Audit an answer before it goes on paper

1 · Learn the move · Fact-check list

On a job, 'invented' looks like competence. A unit price nobody gave the model. A code section with a tidy number that sounds right. A span or a load figure. A lien deadline counted in days. The words 'per code' with no code named. It all reads like a proposal from someone who knows the trade. The audit is a list, not a gut check. Pull every number and every claim out of the draft, one per line, and next to each one write the record that proves it: your takeoff, the sub's quote, the supplier's price sheet, the spec, the drawing. Anything about code or a lien date does not get a record from you; it goes to the building department or your attorney, and the draft says so. Anything else without a record gets [NEEDS: what], and the paper does not go out until every [NEEDS] is gone. The model builds the list. It fills in nothing. Draft copy, not legal or code advice. Reviewed by: nobody yet.

Here is a draft proposal: [paste]. List every number and claim in it, one per line: quantities, unit prices, totals, dates, durations, code references, product names, warranty words. Next to each, write which record would prove it (my takeoff / sub quote / supplier sheet / spec / drawing / other). Anything about code, permits, structure or lien dates: write 'building department' or 'attorney', not a record. Do not tell me whether a number is right; you cannot know. End with the count and the records I need to open.