How do you check final account records in Borama?

A final account in Borama is a set of claims, and the client's job is to test each one against a document. The question to ask is not whether the contractor finished the work, but whether every line in the account can be traced to paper. If it cannot, the client is paying for a story.

What makes a final account a claim rather than a record?

A final account is a claim until each line links to something that can be checked. Contractors often present measured quantities, day works and variations as a single total, and the supporting file is thin.

A record has a chain. A measured quantity should connect to a drawing and a site measurement. A variation should connect to a written instruction and a date. A material claim should connect to a delivery note, a weighbridge slip or a receipt that names the site. A labour claim should connect to a wage sheet with names, days and signatures.

Where the chain breaks, the line is an assertion. Ask the contractor to hand over the folder before the meeting, and read it line by line against the account.

Which records close the gap on unreconciled project costs?

Unreconciled project costs are lines that no document supports, so they stay open until someone reconciles them. Reconciliation means matching three things: what the account claims, what the site shows and what the paperwork proves.

Build a simple file for each account line with the claim on one side and the evidence on the other. Ask for delivery notes for imported materials, wage sheets or labour returns for direct labour, test results and inspection records for structural and wet works, and a signed instruction for every change. Ask the contractor's quantity surveyor, if there is one, to reconcile measured work against the bill.

For anything still open, ask the municipal engineer's office whether the plot file holds approved drawings or inspection notes that help fix the extent of work. Walk the site and measure what can be measured, and photograph it with a date. The test is whether the contractor can close them with paper, or only with argument.

How do you check contractor final account experience before you settle?

Check final account experience by asking for evidence of closed final accounts the contractor prepared and the reconciliation behind them, then reading the documents. A completed project reference alone will not show how the numbers were closed. Ask how variations were priced, who signed the instructions and how disputed lines were resolved.

Run the same check on the supervision side. If the client's representative cannot read a wage sheet against a labour return, the account will pass on trust. Agree a written procedure before the final account stage: monthly measurement, numbered instructions, a running variation register, and a rule that unsigned work is not valued. Confirm what the contract allows on interim and final payment, and take advice before holding back any amount.

As a general practice, ask the contractor for the document behind each account line, such as a delivery note, wage sheet, test record or signed instruction, and confirm what the project's specification or engineer accepts as proof.

What to do next

Pick the five largest lines in the current account and ask the contractor for the document behind each one: delivery note, wage sheet, test record or signed instruction. Set a date to sit with the file and mark each line closed or open. If the documents do not come, ask the client's engineer to measure the work on site before any settlement is signed.