The final account, already assembled
A final account that has to be reconstructed at the end is a dispute waiting to happen. QScope builds it line by line during the job, so closing it is agreement, not archaeology.
QScope Team · 19 January 2026 · 6 min read
The final account is not a document you write at the end. It is a position that has been building since the first valuation. QScope treats it that way, so when the job finishes, closing the account is a matter of agreeing figures that are already in front of both parties, not assembling them from scratch under time pressure.
What the account carries
| Line | Source in QScope |
|---|---|
| Contract sum | As executed |
| Variations agreed | The live variation register |
| Remeasured work | Final quantities against the bill |
| Provisional sums adjusted | Actual expenditure against allowance |
| Loss and expense, assessed | Your assessment, not the claimed figure |
| Retention | The cumulative tracker, reconciled |
| Final account total |
The register does the heavy lifting
Most of a final account is variations. Because QScope has held each one live with its instruction, date, basis and agreed value, the variation section of the final account is not written, it is exported. The disputes that eat final accounts, which change, agreed by whom, valued how, are already answered in the register.
Provisional sums and remeasurement
Provisional sums are replaced by actual expenditure, and QScope shows the allowance against the outturn on each one, so the adjustment is transparent. Remeasured work is reconciled against the bill quantities. Both were tracked as the job ran, which means the final figures are the accumulation of decisions already made, not fresh calculations to be argued over.
JCT and NEC4 close differently
Under JCT the final account leads to the Final Certificate, which has conclusive effect on the sums stated once the timetable runs. Under NEC4 the final assessment closes the account through the defined mechanism. QScope holds the underlying position and presents it in the form each contract requires, so the same reconciled data produces a JCT final account or an NEC4 final assessment.
Closing, not reconstructing
The difference between a final account that closes in weeks and one that drags for a year is whether the data was kept live. QScope keeps it live, so the last valuation and the first draft of the final account are almost the same document, and the negotiation is about a handful of open items rather than the whole job.
QScope carries the contract sum, agreed variations, remeasured work, provisional sum adjustments and the retention position into a final account that reconciles because it was kept live throughout.