Construction delay intelligence
Construction delay intelligence for SMEs.
Predict delays. Understand their causes. Track their impact. Build the evidence.
DelayGuard brings site progress, timesheets, procurement, deliveries and subcontractor information into one structured project view — helping contractors identify emerging delay risk, understand its likely cause and create a stronger record of what happened.
Illustrative UI mockup
Project overview
Riverside Commercial Build
Delay risk
High
Phase-level signal
At-risk phase
Mechanical Installation
Likely cause
Late Material Delivery
Programme impact
+6 days
Budget variance
+£28,500
Evidence
✓ Structured
Programme comparison
About DelayGuard
Built around the real problem behind construction delays.
Construction delays rarely come from a single red flag on a dashboard. They emerge from a sequence of events — a late delivery, an unanswered request, an incomplete activity, a subcontractor issue or a programme dependency that was never properly recorded.
DelayGuard is designed to connect those events into a structured project record, helping SME contractors move from simply recording what happened to understanding what is happening, why it is happening and what evidence exists.
The problem today
Delays are recorded, not understood
- Delays are often discovered after the fact rather than predicted.
- A contractor may know a project is delayed but not clearly understand why.
- Responsibility for delays can become disputed weeks later.
- Project records are fragmented across spreadsheets, WhatsApp messages, paper diaries and different data sources.
- Cost overruns can become visible only after the financial damage has already happened.
- Subcontractor performance is often based on memory and reputation instead of structured historical data.
- Client reporting can be manual, inconsistent and time-consuming.
The DelayGuard approach
Structured delay intelligence
- Phase-level delay risk generated from live project progress.
- Recorded events classified against a structured attribution framework.
- The likely responsible party identified from available project information.
- One structured project record instead of scattered sources.
- Budget versus actual tracking connected to recorded delay events.
- Subcontractor scorecards built from delivery, responsiveness and quality history.
- Structured client-facing progress reports generated from project data.
Positioning
Designed for the gap between spreadsheets and enterprise platforms.
Enterprise construction platforms can be expensive and complex for smaller contractors. Generic project-management tools can help with coordination but do not provide construction-specific delay attribution. DelayGuard is designed specifically around the gap between those two.
Common today
Spreadsheets / WhatsApp
- Reactive
- Fragmented
- No prediction
- Weak evidence
Purpose-built
DelayGuard
- Predictive
- Structured
- Construction-specific
- Attribution-focused
- Evidence-oriented
Common today
Enterprise platforms
- Powerful
- Complex
- Enterprise-focused
- Higher configuration overhead
Built for the contractors who need better project intelligence without enterprise-level complexity — within a UK market of approximately 885,200 construction businesses.
Founder
Zainab Nawal
Founder & Core Innovation Lead
Over five years of project and operational coordination experience, including close to three years in construction at Emirates Construction from 2020–2022. She personally developed and delivers the Year 1 Power BI dashboard methodology.
The attribution framework was adapted from peer-reviewed research co-authored by the founder: “An empirical assessment of the factors causing delays in project completion in the construction sector of Lahore, Pakistan”, published in the International Journal of Decision Sciences, Risk and Management.
Owns and directs the core innovation
- Delay attribution framework
- Classification logic
- Risk indicators
- Data architecture direction
- Client validation
The platform
One platform for delay intelligence, project control and evidence.
DelayGuard connects fragmented project information into a structured record, then turns that information into risk signals, attribution, programme visibility, financial insight, reporting and evidence.
Delay risk
High riskMechanical Installation
Likely cause: Material delay
Critical path
- Foundation
- Structure
- MEPDriving date
- Fit-out
Budget vs actual
- Budget
- £420,000
- Actual
- £448,500
- Variance
- +£28,500
Delay event #024
- Timestamped
- Cause classified
- Communication linked
- Evidence pack ready
Core intelligence
Unified Site Data Ingestion
Bring timesheets, procurement records, deliveries, site diary entries and other project information into one structured project record.
Year 1 · Core moduleRoot Cause Delay Classification
Classify recorded delay events against a structured attribution framework and identify the likely responsible party.
Year 1 · Core moduleDelay Risk Prediction Engine
Use live project progress against the attribution framework to generate phase-level delay risk and identify the most likely responsible party.
Year 1 model is rules-based. It can be refined as labelled project data grows.
Year 1 · Core moduleCritical Path & Programme Visualisation
See which activities are actually driving the project completion date instead of relying on static programme views.
Year 1 · Core moduleFinancial & performance control
Budget vs Actual Cost Tracking
Track spend against budget by project phase and connect cost variance with recorded delay events.
Year 1 · Core moduleSubcontractor Performance Scorecards
Track delivery timeliness, responsiveness and quality to build a structured history of subcontractor performance.
Year 1 · Core moduleAutomated Progress & Client Reporting
Generate structured client-facing progress reports directly from project data.
Year 1 · Core moduleEvidence & field capture
Dispute-Ready Evidence Pack Generator
Compile timestamped site activity, delay events, causes and communications into a structured evidence pack.
Year 1 · Core moduleMobile Site Capture App
Designed for foremen and site teams, with a low-friction approach that aims to generate useful risk information even from partial and imperfect field data.
A scoped Year 1 build.
Year 1 · Core moduleSubcontractor scorecard
Illustrative UIClient progress report
Illustrative UIComing in later phases
Roadmap / planned features
These capabilities are planned in the business plan and are not part of the Year 1 build. They are shown here as roadmap items only.
Weather & Supply Chain Risk Overlay
Layer forecast weather and known supply-chain risks onto the live programme and cross-reference them with project delay history.
Compliance & Health & Safety Log
Keep compliance and health & safety documentation centrally organised with a clear audit trail.
Portfolio Benchmarking
Use anonymised delay and productivity patterns to provide contractors with benchmarking insights across the client base.
How it works
From site activity to a defensible record.
DelayGuard follows the natural rhythm of a live project — capture what happens, structure it, and keep the record ready for when it matters.
- 01
Onboard the project
We set up the project structure, phases and programme baseline with you, so recorded activity can be compared against what was planned.
- 02
Capture site information
Timesheets, procurement records, deliveries, subcontractor updates and site diary entries are collected into a single structured project record.
- 03
Structure and classify
Delay events are recorded, classified against the attribution framework and linked to the phase and likely responsible party.
- 04
Surface emerging risk
Phase-level indicators highlight where delay risk is building and which cause is driving it, based on the information recorded on the project.
- 05
Track programme and cost impact
Recorded delay events are carried through to programme movement and cost variance so impact is visible while the project is live.
- 06
Build the evidence record
The structured, timestamped history becomes an evidence pack that supports conversations, claims and post-project review.
In Year 1, delivery is founder-led: reporting is produced through a structured Power BI dashboard methodology built directly around each pilot project, with close support throughout.
Pricing
Founder-led pilots now. Per-project pricing planned.
Pricing follows the DelayGuard business plan. Year 1 is a paid pilot phase delivered directly by the founder; later years move to a per-project subscription model.
Year 1 · Founder-led pilot
Pilot Engagement
£1,200
one-off build fee
£500/month
ongoing service
- Project setup, phases and programme baseline
- Unified capture of site, labour, procurement and delivery information
- Delay event recording and root cause classification
- Phase-level delay risk indicators
- Programme and cost impact tracking
- Structured evidence record for each delay event
- Founder-led delivery with Power BI reporting methodology
Year 2 · Planned
Per-Project Subscription
£75 / live project / month
£225
onboarding per project
The business plan models an average of four live projects per customer, implying roughly £300 per month per customer at that level of usage.
Year 3 · Planning note
Later planning assumes £80 per live project per month and £250 onboarding per project, implying around £320 per month per customer at four live projects.
DelayGuard is in a founder-led pilot phase. Year 2 and Year 3 pricing is planned in the business plan and remains subject to validation with pilot customers. Figures on this page are taken directly from the plan and are not offers of future pricing.
FAQ
Questions, answered plainly.
Straight answers about what DelayGuard is today, how it works and what is still planned.
Year 1 · Founder-led pilot phase
Take the guesswork out of construction delays.
DelayGuard is onboarding a small number of UK SME subcontractors and trade contractors into paid pilot engagements. If delays on your projects are being caused by others, the record you keep matters.