Knowledge
Margin, rework and ISO 9001: your questions answered
Guides, tools and definitions for UK businesses that quote, deliver and install. Free to read, no sign-up.
Quick answers
- Why do we lose margin on jobs we priced correctly?
- Usually because the job you priced isn’t quite the job you build: specials described differently on the quote, the drawing and the purchase order, and changes absorbed instead of priced. Read more →
- Why do we keep going back to site for missing items?
- Because nobody shares one definition of “complete”, and some missing items were never on the order, so no dispatch check could catch them. Read more →
- What does a return visit really cost?
- Usually many times the value of the part, once the fitters’ time, the van, travel and the office time to arrange it are counted. Read more →
- What is margin fade?
- The gap between the margin a job was priced at and the margin it makes by the end. In project businesses most of it happens after the job is won. Read more →
- How do we work out what rework really costs?
- Count last year’s remakes and return visits, agree a conservative cost for each with finance, and multiply. The real figure is usually bigger than the rework log suggests. Read more →
- Can we charge a supplier for the cost of their mistake?
- Often, if your terms give you a route and you can evidence the fault and the cost. Check your own purchase order first: many supplier faults start there. Read more →
- When do we have to move to ISO 9001:2026?
- The 2026 edition was published on 16 September 2026. Certificates to the 2015 edition remain valid until 30 September 2029. Read more →
- Does Curavest issue ISO 9001 certificates?
- No. We prepare you for certification; the certificate itself is issued by an independent certification body. Read more →
- What is containment?
- The immediate action that stops a problem spreading or reaching more customers, taken before the root cause is properly understood. Read more →
- What does on-time-in-full (OTIF) measure?
- The share of deliveries that arrive on the promised date with everything ordered. On time but one item short counts as a failure. Read more →
Margin and project GP
Where gross profit escapes after the job is won, and how to put a number on it.
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Guide
Where project businesses lose margin after the job is won
The twelve stages from quote to invoice, what you notice at each, and the cheap fix that usually works first.
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Tool
Cost of poor quality calculator
A rough annual figure for rework, scrap and remedial work, with the formula shown so you can check it.
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Glossary
Margin, delivery and cost terms
Margin fade, return visits, OTIF, rework, right first time and the cost of poor quality.
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Guide
Your credit notes are a quality report. Here's how to read them
How to sort a year of credit notes by cause and cost, and find the few problems worth fixing first.
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Guide
How much does rework cost a joinery or fit-out business?
What a remake really costs once you count the return trip, management time and lost capacity, with a worked example.
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Guide
How to reduce rework in a project business, without new software
Seven low-cost fixes that remove whole families of rework, from one specification record to hold points and goods-in checks.
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Guide
Margin fade on fixed-price jobs, and how to stop it
How to measure the gap between quoted and final margin job by job, and the five causes behind most of it.
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Guide
How to recover the cost of a supplier's mistake
Why supplier claims get refused, the evidence and terms that make them stick, and the order check to run first.
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Guide
What does a return visit really cost?
How to cost a second trip to site properly, why most return visits happen, and the three checks that stop them.
ISO 9001
What the standard asks for, what changed in 2026, and how to make it serve the business.
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Guide
ISO 9001:2026: what actually changed
The revision, the 30 September 2029 transition deadline, how much work it really is, and the claims to ignore.
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Service
ISO 9001 that helps the business, not just the auditor
How a quality system built around how you actually work passes audit as a by-product.
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Glossary
Quality system terms
ISO 9001, quality management system, internal audit and gap analysis, defined for owners, not auditors.
Running quality day to day
For the people who have to make it work on a busy Tuesday.
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Guide
You’ve been made Quality Manager. Now what?
The first 90 days, making the case to the MD, and how to report progress in half a page.
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Glossary
Finding and fixing problems
Root cause analysis, 5 Whys, 8D, containment, corrective and preventive action, CAPA and non-conformance.
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Method
How we work: diagnose, contain, fix, prove
What happens week by week in a typical 90 days, and what it needs from your team.
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Guide
What to record in a rework log, with a template
The ten fields that turn a rework log from a count of incidents into a record of cause and cost, with a template to copy.
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Series
Failure File
One published UK quality failure a week: what the record shows, and a check to run on your own work on Monday.
Rather talk it through with your own numbers?
Bring a sample of your rework or remedial records to a free Margin Leak Review, and we'll show you where the money is going.
Free. About an hour. You keep the findings.