Specimen documents
What actually leaves the building
Four documents from one job, laid out exactly as QScope prints them, down to the order of the columns and the wording of the statement above the signatures. Follow one figure across all four and you have the whole argument for the product.
QScope Team·4 min read
Nothing on this page is real, which is why nothing needed redacting. The scheme, the parties, the bill and every figure are invented. The layout, the column order, the wording and the arithmetic are exactly what the software produces. The sums are calculated on this page from the rows above them, not typed in alongside, so the four documents cannot disagree with each other.
01 · Cost plan and bill of quantitiesPrice it once. Never key it in again.
The only place the work is described, and the only place a rate is set. Everything for the rest of the job is valued against these lines.
- No second spreadsheet. The bill you priced is the bill you value against, every month until the final account.
- Change it here, it changes everywhere. A corrected rate moves the valuation, the certificate and the forecast in the same second.
- Two views, one set of numbers. A column switch shows the client’s version or your cost and mark-up, without a separate internal file to keep in step.
Those five section subtotals are the five lines you are about to see on the certificate. They were typed once, here.
The frame scrolls. Every line of the document is there.Invented figures, real layout
02 · Interim payment certificateIssue it this afternoon. Defend it in a year.
The bill lines valued to a percentage, with retention, previously certified and VAT worked out as you type, and every payment date already counted.
- Minutes, not an evening. No formulas to rebuild each month and no line that can quietly pass one hundred per cent.
- Frozen at issue. The rates and the contract context stay exactly as they were the day it went out, so the paper you sent can still be reconstructed.
- Your letterhead, ready to send. Laid out by a practising QS, so nothing needs reformatting before it goes to the client.
The sum considered due at the payment due date of 31 July 2026 is (including VAT). The basis on which that sum is calculated is set out in the valuation and summary above. The final date for payment is 14 August 2026. Any pay less notice must be given no later than 9 August 2026.
Prepared by: Contractor Signature | Hartwell & Sons Construction Ltd | Date Received by: Client Signature | Northgate Estates Ltd | DateThe frame scrolls. Every line of the document is there.Invented figures, real layout
03 · Pay less noticeNever miss the deadline that costs you the whole application.
The money that is not going out, and the only document that stops it. It has to be given by a date, and it has to say on what basis.
- The date is counted for you. On this job it is 9 August, and missing it turns the applied for into the sum payable, a difference of .
- The figure carries over. The sum stated as due is read off the certificate, so the two documents cannot disagree with each other.
- It refuses to guess. The amount withheld and the basis for it stay blank until you fill them in, because that is your commercial position, not the software’s.
This notice is given under the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 (as amended) and the contract, of the payer’s intention to pay less than the sum stated as due in Payment Certificate VAL-07 dated 24 July 2026.
Payment position Sum stated as due (VAL-07, incl. VAT) Less amounts the payer intends to withhold[ enter amount ] Sum the payer considers due and will pay (incl. VAT)[ enter amount ] Basis of the amount withheld [ set out the basis on which each amount withheld is calculated ] Final date for payment14 Aug 2026 This notice must be given by9 Aug 2026 Contract formJCT Standard Building Contract Notice given byNorthgate Estates Ltd Given by, or for, the payer Signature | Northgate Estates Ltd | Date Received by the payee Signature | Hartwell & Sons Construction Ltd | DateThe sum at the top is the same as the certificate, because it is the figure the statutory consequence hangs off. It is read from the certificate, not typed in again.
The frame scrolls. Every line of the document is there.Invented figures, real layout
04 · Cost reportGive the board the same numbers you are working to.
Where the job ends up, against the budget that was approved. The document a credit committee reads, built from the certificates you have already issued.
- Nothing assembled by hand once a month. Certified to date is the certificate column added up, so month end stops being a day of work.
- The overspend shows up early. Anticipated changes and remaining contingency sit in the forecast while there is still room to act on them.
- One version of the truth. The client, the board and the funder read the figure you are working to, so the meeting is about the job and not about whose spreadsheet is right.
Construction cost report as at 31 July 2026. All figures are exclusive of VAT. Confidential.
Committed cost Original contract sum Instructed variations, net+ Committed cost, adjusted contract sum Forecast: anticipated final cost Committed cost Anticipated, uninstructed changes+ Remaining risk allowance and contingency+ Anticipated final cost (excl. VAT) Budget position Approved budget Anticipated final cost Variance, budget less forecast+Forecast is within the approved budget, with remaining.
Payment position Certified to date, gross Less retention held() Net certified to date Remaining to certify, to anticipated final costRisk allowance drawn down: of (% used). Anticipated changes are early warnings and not yet instructed.
Certified to date is , which is the value-to-date column on certificate 07 added up. Nobody keyed it into this report.
The frame scrolls. Every line of the document is there.Invented figures, real layout
The same job, read across all four documents Contract sum, the five section subtotals on the cost plan Document 01 Certified to date, gross, at certificate 07 01 → 02 → 04 Due this month, including VAT, and the figure the notice hangs off 02 → 03 Anticipated final cost, against a budget of Document 04Not one of those four figures is entered twice. The contract sum is the sum of the cost plan sections. Certified to date is the certificate’s own column, added up. The amount on the pay less notice is read from the certificate. The cost report forecast starts from the same committed cost. That is what “nothing is re-typed between stages” means in practice, and it is why a figure can still be traced back a year later.
The payment dates shown are counted from periods you confirm once, from your own contract. QScope does not assume them. It is software rather than legal or professional advice. Work out the dates on your own contract, or see how the four stages fit together.
And the other kind of evidenceThree firms, in their own words
Specimen documents show the layout. These show that somebody actually runs their jobs this way. Three interviews written up in full, including the parts where QScope was not the answer.
Read the interview →