is needed to help validate reimbursable invoice support to prevent having to issue a lump sum contract that is known will have excessive embedded profit.
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A Mid-Sized Discrete Manufacturer has an annual plant shutdown midway through the event with a high number of change orders being proposed by contractors. The plant manager is concerned the event will be well over budget and begins to challenge the maintenance and reliability team as to why. The reliability leader challenges planners and gatekeepers and learns that poorly written scopes of work have led to significant discovery work and scope creep has ensued. It is learned that verbal change order approvals have been given by inexperienced new hires. The shutdown ends and is 30% over budget and behind schedule leading to lost revenue. The reliability team conducts a post-completion review, the result is that a plan is put in place to leverage a third-party well ahead of next year’s outage to help train those charged with scope development and oversight. A plan is also put in place to conduct a contracting strategy to minimize risk. Lastly, the third party is leveraged to help invoice approvers agree reimbursable invoice support ahead of payment and overcharges are caught timely and thereby prevented. In the next year, the event is completed on time and under budget.
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A Large Continuous Manufacturer will be having a large outage going for three weeks at year-end. In addition, a large capital project that has been ongoing and awarded as a Cost+ GMP (Cost Plus Guaranteed Maximum Price) contract will be going through its final phase and projected for startup at the outage end. The GC will also be used for numerous small projects and because of this the construction manager is concerned there may be some bleed over cost to their project. The operations and reliability teams have been having a lot of turnover and inexperienced project managers will be creating weak scopes of work and be overseeing the work and approving invoices. The mill manager prefers lump sum contracts, and he/she feels that is the best approach regardless of how well scopes are created. The construction manager and mill controller feel otherwise, and it is believed a third party may be able to help train project managers in creating work scopes and oversight of reimbursable contracts in advance of the outage. It is also felt the third-party can help bifurcate costs to their respective contract by reviewing in advance of payment all invoicing from the GC. The construction manager also realizes that since the project is coming to completion it is the perfect time to conduct a close-out audit.
Do any of the above scenario’s sound like challenges you face in your business, or are you still not sure if we can help? Complete our inquiry form below and we will be in touch shortly to discuss your project.
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Inquiries
5288 Laurel Lane
Gainesville, GA 30506
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For any inquiries please feel free to reach out to us at 678-707-6949 or through the contact form below.
CONTACT US
Email us at:
Careers
We will be actively growing our team in the coming year. We offer full remote work with travel requirements for certain roles. We are looking for people with a passion for saving clients’ money. If you feel you are a great fit, simply send over your resume and we will chat.
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Internship and Co-op opportunities: Coming soon, projected program fall 2025.