QScope

Risk

The commercial risk register

A contingency taken as a round percentage is a number nobody can defend. An allowance built from named risks is a number you can walk a client through.

QScope Team·3 min read

Each risk on its own line

  1. Open Risk Register and add a risk.
  2. Describe what could go wrong commercially, not technically.
  3. Enter the probability and the cost if it occurs.
  4. QScope calculates the allowance as the expected value: probability multiplied by cost.
Write risks as consequences with money attached. Ground conditions worse than assumed is a risk; the ground is a subject.

Into the cost report

The total allowance can be carried straight into the cost report as your contingency, which means the contingency line has a register behind it rather than a percentage somebody chose.

The same allowance carries through in whatever currency the job runs in, so the contingency on a FIDIC job abroad is built and defended exactly as it is on a UK one.

Review it at every valuation. A risk register written at contract stage and never touched is worse than none, because it looks current and is not. Risks that have happened should be closed and moved into the account; risks that have passed should be removed.

What it prints

The register prints as a document with the probability, the cost and the allowance against each risk, plus the total. It exports to CSV for circulation.

It is written to be shown to a client, which is why the wording avoids blame and states exposure.

Keep reading

Related