From completion to your final account
Finishing on site does not close every commercial issue. Completion, defects, retention and the final account can each follow a different contractual timetable.
By Jack Butler-Kettle · Updated
Guidance for England and Wales. Check the contract, amendments and facts that apply to your job.
The short answer
Identify each closing milestone in your subcontract and the evidence needed for it. Reconcile the final account item by item. Check what any settlement releases before accepting it.
Identify the relevant completion event
Your subcontract completion may differ from completion of the whole project. Check which event controls defects, retention and delay provisions.
Record outstanding work, certificates, handover requirements and agreed access for rectification. Do not treat a site departure date as a certificate.
Read practical completion for terminology. NEC explains Completion and defects for its ECC form; your subcontract must be checked separately.
Reconcile the final account
Start from the subcontract price or valuation basis. List agreed changes, disputed changes, other adjustments, previous payments and retention separately.
For each item, show your figure, the other assessment, the difference and the evidence. Distinguish gross entitlement from the net balance requested.
Check VAT and other accounting treatment with the appropriate adviser. A commercial reconciliation should not silently mix tax-inclusive and tax-exclusive figures.
Track retention conditions
List each release condition and its evidence, then the applicable payment procedure. An assumed percentage or standard main-contract date may be wrong.
Record defects raised, responsibility disputed, access offered and completion of remedial work. Preserve correspondence about refusals or delays in access.
Do not assume every remaining defect permits withholding all retention. The contract, facts and applicable payment rules need examination.
Read settlement terms before agreeing
Check whether the proposal settles one item, the whole account or wider liabilities. Identify excluded issues and any continuing obligations.
Record the amount, payment deadline, conditions and parties. Obtain advice on unclear release wording before signing.
A final account submission and a binding settlement are different events. This is general learning for UK subcontractors. Check your governing law, contract form and amendments. Statutory procedures differ across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Example
Fictional example, not a client result. Figures are simplified to explain the point.
The facts
A joinery subcontractor calculates a £48,000 final valuation. It has received £43,000 and records £2,000 retention within the unpaid balance.
What happens
It shows the £5,000 overall balance and separates the £2,000 retention from the other £3,000.
It checks the retention release conditions and documents the remaining valuation disagreement.
It reads a proposed settlement to see whether it also releases unresolved defect or delay claims.
What this shows
The reconciliation avoids adding retention twice. The example does not assume all £5,000 is immediately payable.