What is NTP (Notice to Proceed)?
NTP (notice to proceed) is the owner's formal authorization for a contractor to begin work under an executed contract. It fixes the contractual start date from which schedule and milestone obligations are measured. NTP typically follows financial close and permit issuance, and signals that field mobilization is days to weeks away.
NTP is the contractual moment a project stops being paperwork and starts being work. In BD usage, “NTP date” is shorthand for when a job actually begins — schedules, liquidated damages, and milestone payments all count from it. Owners issue NTP only after the conditions precedent are satisfied: financing closed, permits in hand, contract executed.
Example: a battery plant receives its building permit in March, closes financing in April, and the owner issues NTP to the design-build prime on May 1. Mobilization follows within days, and the prime's buyout of remaining trade packages accelerates immediately — any sub not already in pricing conversations is now bidding against a moving schedule.
For specialty contractors, NTP matters in two directions. Upstream, a rumored or announced NTP date tells you when buyout pressure peaks and when field labor demand starts. Downstream, your own subcontract will carry an NTP of its own — and the gap between prime NTP and sub NTP is where schedule risk quietly accumulates. Tracking permits and financing milestones lets a BD team estimate NTP months before it is announced.