Our job is nearly finished. Is it too late for Final Account Dispute Prevention?
No: where the job is nearly finished, we start with the review, testing your final account as it stands before it goes in.
Updated: . By Jack Butler-Kettle, Construction Claims Consultant.
The answer
We then set up the running account for your next job. The review reads your account the way your main contractor's surveyor will. We test every item against the subcontract and the records, and give it a verdict. The verdict is one of four: proven as it stands, provable with the evidence named, notice missed, or at risk and why. We reconcile the account to the certificates and payments, and where an item can still be repaired, we set out the repair. You then decide what is submitted, repaired or left out. The account goes in with a realistic range on your own figures. We need the signed subcontract and the account in its own spreadsheet, however early it is. We also need the instructions and the variation register, every application and certificate so far, and any measures. The review is part of the set-up fee, which is fixed and agreed in writing before work starts.
Example
Illustrative example. The scenario and figures are invented.
The facts
A joinery subcontractor's job reaches practical completion next month. Its final account, not yet submitted, stands at £610,000 across 48 items. Nobody has checked it against the subcontract.
What happens
- The account is reconciled to the certificates and payments before any item is valued.
- Each of the 48 items is tested against the subcontract and the records and given a verdict.
- Five variations with no instruction reference are found in the main contractor's own instruction register and repaired. Two estimates are marked as estimates.
- The subcontractor decides what is submitted, repaired or left out, and the running account is set up for its next job.
The outcome
The account goes in with every item's verdict known before submission, and the next job's account is built as that job runs.
To have your account reviewed before it goes in, and built as your next job runs, see our Final Account Dispute Prevention service.