For a contractor, cash is the project's oxygen. For the Engineer, certifying payment is one of the most important duties under the contract. For the owner, every payment needs to be justified. Yet on many projects the monthly payment cycle still runs on spreadsheets passed back and forth by email.
Why the payment cycle is slow
- The contractor prepares the application in a spreadsheet, often rebuilding it from the previous month.
- The consultant re-checks every number in its own file, then sends back comments.
- Deductions such as retention, advance recovery and contra charges are worked out separately and do not always agree.
- Amounts held are cut without clear reasons, so the next month starts with an argument.
- Owner payments are tracked somewhere else, so nobody is sure what has actually been paid.
Progress first, application second
In Quanto Management (Professional and above), progress is entered by BOQ line for each valuation period. The payment application builds itself from that progress. Nothing is typed twice, and the application always matches the BOQ and the approved variations.
Each certificate works out:
- retention, and its release;
- advance payment recovery;
- materials on site;
- amounts held for open NCRs;
- unapproved variations on account;
- credits.
The Engineer certifies line by line
The consultant reviews the same application in the same system. The Engineer certifies line by line, with a reason for any amount held. The owner approves where the contract requires it. The disagreement, if there is one, is about specific lines with specific reasons, not about a total.
The contractor applies for 60% on a waterproofing line. The Engineer certifies 45% with the reason "areas B and C not yet tested". Next month, once the tests are recorded, the difference is applied for again with the evidence attached, instead of being lost in a revised spreadsheet.
From certificate to cash
A certificate is not a payment. Owner payments are recorded and confirmed, and they can be split by funder where a project has more than one. On the contractor's side, vendor invoices, approvals and vendor aging show the other half of the cash picture, and the cash flow shows the months that need funding.
Paper when you need it
Many contracts and many owners still need a signed paper. Quanto produces printable application and certificate papers straight from the valuation, so the paper and the system always say the same thing.
What changes
When the payment cycle runs on one record, it becomes shorter and calmer. The contractor spends less time preparing, the consultant less time checking, and the owner sees exactly what was certified and why.
Tomorrow: cost control you can trust, with BOQ, orders, costs and forecast in one line.
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