Practical completion, then a long tail
The building is handed over. The team moves on to the next job. The final account sits on a list, and every few weeks someone opens it, works through a few items, and gets pulled onto something more urgent. The contractor chases. The client asks what the final cost will be. Items that were clear at the time need their evidence rebuilt: which instruction, which drawing revision, which quotation, what was agreed at which meeting.
The surveyor who ran the job may have left. Their notes were in their own folders.
What makes the account so slow to close
Agreeing a final account involves genuine negotiation, and that part takes the time it takes. What adds months is that the account is only really assembled once the job ends.
- Adjustments for provisional sums, variations and remeasurement are tracked in separate workbooks.
- Supporting documents are spread across email, the project drive and the contractor's submissions.
- Items agreed during the job were never recorded as agreed.
- The contractor's account and yours are structured differently, so reconciling them is manual.
- Nobody has time allocated to final accounts once a job is off site.
What a slow final account costs everyone
The client cannot close the project budget. The contractor holds back retention and cash. Your practice carries a job that still needs fee time long after the fee was earned. Disputes are more likely when memories have faded and documents are hard to find.
| Adjustment type | Typical evidence | Where it gets lost |
|---|---|---|
| Variations | Instruction, quotation, agreement | Email threads |
| Provisional sums | Expenditure records, invoices | Contractor submissions |
| Remeasurement | Drawings, measurement notes | Surveyor's personal folders |
| Daywork | Signed sheets | Site office files |
| Omissions | Instruction, original allowance | Tender workbook |
How we keep the final account current
- At contract award, the workspace is set up from the contract sum and its breakdown, with provisional sums and allowances listed.
- Every adjustment is recorded when it happens, linked from the variations register, provisional sum expenditure and remeasurement notes.
- Each item carries its evidence: instruction, drawings, quotation, measurement and any correspondence.
- Status is tracked per item, including agreed, agreed in principle and disputed, with who agreed and when.
- The contractor's final account submission is imported and matched item by item, with differences listed.
- A running statement of the anticipated final account is available at any point for the cost report.
- At completion, the account exports in your practice's format with a pack of supporting evidence per item.
The negotiation stays with your surveyors. What changes is that they start it with every item assembled and its history in one place.
Closing accounts without the archaeology
When the contractor submits their account, you already have your own. Items agreed during the job are marked as agreed. The disputed ones are a short list, each with its full history. A surveyor new to the job can pick it up without guessing.
The monthly cost report improves too. Because the anticipated final account is built from the same items, the forecast the client sees during the job is the same figure the account eventually closes around, give or take the items still in negotiation, and the client can see which those are.
Partners get a view across every open account in the practice: how many items remain, how old they are and who holds them. That makes it easier to protect time for closing accounts instead of letting them slide behind live work.
Is this where your practice is stuck?
- Several final accounts are open long after practical completion.
- Rebuilding the history of an item means searching old emails.
- Items agreed on site were never written down as agreed.
- A surveyor leaving meant a final account restarting.
- The client regularly asks when the final cost will be known.