QScope

Traceability

Who changed the figure, and when

A valuation is challenged long after the person who prepared it has moved on. The question is never what the number was. It is how it was arrived at, and by whom.

  • Variations raised, approved, rejected or removed recorded
  • Basis of valuation and contract clause held on the record
  • Approved value recorded with who instructed it

30 days free, no card.

Variations
VO-01 Additional window to gable
Basis of valuationContract rates
Contract clauseJCT 5.6.1
Instructed byR. Hall, architect
StatusApproved
Approved value£1,000.00

QScope records each variation as it is raised, approved, rejected or removed, so the history of the change survives the people who made it.

Every change to a variation, on the record

A variation is challenged more often than anything else in a final account.

What is asked for is not the amount but who instructed it, under which clause, and when it was approved. QScope records each variation as it is raised, approved, rejected or removed, so the history of the change survives the people who made it.

Audit trail

Recorded automatically, editable by nobody

An audit trail you have to remember to write is not an audit trail.

  • Certificates created, issued, changed in status or deleted
  • Variations raised, approved, rejected or removed
  • Contract sum, retention rate and key dates changed, with old and new value
Audit trail
11 Essex Road
DetailUserType
Certificate No. 04: Draft to Issued, net £14,031.00AdrianCert
Variation VO-01: Pending to Approved, £1,000.00AdrianVO
Client access granted to j.smith@buildco.co.ukAdrianAccess
Retention rate changed from 3% to 5%M. LewisSettings

Nothing in the interface can alter or delete an entry. That is the whole point: a record that can be quietly amended is worthless as evidence.

Activity

The reason each person needs their own login

A shared login makes every entry say the same name, which is the same as recording nothing.

  • Each person signs in as themselves, on every plan
  • Guests are free and their actions are recorded too
  • A live activity feed shows what changed since you last looked
Activity
What changed while you were out
Interim certificate PC-04 issued, £14,031.002 h ago
Variation VO-03 created, £3,240.005 h ago
Subcontractor valuation 03 prepared1 d ago
Unread on this project3

QScope prices by the people who sign in rather than by the job, partly so that giving everyone their own login never costs you a project.

See it running before you sign up

Project record

The record the trail is protecting

An audit trail proves who changed a figure.

  • Drawings versioned as they are superseded
  • Photographs tied to the project and the date they were taken
  • Contracts and correspondence filed against the job
Project record
Files on 11 Essex Road
DocumentStatus
Contract, JCT SBC 2016, signedCurrent
Drawing A-102 rev C, gable elevationCurrent
Drawing A-102 rev BSuperseded
Site photographs, week 1418 files

Held on the same project, every file carries its own trail entry, so a superseded drawing can be shown as the version that was current on the day the work was valued.

Client Valuations

The figures the trail is recording

Most audit entries are about money.

  • Certificates created, issued or changed in status recorded
  • The net figure held on the entry, £14,031 on PC-04
  • Retention rate changes recorded with old and new value
Client Valuations
Interim certificate PC-04
This period, exc VAT£24,180.00
Less retention at 5%(£1,209.00)
Previously certified£70,084.00
Due this certificate, exc VAT£14,031.00

The valuation is where those figures are set, and every change to it lands in the trail with the old value and the new.

Who it is for

One paper trail, four people behind it

You are applying

The record defends your own figures

You keep the record that defends your own applications: who changed which figure, and the documents behind every line.

Applying for payment
the same measurement

You are certifying

The trail holds when yours are challenged

You certify on the strength of the record, and when a figure is challenged the audit trail is what stands between you and an argument.

Certifying payment

You are doing both

The file protects the one who kept it

You keep the paperwork yourself, and the file that assembles as you go is the one that protects you when memories differ.

Doing both yourself

You are reporting

The record is all the site you see

You rely on the record more than anyone: bonds in force, access controlled, every figure traceable, because you were never on site.

Recommending a drawdown

The client, the architect and the tenderer are not on this list. They are the people you let in on a link: they see the one document you sent them, answer it, and that answer is written into the record. No account, no licence, no charge, on every plan.

FAQs

The questions this page raises most often, answered without a sales pitch at the end.

No, and that is deliberate. Nothing in QScope can amend or remove an audit entry. A record that the holder can edit proves nothing, which defeats the reason for keeping one.

Yes. Contract sum, retention rate, contract form and key dates are recorded with the old and the new value, because a quietly changed retention rate moves every certificate after it.

Yes, to CSV, per project. It opens in Excel with a byte order mark so names with accents are not mangled, which matters when the file goes into a bundle.

RICS does not mandate a particular system, but the Black Book expects a quantity surveyor to be able to show how a valuation was reached. An automatic record is the cheapest way to be able to answer that a year later.

From the blog

The part nobody teaches you, written down

Three pieces from the same corner of a contract as this page, answered at length and without a sales pitch at the end.

All 174 pieces

Keep reading

The three parts this page leans on

Who changed the figure, and when

A valuation is challenged long after the person who prepared it has moved on. The question is never what the number was. It is how it was arrived at, and by whom.

30 days free, no card.

Rather ask first? Write to help@qscope.co.uk and you will get a reply within one working day, Monday to Friday.