Case Study: How Project Safe Recovered a £100k Dispute in Real Time

Overview

When a client challenged a £100,000 payment deficit on one of Project Safe's active projects, the team needed to substantiate their entitlement — fast. Using Coreloops, they pulled together the evidence in real time, on the call, and left the client with no grounds to dispute.

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‍The Challenge

Project Safe operates under NEC contracts — a contract framework built around strict administration, defined timelines, and an explicit audit trail. When a client raised a £100,000 deficit on project 10-12, the dispute hinged on one question: could Project Safe prove it?

Under NEC, entitlement isn't just about having done the work — it's about having the records to demonstrate that Compensation Events were properly raised, scoped, and approved. Without that paper trail, even legitimate claims collapse.

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What Happened

With Coreloops, Project Safe's team was able to open the platform live on the call with the client and surface:

• Each relevant Compensation Event (CE), linked to the specific scope of work being disputed
• The approval attached to each CE, showing who authorised it and when
• A clear, timestamped audit trail with no ambiguity

As Samuel Maddison, Director at Project Safe, put it:

"We had CEs there with our approval attached to it. It was like — it really came into its own. There was no way for the client to dispute it."

The dispute was resolved without escalation. The records spoke for themselves.

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Why It Worked

NEC contracts are mechanistic by design — they require work to be administered in a specific way. Coreloops is built around that structure:

• CEs are tied to approvals — every event has a named approver and timestamp
• Records are centralised — no hunting across spreadsheets, emails, or shared drives
• Evidence is real-time — teams can surface and share records instantly, even mid-call

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The Bigger Picture

The cost of poor records isn't just losing a dispute — it can end a business. Gabriel Makinwa, CEO of Coreloops, has seen it first hand:

"I had a client who got knocked for £200k and it put them out of business. They just couldn't pull together the records in time to substantiate or go to adjudication."

For Project Safe, Coreloops has become the system of record for NEC contract administration — not just for timesheets, but for the full commercial evidence chain that protects entitlement.

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Results

Claim value at risk - £100,000

Time to surface evidence - Real time — during the client call

Dispute outcome - Resolved without escalation

Method - CE records with approvals retrieved live in Coreloops

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Project Safe is a project office talent consultancy operating across UK infrastructure projects under NEC contract frameworks.