What is included in general conditions?

The costs of operating the project that are not part of any single trade's permanent work. The big one is time-related supervision and management: the superintendent, project manager, project engineer, and their support. Then come the site facilities, the field office and trailer, temporary power, water, and sanitation, fencing and signage, shared hoisting and small equipment, jobsite safety and personal protective equipment, progress cleanup and dumpsters, and project-specific insurance and permit costs. Exactly what lands in general conditions versus a trade line or the fee varies by contract, which is why the general-conditions line is defined carefully in the agreement, especially on a cost-plus or guaranteed-maximum-price job where the owner reimburses them.

Why are general conditions so exposed to schedule delay?

Because so many of them are time-related: they accrue per day or per month the project stays open, regardless of how much permanent work gets done. The superintendent's salary, the trailer rental, temporary power, and the site facilities all keep running whether the job is on schedule or two months late. That is why a delay converts directly into general-conditions cost, and why extended general conditions are the core of most compensable delay claims: when an owner-caused delay keeps the contractor on site longer, the added general-conditions cost for that period is the most straightforward damage to prove. Trade costs are largely fixed to scope; general conditions are the meter that runs with time.

What is the difference between general conditions and overhead and profit?

General conditions are project-specific; overhead and profit are not. General conditions are the indirect costs of running this particular jobsite, and they are charged to the project. Home-office overhead is the cost of running the contracting business as a whole, the back office, the executives, the rent on headquarters, allocated across all projects and usually recovered as a percentage markup rather than as a jobsite line. Profit is the fee the contractor earns above all costs. The three are kept separate because they behave differently in a claim: extended general conditions are proven with jobsite records, unabsorbed home-office overhead is calculated by a formula such as Eichleay, and profit on delay is often not recoverable at all.

Construction Glossary · Financial & Accounting

GeneralConditions

The cost of simply having the job open: the super, the trailer, the power, the safety. It buys no permanent work, and it runs on a clock.

Definition

General conditions are the indirect, time-related costs of running a project that are not tied to any specific scope of permanent work: the superintendent and project-management staff, the site office and trailer, temporary utilities, shared equipment, safety, and cleanup. They sit on a distinct budget line, often roughly 8 to 15 percent of cost, and because many of them accrue for every day the job is open, they are the costs most exposed to a schedule delay.

What the time-cost is made of

Supervision dominates, but every slice accrues while the job is open. On our project that is roughly $90K a month, so two months of delay is about $180K of extended general conditions.

Project cost, not company cost

General conditions belong to this jobsite. Overhead belongs to the business. In a delay claim, they are proven in completely different ways.

	General conditions	Home-office overhead	Profit
Scope	This jobsite	The whole business	The fee earned
Charged as	A project budget line	A percentage markup	A percentage markup
Proven in a delay by	Jobsite cost records	A formula (e.g. Eichleay)	Often not recoverable

Extended general conditions are the heart of a compensable delay claim, defended by the dated record.

How POD tracks general conditions

POD recognizes a general-conditions line in your confirmed budget as a level-of-effort item and tracks its budget and confirmed actual-to-date beside the schedule that drives it, so the time-related overhead is visible where the field record lives. Because general conditions accrue with time, seeing them beside a slipping finish date is where the value is: the dated daily record that would support an extended-general-conditions claim lives in the same place. POD reads and reconciles the general-conditions budget and actuals you provide; it does not compute a delay’s general-conditions damages or build your claim. It keeps the line and the record honest and together.

Construction cost management guide

Frequently asked questions

Time is the cost driver

General conditions turn a schedule slip straight into money. Which is why the finish date, and what it costs to hold it, is the whole game.

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