Quantity Surveyor
The financial management on any project can be one of the most challenging aspects if not set up correctly; the financial management of any project is usually known as the Quantity Surveyor.
Significant aspects for the Quantity Surveyor to address that can cause problems in any project include:
- Arguments over variations.
- Payment delays to Trade Contractors.
- Ongoing and continued variations and variation accounts.
- Insufficient information to assess variation costs.
- Incomplete designs.
- Incorrect designs.
- Unclear or vague contract documentation.
- Clash of personalities between parties.
- Uncertainty over responsibilities.
Our Quantity Surveyor’s philosophy is to endeavour to ensure that we minimise any potential problem areas throughout the appointment process and this will include:
- Ensuring that tender documentation is clear and understood; we endeavour to keep documentation simple such that contractors are clear that they have to “do everything included to complete” sections of the works; we are detailed in our analysis of the scopes of works for each Trade Package to ensure sensible cut off points from one trade to another and also sensible scopes of works for each package to minimise the risks of overlaps or (worse) gaps between responsibilities. A simple example of this is that we always ensure that the roofing contractor will be responsible for the flat roofs as well as pitches roofs which will take away large areas of potential risk, argument, delay etc.
- Our Quantity Surveyor will ensure that we have a detailed dialogue with tendering contractors during the tender period using pre, mid and post tender interviews/meeting allowing a good dialogue at all times
Ensuring that wherever possible the Construction issue drawings are used for tender, thus taking out a tier of uncertainty for contractors to re-price further drawing issues.
- Requesting systems for payment whereby the contractors get paid promptly and not at the last minute; this will build confidence in the project and will result in contractors prioritising our project partly as a result of the payment records
Changes as the works proceed will cause major sources of delay and additional cost and we would work wit the Design Team to achieve Client sign off prior to tendering and again prior to starting on site.
- Changes will inevitably happen and therefore a tightly controlled Change Control Procedure is essential to keep a record of the changes as they occur and also the source for the change, the cost and programme implications. When individuals are aware that Change Control Procedures are in place which identify the person making the change then it can result in a reduced number of changes
We would like to suggest that the Design Team consider Certificates of Readiness which are designed to ask the responsible team member to confirm that their designs for that aspect are completed and no further design work is required on that package; this will help to focus the Design Team on their responsibilities to make sure designs are completed and hence reductions in variations will happen.
Valuations will be held on a monthly basis in the usual manner and we would like to review the options for Milestone payments as well as valuations as the work proceeds. There are benefits for both methods of payments and it may be that a combination of both is adopted.
Our Quantity Surveyor will be responsible for all Commercial Management on the project, including valuations. The Quantity Surveyor will be assisted in the later stages of the project by the appointment of and Assistant QS as required.