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Tie every line to a document

Put a document behind every line of your final account, because one unsupported line is the line the whole account gets judged by. The strongest account is one the other side can check: each variation to its instruction, each quantity to a measure, each rate to the subcontract or a build-up.

Updated: . By Jack Butler-Kettle, Construction Claims Consultant.

Why it matters

The surveyor on the other side is looking for the line that lets them discount the whole account. They find it in the variation with no instruction, the quantity from the foreman's memory, or the rate lifted from another job. Once one line is shown to be unsupported, every other line is read as if it might be. The offer that follows is priced on that suspicion. A document behind every line removes the shortcut. They have to attack the account item by item, and item by item is where good records win.

How to do it

  1. Add a document reference column to the account and fill it for every line before anything else.
  2. Reference each variation's instruction by date and number, or the email confirming a verbal one.
  3. Reference each quantity to the measure sheet, drawing or delivery record it comes from.
  4. Reference each rate to its line in the subcontract schedule or to a dated build-up.
  5. Remove or downgrade any line that still has an empty reference column, and say so in the covering note.

Example

Illustrative example. The scenario and figures are invented.

The facts

A cladding subcontractor prepares a final account of £1,200,000 against a certified £1,050,000. Before submission, the surveyor runs a document check. It finds that 14 of the 60 variation lines, worth £38,000, have no instruction or confirming email behind them.

What happens

  1. The surveyor searches the site correspondence and finds confirming emails for 9 of the 14 lines, worth £29,000.
  2. The remaining 5 lines, worth £9,000, are moved to a separate schedule marked as unsupported and not claimed.
  3. The account is submitted at £1,191,000 with a reference against every line.

The outcome

The main contractor's surveyor tests 20 lines at random and finds a document behind each. The variations head is agreed in full within 6 weeks. The £9,000 given up buys credibility for the £141,000 sought.

To have this set up for you, see our Final Account Dispute Prevention service.