Final account

Building and agreeing the final account

Most final accounts are not disputed. They are simply never finished, and the money sits there while everyone waits for somebody else to start.

5 min read · All help topics

The adjustment lines

QScope follows the RICS structure, so the account reads the same way every time and nothing is left out by accident.

  1. Provisional sums, adjusted against the actual cost of the work instructed.
  2. Prime cost sums, adjusted with their profit and attendance.
  3. Remeasurement of approximate quantities.
  4. Dayworks, from the agreed sheets.
  5. Fluctuations, where the contract provides for them.
  6. Loss and expense, from the ascertained heads.
  7. Overheads and profit adjustment.
Worth knowingEach line has a source elsewhere in the program. Dayworks and loss and expense both carry across with one click rather than being retyped.

Start it at practical completion

Under JCT the contractor has a period from practical completion to provide the documents, and the quantity surveyor a further period to prepare the account. Both are contractual obligations on identified people, not aspirations.

Do not wait for the documents to start. Most of the account is already known: measured work, agreed variations, retention. What is genuinely outstanding is usually a handful of contested items, and identifying them early is what makes them agreeable.

Closing it

  1. Print the statement of final account.
  2. Print the agreement letter and get it signed.
  3. Issue the final certificate from the Completion tab.
Worth knowingThe final certificate is conclusive as to the matters set out in the contract unless proceedings follow within a short period. That is a reason to issue it deliberately rather than as an afterthought.

Why the figure might differ from your spreadsheet

QScope reconciles everything back to the contract sum. If a variation was approved but never certified, it is in the adjusted contract sum and not in the certified value, and both figures are correct.

A spreadsheet that mixes the two produces a total that cannot be traced, which is precisely the thing a final account has to survive.

Still stuck?

Write to support@qscope.co.uk. Include the project reference and, if it is about a figure, the certificate number. Answers within one working day.

VariationsThe largest adjustment on most jobs. Loss and expenseAscertained, then carried across. Completion and certificatesIssuing the final certificate.

Try it on your next valuation

Not your whole portfolio. One live job, one certificate. If it does not save you time the first time you use it, walk away and take your data with you.

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