Commercial cost control · Quantity surveying

Seeing the final account
before it arrives.

Every month a quantity surveyor rebuilds the same commercial report by hand. Because it looks backward, problems surface in the final account, too late to act. This project automates that report and adds a forecast-margin layer that recalculates the outturn every month, turning cost control into an early-warning system.

Open the live workbook Explore the dashboard ↓

Monthly commercial report

Cost-Value Reconciliation live to the data date. Drag the reporting period to recalculate every KPI and chart. All figures QAR · synthetic.

Reporting period

M1 · Mobilisation M20 · Handover

M11

Month 11 of 20 Façade & MEP 55% elapsed

Contract sum turnover

QAR 53.00M

Base QAR 50.0M + variation 3.0M

Forecast cost EAC

QAR 48.92M

vs budget 48.02M

Forecast margin

QAR 4.08M

4,077,325 absolute

Forecast margin % Below target

7.69%

Target 10.00% · −2.31pp

Cost variance vs budget

−QAR 0.90M

Net of contingency draw-down

Contingency remaining

QAR 0.00M

0% of QAR 1.35M reserve

Value certified to date

QAR 29.43M

56% of contract value

Forecast margin — monthly trend

Project-total margin recalculated for every reporting month 1–20.

Forecast margin %
10.0% target
Data date

S-curve — value & cost

Cumulative position to the data date.

Planned value
Value certified
Actual cost

Package watchlist 3

Packages forecast over budget at the current data date, worst first.

RED ≤ −5%
AMBER < 0%

Package	Budget	Forecast (EAC)	Variance	Var %	Flag

The brief, and what went wrong

A synthetic project engineered to fail in three instructive ways, so the model can prove it catches them.

The model tracks a G+8 reinforced-concrete residential building in Doha: 9,500 m² GFA, 64 apartments, an 18-month programme (forecast to finish in 20), and a QAR 50M contract sum that grows to 53M after a client variation. Three problems were designed into it.

Month 2 · Absorbed

Ground-conditions delay

Substructure slips a month; +QAR 0.45M of works and extended prelims. Soaked up by contingency, so margin is untouched, the reserve does its job.

Month 7 · Dilutive

Client variation

A QAR 3.0M scope addition priced at cost, margin-neutral in cash, but it dilutes the percentage from 10.0% to 9.4%. More turnover, same profit.

Months 8 & 11 · Margin hit

Façade overrun

Glazing rates rise (+1.2M, month 8) and remedial work follows (+0.6M, month 11): QAR 1.8M over budget. Contingency is exhausted; the margin erodes to 7.7%.

How the early-warning works

Committed cost leads, actual cost lags. The forecast cost per package is MAX(committed-to-date, budget) — so an order placed today moves the outturn today, not at the final account.

Margin recalculates every month. The CVR rolls each package's forecast cost and value into a project-total forecast margin, independent of the chosen data date.

Variances flag automatically. Packages drifting beyond ±5% turn AMBER then RED on the watchlist, the façade was visible in month 8, ten months before handover.

Glossary

A short reference for the quantity-surveying terms used above.

BoQ: The priced bill of quantities, the costed list of every work item.
Valuation / IPC: The monthly payment certificate, what the client is billed for work done.
Prelims: Time-related site overheads. A delay quietly becomes cost.
Committed cost: Orders placed, a leading indicator. Actual cost lags behind it.
Contingency: A risk reserve held inside the budget to absorb the unexpected.
Retention: Cash withheld as security against defects, not margin.
EAC: Estimate at completion, the forecast final cost of the works.
CVR: Cost-value reconciliation → the forecast margin engine itself.