Valuations and certificates
Value line by line, by percentage or by a fixed sum. Retention, previously certified and this period calculate as you type, and no line can be certified past 100 per cent.
30 days free, no card.
Interim certificate PC-04 · 15 Aug 2026
Forty two lines across seven sections, valued by percentage and by fixed sum on the same certificate. The net is the gross less the retention movement, and it is calculated, not typed in.
The valuation is the easy part.
Some lines are a percentage of measured work. Some are a lump sum, a provisional sum drawn down in tranches, or dayworks off a sheet. A certificate is only a payment notice if it carries the dates the Construction Act attaches to it, and the pay-less deadline is the one that turns a valuation into a liability.
Two ways to value
Some lines are a percentage of measured work, some are a lump sum, a provisional sum drawn down in tranches, or dayworks off a sheet, and forcing everything through a percentage is how spreadsheets end up with a fudge column.
Client valuations · lines on PC-04
Click the per cent on any line to switch it to a fixed sum. The rest of the certificate does not change, because underneath both routes produce the same figure.
The document
Section 110A of the Construction Act requires a payment notice to state the sum considered due and the basis on which it is calculated.
Payment certificate · what the document carries
The valuation schedule is the basis on which that sum is calculated, and the document says so on its face rather than leaving the client to work it out.
The routes, the dates and the contract forms are what the program actually carries, and each one is read out of the code that runs the valuation rather than rounded up for a page like this.
2
ways to value a line, on the same certificate
4
statutory dates printed on the face of every certificate
7
contract forms carrying their own statutory periods
The two routes are a percentage of the line or a fixed sum for the period. The four dates are the date payment falls due, the last day for a payment notice, the last day for a pay-less notice and the final date for payment. FIDIC is one of the forms, and it counts its own sequence in calendar days.
Statutory dates
A certificate is only a payment notice if it carries the dates the Construction Act attaches to it.
Final date for payment · one due date, four contract forms
Same certificate, same due date of 15 Aug 2026. The pay-less deadline moves with it: 24 Aug 2026 under JCT, 22 Aug 2026 under NEC, 25 Aug 2026 under the Scheme. The valuation is the easy part; the pay-less deadline is the one that turns a valuation into a liability.
Retention
The £1,209 deducted for retention on this certificate is not a setting buried in a menu.
Retention · held after PC-04
It is a deduction from the sum due, and it has to be the same figure the client sees on the retention notice, so the number here is the number on the notice.
Variations
Under JCT they are valued in the certificate, so retention runs down one track and nothing is paid twice.
Variations · approved for PC-04
VO-01 and VO-03 are not paid on a separate note. The certified percentage is written back to the variation record, so the two never drift apart.
FIDIC
On a FIDIC contract the Contractor submits a monthly Statement, the Engineer values it and issues an Interim Payment Certificate, and the Employer pays.
FIDIC Red Book 1999 · IPC-04
There is no payment notice and no pay-less notice. The days are counted in calendar days and stay editable for the Particular Conditions of your contract; the published defaults are a starting point to verify, not legal advice.
Who it is for
You are applying
You value it, and the certificate cuts itYou value the work line by line and submit the application. When the certificate lands short, the difference is argued line by line too, and your valuation is the evidence.
Applying for paymentYou are certifying
You cut it, and you sign your nameYou value the same lines from the other chair and issue the certificate. Every percentage you cut has to survive the question of why, a month or a year later.
Certifying paymentYou are doing both
You value your own work, aloneYou price it, you value it and you apply for it yourself, between site visits. The certificate still has to add up as if a surveyor had built it.
Doing both yourselfYou are reporting
You certify value the lender pays onYou certify value in place so the lender can release the next tranche. The valuation is the same arithmetic; the reader was never on site.
Recommending a drawdownThe 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.
The five that come up most often about certificates that have to stand up as payment notices.
Yes. You can enter the bill directly or bring it in, then every certificate values against those lines. Section subtotals and omissions carry through, so the certificate structure matches the bill the client already has.
You cannot. QScope caps each line at the contract value less what has already been certified, and tells you how much is left on that line rather than silently trimming the figure.
No. Documents carry your practice name and your logo. QScope does not appear on anything you send a client.
Yes, and each has their own login so the audit trail records who prepared each certificate. If two people open the same project, QScope warns the second one rather than letting one overwrite the other.
Yes. Set the contract form to FIDIC and the certificate becomes an Interim Payment Certificate valued from the Contractor’s Statement, with the 28 and 56 day sequence counted in calendar days on the 1999 Red Book defaults. The dates are published starting points to verify against your Particular Conditions and jurisdiction.
From the blog
Three of the questions this page raises, answered at length and without a sales pitch at the end.
A certificate for less is not money lost, it is money deferred, unless you let it disappear. Why the certified figure usually rules the month, how cumulative valuations carry the difference forward, and when the fight is worth having now.
Read nowUnfixed materials are the most common source of interim overpayment. The conditions for certifying them, why off-site materials are treated differently, and what happens on insolvency.
Read nowA provisional sum is an allowance for work nobody could define at tender: the drains until the ground is opened, the rot until the floor comes up. When the work firms up it is valued like a variation, and whether you also get time depends on one word: defined.
Read nowKeep reading
Your own lines, your own retention rate and your own contract form. The percentages, the fixed sums, the statutory dates and the statement come out of the same screen, and nothing is retyped between the valuation and the document you send.
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.