Final Account Assembly, Negotiation & Agreement
Risk mitigationFixed FeeFor Subcontractors & Main Contractors
I take over the live running of your final account and its forecast wherever the job stands, build the account from the job's own records, submit it in a form the other side can check quickly, and negotiate it meeting by meeting to an agreed and signed account. An account built to be agreed, not to impress.
The problem
Most final accounts are excavations. Nothing was measured until the site emptied, so the whole job is reconstructed months later from archived drawings and fading memory; the variations were done on site but never priced, or priced once and never reconciled to what was built; the running total never tied to what was applied for and certified. The account that results is a single large spreadsheet the other side cannot follow, so it slides toward a fight, and an account decided cold hardens into positions on both sides. Meanwhile the last of the money, retention and closing figure, stays out.
The solution
The best version starts while the works still run: the final account becomes a live document, measured work closed as it finishes, variations carried in as priced, the total tied to what is applied for and certified, the forecast kept current so the closing number is no surprise. I build it from the records: every variation stated with its instruction reference and evidence, provisional sums and dayworks resolved to actuals, any loss and expense claim or contra-charge positioned at a figure I can support, because overstating poisons trust. I submit it structured to the contract sum, cross-referenced line by line to its evidence, with a summary the other side can reconcile in an afternoon. Then I negotiate meeting by meeting, the uncontentious majority agreed first, to a settlement signed by people who can bind both sides.
What you receive
The job ends on a signed account rather than an open argument. Taken over while the works were still running, it arrives already largely settled: measured work closed as it finished, variations priced while fresh, the forecast meaning the closing figure was watched all the way in. Because it was built from the records and reconciled to the certificates, most of it was conceded before the first meeting, and the negotiation was a handful of real differences rather than a standoff. The last of the money, the closing figure and the retention behind it, is released against a document both sides have signed, and the account that so often becomes the worst memory of a good job becomes the quiet end of one instead.
The Handover Pack accompanies the work with its dates and sources, likely outcomes and responses, scope boundaries and ready-to-send correspondence where needed.
Turnaround: the timetable is agreed in writing at scoping and then kept.
The working days start when the agreed scope and required inputs are available. Optional items do not hold the start unless the agreed scope says otherwise.
How it works
You tell me about the job and the account
One call on the project, the contract and where the account stands, still being built on site, drifting after handover or already in negotiation. The first conversation is free and commits you to nothing.
You send me the contract, records and payment history
The list below lets the account be built from the job's own records rather than reconstructed from memory.
- A
The contract sum, and the executed contract it comes from
EssentialWithout it: The account has no fixed base, so every other figure in it is provisional too.
Where to find it: The job's commercial folder for the contract; the tender folder or a contract appendix for the pricing document.
Why I need it: The base the account is built from
- B
Every variation and its status
EssentialWithout it: The largest part of the account cannot be valued, so the account cannot be closed.
Where to find it: The variation register, the instruction file and the correspondence trail, however rough.
Why I need it: The largest moving part
- C
The claims
ImportantWithout it: Anything claimed beyond the measured work simply does not appear in the account, whether or not it is owed.
Where to find it: The site diaries, the cost ledger and the project correspondence.
Why I need it: What is claimed beyond the measured work
- D
The contra-charges, with the ground for each
ImportantWithout it: Deductions taken against you are carried at face value, with no check on whether they were properly notified.
Where to find it: The site diaries, the cost ledger and the project correspondence.
Why I need it: What is being deducted and why
- E
All valuations and certificates
EssentialWithout it: There is no running position to build the account from, so nothing can be reconciled to what has already been paid.
Where to find it: The payment folder, application by application.
Why I need it: The running position and what has already been agreed
- F
The correspondence
ImportantWithout it: Anything you and the other side have already agreed gets treated as still in dispute.
Where to find it: The site diaries, the cost ledger and the project correspondence.
Why I need it: What has already been conceded or established
- G
The records supporting each head
ImportantWithout it: A head with nothing behind it gets discounted or dropped, however strong it actually is.
Where to find it: The site diaries, the cost ledger and the project correspondence.
Why I need it: An unevidenced head is a head that gets discounted
Copies are fine. Send what you have and I'll tell you what's missing. Download the client request PDF or editable Word version to pass to whoever holds the files.
- A
I take the account over as a live document
Wherever the job stands, the account becomes one document I run: measured work closed as sections finish, variations carried in as they are priced, the total tied to what is applied for and certified.
I keep the forecast final account current
The destination figure, held alongside the account and moved the month anything changes, so the closing number is watched all the way in rather than discovered at the end.
I complete the account when the works end
Measured work closed against the pricing document, every variation stated with its evidence, dayworks and provisional sums resolved, claims and contras positioned honestly, all reconciled to the contract sum and certificates.
I submit it in a form the other side can check quickly
Structured to the contract sum, cross-referenced line by line to its evidence, with a summary that reconciles in an afternoon, so agreeing with it is the path of least resistance.
I agree the uncontentious majority first
The measured work and clearly-instructed variations settled and recorded early, so the argument narrows to the genuine handful of differences and the account keeps moving.
You stay across the position at each meeting
A short review before and after each meeting: the running schedule shows what is agreed and what is open, and nothing is conceded without your say-so.
I negotiate the account to a signed settlement
Meeting by meeting on the open items, keeping the schedule current so nothing settled reopens, through to a settlement recorded plainly and signed by people who can bind both sides.
I end the job on a signed account
Free Service Pack
A step-by-step Handbook, with the templates and working documents you need to carry out the work it covers yourself. You supply your own project information and records.
Follow the Handbook's scope and stopping points, and obtain independent advice where required. The pack is not project-specific advice or independent sign-off.
Tips that raise your odds of success
Questions I get asked often
The paperwork that closes the job alongside the account, the snags, the documents and the release certificates, is run by Snagging & Closeout Tracking. An account runs faster still when the variations were priced and registered as they happened by Variation Pricing, and the standing monthly report that watches the same destination across your wider cost picture is Forecast Final Account. If it hardens into a dispute, the claims side of this practice takes it from there.