Final Accounts for capital construction projects are prepared to show the final cost of projects that have been completed by the contractors. Final Accounts include the costs associated with rectifying defects identified during the defect liability period, all scope of work additions, alterations, deductions resulting from project changes, and other related payments as stated in the contract agreements. Hence, the assessment and agreement of Final Accounts are usually of the utmost importance to both the clients and contractors.
For a contractor, delays in doing the final account will not only damage the relationship between the contractor and project owner but will have drastic financial impacts on the contractor, subcontractors, suppliers, and other entities in the project’s supply chain. For example, delays in the Final Account may cause problems to a contractor in making working capital and eventually lead to bankruptcy.
To reduce the likelihood of encountering delays in preparing the final account, it is recommended to have a predefined checklist that will be used by the project owner, project management consultant, supervision consultant, and contractor to ensure that all required records and documents needed to prepare the final account had been available.
Using a Project Management Information System (PMIS) like PMWeb a checklist will be created to identify all items needed to prepare the final account. The checklist reflects the accumulated knowledge and lessons learned in preparing final accounts as well as solutions to the issues encountered in preparing those final accounts. The checklist will list all required items along with a field that to confirm if those requirements were provided.
PMWeb custom form builder will be used to create the Final Account Checklist. This will enable us to group the required items into separate tables if they need to be completed by different entities and/or individuals. Having separate tables will allow restricting access to each table so only the authorized individuals can update the status of the requirements. Of course, there is also the option to create separate checklist forms that will only display the required Final Account items for each entity or individual. A report will be then created to consolidate all those checklist forms. In addition, other data fields can be added to the checklist header, body, or tables. Those data fields could be text, numeric, currency, Boolean, date and values to be selected from a predefined selection list. This will ensure that all needed information is being captured in the right format by the right entity and/or individual.
Similar to all types of business processes created using PMWeb, the Final Account Checklist business process can also be attached with its supportive documents. Those could include drawings, specifications, equipment catalogs, pictures, test results, among others. In addition, links to PMWeb records for all types of relevant business processes managed in PMWeb can also be added. For example, those could include defects reports, progress invoices, non-compliance reports, site work instructions, and others
It is highly recommended that all supportive documents, regardless of their type or source, get uploaded and stored on the PMWeb document management repository. PMWeb allows creating folders and subfolders to match the physical filing structure used to store hard copies of those documents. For example, there could be a folder for Contractor Performance Evaluation with sub-folders for each period where the performance evaluation was carried. This will enable assigned access permission rights for each folder or sub-folder.
PMWeb workflow can be assigned to the Final Account Checklist to share the form with the individuals who have a role in completing the checklist or a role in reviewing and approving the completed checklist. The assigned workflow will map the submit, review and approve tasks, roles or roles assigned to each task, task duration, task type, and actions available for the task.
