Reading the project dashboard

The four headline figures

They read left to right in the order the money moves: what the job is worth, what has been certified, what is retained, what is left to certify.

1. Adjusted contract sum is the contract sum plus approved variations, less omissions, plus final account adjustments.
2. Certified to date is the cumulative gross value on the certificates you have issued.
3. Retention held is what is currently withheld, at whatever rate applies today.
4. Remaining to certify is the difference between the first two.

The cash position

This is the one people look at last and should look at first. It is money in from the client against money out to subcontractors, on the dates each is due.

A job can be profitable and still be draining cash, because the client pays on a fourteen day final date and the subcontractors were paid a fortnight earlier.

Where the numbers come from

Every figure is derived. Nothing on the dashboard can be edited, because a dashboard you can type into is a dashboard that can disagree with the documents you issued.

1. Change a valuation and the dashboard changes with it.
2. Approve a variation and the adjusted contract sum moves.
3. Enter the practical completion date and the retention figure halves.

The project list

Above the dashboard sits the list of all your projects, and it carries the warnings: valuations due, payment notice deadlines approaching, retention release dates coming up.

That list is the reason to open QScope on a Monday morning even when you are not valuing anything.