Month end on the contractor side
The board wants a margin position for every job by the fifth working day. For each job, the QS needs value to date, from the latest application and what the client is likely to certify, and cost to date, from the accounts system. Then the adjustments: costs incurred but not yet invoiced, subcontract liabilities, variations not yet agreed, provisions for known problems, and the forecast to complete.
The accounts system produces a cost report by cost code. The QS exports it, pastes it into their CVR template, adds accruals they know about from memory and from the site team, and adjusts value for what they believe will be recovered. Across ten or fifteen jobs, the commercial team spends a large part of the first week of every month doing this.
Why CVRs take so long
- Cost codes in the accounts system do not match the CVR's structure, so costs are regrouped by hand.
- Accruals depend on knowing what has been delivered or done but not yet invoiced, which sits with site.
- Subcontract liabilities are calculated from separate subcontract ledgers.
- Value adjustments for unagreed variations are the QS's judgement and are not recorded with reasons.
- Last month's CVR is a separate file, so movements are hard to explain.
What slow CVRs cost the business
The board sees margin late, often after the window for acting on it has passed. Accrual errors make margins swing month to month, which damages confidence in the numbers. Commercial staff are tied up in data work when they should be recovering value. And when a job goes wrong, the history of how its margin moved is hard to reconstruct.
| CVR line | Source | What the build does |
|---|---|---|
| Cost to date | Accounts system | Pulled and grouped to your CVR structure |
| Accruals | Site knowledge and orders | Suggested from orders and delivery records |
| Subcontract liabilities | Subcontract ledgers | Calculated from applications and assessments |
| Value to date | Latest application or certificate | Pulled from the valuation record |
| Value adjustments | QS judgement | Entered with a reason, carried forward |
| Forecast to complete | QS judgement | Entered and compared with last month |
The CVR we build
- Your cost codes are mapped once to your CVR structure, per job or per template.
- Cost to date is pulled from your accounts or construction ERP system through its API or scheduled export.
- Purchase orders and delivery records are compared with invoices received to list likely accruals, which the QS accepts, edits or rejects.
- Subcontract liabilities are calculated from the latest applications and your assessments, where those are recorded digitally.
- Value to date comes from your valuation record, and the QS adds adjustments with a reason for each.
- The QS enters or updates the forecast to complete, with the previous month's figures shown alongside.
- The board pack is generated from the confirmed CVRs, with margin movement per job explained by line.
Accrual policy, provisions and forecasts are matters for your commercial director and finance team, and the tool applies their rules. It never sets them.
What month end looks like
The QS opens a CVR with cost, value and suggested accruals already in place and spends their time on the judgements: recovery of variations, the forecast, and provisions. Movements from last month are shown line by line. The board pack is ready sooner and is easier to trust, because every figure can be traced to its source or to a named decision.
Recognise your month end?
- CVRs are built by pasting accounts exports into spreadsheets.
- Accruals are compiled from memory and site phone calls.
- Margins swing from month to month in ways that are hard to explain.
- The board sees job margins later than it wants to.
- Value adjustments are not recorded with reasons.