Handover & lifecycle
Hand over and close out
Finish the job cleanly: work the punch list to zero, confirm every inspection passed and no…
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Cases / Handover & lifecycle
Handover & lifecycle
Close out from substantial performance to the final account
Certify and date substantial performance once, put every consequence that runs from it onto one register, price the deficiency list so the reserve is money rather than a checklist, and reconcile a final account whose every line can be walked backwards.
How it works, step by step
6 steps across the platform - what you do at each one, and why it matters.
1
Certify the date once, and only once
Construction ControlRecord substantial performance as a dated, certified event with the signature behind it, and attach the certificate together with the record of the state of the work it was certified against.
Why: Everything downstream counts from this date, so it has to be one date with a document behind it rather than a date three people remember slightly differently. The version that ends up challenged is always the one nobody can produce on the day it is questioned.
InState of the workConsultant certificationOutCertified date on recordThe evidence it rests on
2
Put every consequence on one register
DeadlinesEnter the obligations that run from the certified date against it: publication of the notice, the period in which security can still be claimed, the holdback release, and the date deficiencies are reckoned from. Count each one on the rules of the province the work is in.
Why: Four consequences tracked in four places are four chances to miss one, and the one that gets missed is always the one with no invoice attached to remind you. A single register in date order is also what lets somebody cover for you without being briefed.
InThe certified dateThe provincial rules that applyOutEvery consequence datedOne register instead of four
3
Price the deficiency list so the reserve is money
Punch ListValue each outstanding item at what it will cost to complete or correct, and total the list as the reserve to be held against release rather than reporting it as a count of open items.
Why: A deficiency list is a claim about money and a checklist is a claim about tidiness. Releasing against a count treats ninety small items and one expensive one as ninety-one, and the expensive one is the entire reason the release is being argued about.
InOutstanding and defective workRates to complete or correctOutPriced deficiency listA reserve with a number on it
4
Release the holdback less the reserve, and record it
ContractsRecord the release against the contract for the holdback balance less the valued deficiency reserve, so the ledger shows what was held, what was released, on what date, and against what.
Why: The release is the moment a balance and a recomputed percentage stop being the same number, and only writing the release down as a transaction keeps them together. A release nobody recorded is one both sides will later compute differently and each be certain about.
InHoldback balancePriced deficiency reserveOutRelease recorded with its dateA balance that still reconciles
5
Reconcile the final account line by line
FinanceBuild the final account from the original contract price, every approved change with its code, holdback released, deficiency deductions and any credits, so that each line points at the transaction that produced it.
Why: A final account is agreed when the other side can check it, not when it is delivered. One that can be walked backwards to its transactions settles in a meeting; one that arrives as a total settles in a negotiation, and the negotiation is where the last few percent of the job goes.
InContract price, changes, releases, deductionsOutFinal account, every line traceableA figure that can be walked back
6
Issue the closeout package and keep the file copy
ReportsIssue the final account together with the certified date, the deficiency list and its status, the holdback release and the warranties, as one package to the client and one record to your own file.
Why: The package is what the client's finance department needs before it can pay, and the file copy is what you need when a security claim or a deficiency argument arrives eighteen months later, by which time everyone who did the work has moved to another job.
InFinal account and supporting recordsOutCloseout package issuedA file that survives the team