Who can prepare final account records in Hargeisa?

A final account depends on the site records kept during the works. Ask who measured the work, where the records sit, and how they were checked. Hire or assign that person before the first pour, not at handover, because the account is built daily from site evidence.

What does final account records work involve?

It means measuring work as built, pricing variations against the contract, and keeping records that another person can check months later. On a building job this covers approved drawings, bill items, dayworks sheets, delivery notes, inspection sign-offs and correspondence about changes.

General practice is to record a variation when it happens, with a date, a location, a sketch and a signature. The project specification and the engineer decide the measurement method for the work; confirm that method before measuring starts, and follow the same rules from the first payment cycle to the final account. Ask the quantity surveyor to show a recent measured account and the raw sheets behind one item.

How do experience gaps turn into unreconciled project costs?

The person preparing the final account often has site supervision experience but little practice reconciling measured quantities, variations and interim payments into one document. The result is an account that shows a balance nobody can trace to evidence.

The break usually appears in one of three places. Quantities are remeasured from drawings instead of as-built work. Variations are priced without the instruction that authorised them. Retention, advances and previous payments are carried forward without checking the running payment record. Each one leaves a figure the client and contractor cannot agree, and the dispute surfaces when the project is finished, when the site staff have left and the evidence is harder to gather.

A client or supervisor can detect the gap early by asking three questions: who signs a variation instruction, who keeps the measurement sheets, and when the last reconciliation happened. If the answers name a role without a person, or a date months old, the account is drifting. Check this at each payment certificate, not only at the end.

How do you close the gap before signing?

Agree the record formats, inspection points and reconciliation routine in writing at the start, then test them at the first payment cycle. The aim is an account that a new person could audit from the files alone.

• Name the person who measures, the person who checks, and the person who approves a variation.
• Set the reconciliation interval with the engineer to suit the contract's payment cycle, and have both sides sign each reconciliation.
• Keep as-built sketches, delivery notes and inspection records together, on site and in a duplicate file away from the site.
• Ask each candidate or firm for a sample final account they closed, including the schedule that ties measured quantities to the contract sum.
• Ask the relevant permitting authority which approvals apply to the plot, and keep the approval letters in the same file.

If the contractor cannot show that routine, the client can still protect the account by appointing an independent quantity surveyor whose only job is the record trail. Check what the contract allows before changing who certifies payment.

What to do next

Before the next payment certificate on your Hargeisa project, ask the contractor to produce the measurement sheets, variation instructions and payment record behind one billed item, and agree a reconciliation interval with your engineer that suits the payment cycle. If the files do not tie together, appoint an independent quantity surveyor to rebuild the record trail and confirm the arrangement with your engineer.