Reports & practice

Gulf FIDIC Cash flow forecasting on a Gulf FIDIC job A FIDIC job in the Gulf pays fifty-six days after the Statement. Model the certification lag, the retention and the advance payment recovery, or the funding peak arrives as a surprise. 6 min read Reports The golden thread is a cost line, not a slogan Keeping and handing over the golden thread of information is work. Work has a cost. Price it and put it in the estimate, rather than filing it under compliance and hoping. 6 min read Reports What a funder wants that a client does not The same figures read for a different question. A client asks what it will cost; a funder asks whether the money already lent is still secured. 4 min read Reports How often to report, and what changes when you do Monthly is the default and it is usually right. What matters more is that the report says what moved since the last one, and why. 4 min read Reports Handing a job to another surveyor Most of what a surveyor knows about a project is not in the file. A handover that transfers only documents transfers about half of it. 4 min read Reports Forecasting cash on a construction project A cash flow forecast is not the valuation schedule with dates on it. It has to account for the payment timetable, retention, and the gap before payment lands. 5 min read Reports Conflicts of interest, and the ones you do not notice The obvious ones get declined. The damaging ones develop quietly on a project that started out perfectly clean. 4 min read Reports The gateways move your money, not just your programme On a higher-risk building the Building Safety Act gateways are hard stops. A stop on the programme is a stop on the cash, and the QS has to price that in. 7 min read Reports Cost value reconciliation, and what it is really for A CVR compares what a project has earned with what it has cost, at the same date. Its value depends entirely on both sides being measured to the same point. 5 min read Reports Terms of engagement, and the scope nobody wrote down Almost every fee dispute is a scope dispute. The item that causes most trouble is what happens when the job runs a year late. 4 min read Ireland VAT on a construction valuation in Ireland: net, gross and the reverse charge The standard VAT rate is 23 per cent, but construction services between two accountable persons are reverse charged. What that means for net and gross on a payment claim. 6 min read Reports A profitable job that runs out of money Profit is earned when the work is done. Cash arrives weeks later, minus retention. Companies fail on the second of those, not the first. 4 min read Reports Where margin actually goes It rarely disappears in one event. It leaks through small unrecovered items, each too minor to escalate, and the total only appears at the end. 5 min read Reports Accruals, and why jobs report well until they do not Nine months at eight per cent margin, then two per cent in month ten. Nothing changed on site; the invoices simply caught up. 4 min read Reports Working out the peak funding requirement The deepest point of the cumulative cash curve is the number a contractor has to be able to fund, and it arrives later than most people expect. 4 min read Australia Cash flow forecasting on an Australian business-day payment cycle Security of Payment terms are counted in business days, so a cash flow forecast built on calendar dates always shows money arriving earlier than it does. 6 min read New Zealand Cash flow forecasting on the working day cycle in New Zealand A New Zealand cash flow forecast has to model payment claims, twenty working day responses and the December to January break, or the summer gap comes as a surprise. 6 min read Australia GST on a construction valuation in Australia: net, then ten per cent A progress claim is built net and GST of ten per cent is added to the taxable supply. Keeping the two apart is what makes the payment claim and the tax invoice agree. 5 min read New Zealand GST at fifteen per cent on a payment claim in New Zealand GST at fifteen per cent sits on top of the net valuation on every New Zealand payment claim. Keep the work net, apply the tax once, and the claim reconciles. 5 min read Practice Where a small practice loses its fee Rebuilding the same spreadsheet every month, reformatting certificates, and finding out what was agreed. An honest look at the hours that do not appear on any fee proposal. 5 min read Singapore Forecasting cash flow around the SOP Act payment cycle A Singapore cash flow forecast has to model the real payment cycle: claim, response, and a due date capped at thirty-five days. Forecast the dates, not just the amounts. 6 min read Singapore GST at 9% on a Singapore valuation: net versus gross GST at nine per cent, the rate since January 2024, sits on top of the certified value. Keep the net valuation clean so the SOP Act works on the right number. 5 min read Hong Kong Cash flow forecasting on the Hong Kong payment cycle Under Cap. 652 the payment response comes at thirty days and payment falls due inside sixty. Building a cash flow forecast round those calendar day dates. 6 min read Hong Kong No VAT in Hong Kong: why the certified amount is gross and net Hong Kong has no VAT or GST, so a payment claim carries no tax line. The certified amount is the sum that moves. What that simplifies for the quantity surveyor. 5 min read Audit trail Records that survive adjudication, and the ones that do not An adjudicator decides on documents in twenty-eight days. What contemporaneous means in practice, and why a reconstructed record damages the case it was built to support. 6 min read Qatar FIDIC Cash flow forecasting on a Qatar FIDIC job: modelling the 56 day lag Turning the Sub-Clause 14.6 and 14.7 deadlines into a funding curve. How the 28 and 56 day cycle, retention and advance payment shape cash on a Doha project. 6 min read Malaysia Cash flow forecasting on the CIPAA payment cycle in Malaysia A cash forecast is only as good as the dates behind it. Build the curve on the CIPAA claim and response mechanism and the contract payment term, not on hope. 6 min read Qatar FIDIC No VAT in Qatar: what a tax-free valuation changes on a FIDIC certificate Qatar has no VAT, so gross equals net on the IPC. What the missing tax line simplifies, and where advance payment and subcontractor sums still need care. 5 min read Malaysia SST 6% on construction valuations in Malaysia From 1 July 2025, service tax at six per cent applies to construction work services. Residential building is excluded and B2B relief is available. Value net, add SST on top. 6 min read South Africa Cash flow forecasting on the South African payment cycle A cash flow forecast turns the JBCC certificate cycle and the government thirty day rule into dated money in and money out, in calendar days. 6 min read Saudi FIDIC Cash flow forecasting on a FIDIC job in Saudi Arabia On a Saudi FIDIC contract the money lands 56 days after the Statement. Forecast the cash on that cycle, allow for retention and VAT, and the funding curve stops surprising you. 6 min read South Africa VAT at 15 per cent on a payment certificate in South Africa VAT sits on the net figure of a payment certificate, after retention, at 15 per cent. Knowing net from gross keeps the SARS return and the certificate in step. 5 min read Saudi FIDIC VAT at 15 per cent on a FIDIC valuation in Saudi Arabia On a Saudi FIDIC job the certified value is net. ZATCA VAT at 15 per cent sits on top, and the tax invoice has to agree with the Interim Payment Certificate line for line. 5 min read Reports A risk register that produces a contingency you can defend A flat percentage contingency is a guess with a decimal point. How to build a register that produces a number, keep it current, and answer the question every client eventually asks. 6 min read UK VAT, the reverse charge and CIS on a QScope valuation QScope keeps the valuation net, then applies VAT at twenty per cent, the domestic reverse charge for construction services and CIS deductions on the payment. 6 min read Reports Cost reports and the anticipated final cost A cost report answers what the job will cost when it finishes, not what it has cost so far. What belongs in it, how to treat risk and unagreed variations, and why the first bad report matters. 6 min read