Closing the account: the Final Payment Certificate
The final account is where every loose Variation, remeasure and retention balance finally settles. On a FIDIC job it runs through Sub-Clauses 14.11 to 14.13, and the discipline you kept during the job decides how quickly it closes.
QScope Team · 19 February 2026 · 6 min read
On a FIDIC Red or Yellow Book contract, the money does not close out with the last interim certificate. It closes through a defined final account process under Sub-Clauses 14.11 to 14.13. On a multi-year Vision 2030 project, this is where hundreds of interim decisions are pulled into one final figure, and it is far easier if those decisions were recorded as they were made.
The Final Statement
After the Defects Notification Period and the issue of the Performance Certificate, the Contractor submits a Final Statement under Sub-Clause 14.11. It sets out the value of all work done under the Contract and any further sums the Contractor considers due. This is the whole account, from the first Variation to the last retention release, presented as a single reconciled position rather than a fresh claim.
What goes into it
- The final measured value. All Works remeasured where the Contract requires, agreed against the Bill.
- All Variations. Every Clause 13 change, valued and settled, with any still in dispute clearly identified.
- Retention released. Both halves, at Taking-Over and at the end of the Defects Notification Period.
- Adjustments. Any sums for extension of time, claims, or amounts previously certified.
The Final Payment Certificate
Once the Final Statement and a discharge are submitted, the Engineer issues the Final Payment Certificate under Sub-Clause 14.13. It states the final amount due to the Contractor, or in some cases due to the Employer, after everything paid to date. This is the certificate that formally closes the money. Under Sub-Clause 14.12 the Contractor submits a discharge confirming the Final Statement represents full settlement, subject to any matters expressly reserved.
Reserve what is not agreed
The discharge matters. If the Contractor signs it without reserving genuinely open items, those items may be lost. The correct practice is to state clearly what remains in dispute so the discharge does not extinguish a claim the Contractor still intends to pursue. On a large job with items unresolved for years, this reservation is the safety valve that stops the final account from quietly closing off live entitlements.
The discipline
The final account is only as clean as the record behind it. A job where every Variation was valued and certified in its cycle, where retention was tracked, and where remeasures were agreed as the work was done, produces a Final Statement that reconciles rather than reopens. The alternative, reconstructing the account from memory at the end, is slow, adversarial, and always worth less to the Contractor.
QScope carries every certified value, Variation and retention balance through the job, so the Final Statement is a reconciliation rather than a reconstruction.