QScope

Valuations

Valuations and payment certificates

This is the screen you will spend most of your time on. Everything else in QScope exists to make this step shorter.

QScope Team·6 min read

Create the certificate

  1. Open Client Valuations and create a new one. It numbers itself in sequence.
  2. Set the valuation date, which is when you assessed the works.
  3. Set the due date from your contract. This is the one that drives every statutory deadline, so it is not optional.
  4. The lines come through from your bill of quantities. You do not retype anything.

Two ways to value a line

Measured work values naturally as a percentage. A lump sum, a provisional sum released in stages or a daywork sheet does not, and forcing it through a percentage is how a spreadsheet ends up with a column nobody can explain.

  1. By default each line is valued as a percentage of its contract value for this period.
  2. Click the % beside the field to switch that line to a fixed sum. The symbol turns into a pound sign.
  3. Switching does not change the value. The field starts from whatever the percentage was already producing, so nothing jumps.
A fixed sum stays fixed if you later correct the contract value of that line. A percentage would recalculate. That is the point of the distinction, and it is why lump sums belong on the fixed setting.

What the cap does

QScope will not let a line be certified past its contract value once previous certificates are counted. If you try, it tells you how much is left on that line rather than silently trimming your figure.

If the cap stops you unexpectedly, check the previously certified column first. It usually means the line is already fully valued, not that the cap is wrong.

Bringing variations in

Under JCT a variation is valued in the periodic valuation, as a line in the certificate. It is not paid separately on the side.

  1. Use + Add Variations in the certificate.
  2. QScope lists the approved variations that are not already in this certificate, with their values, and asks you to confirm.
  3. They come in as normal valuation lines, so you value them by percentage or fixed sum like anything else.
  4. Retention is then deducted once, in the certificate, exactly as the contract expects.
A variation certified in a valuation cannot also be marked Paid on the variation record. QScope blocks it, because counting the same money twice is the error nobody notices until the final account.

Materials on site

Record an advance payment against the line it relates to. QScope recovers it automatically in following valuations as that work is certified, and shows it on the certificate as a note rather than hiding it inside a total.

Working under FIDIC

If the contract form is FIDIC rather than JCT or NEC, the valuation works the same way but the paperwork and the dates follow the Red Book. The Contractor submits a monthly Statement, you value it as the Engineer, and the certificate is an Interim Payment Certificate.

  1. Set the contract form to FIDIC and the jurisdiction for the job.
  2. Value the measured lines under Clause 12, by percentage or fixed sum, exactly as before.
  3. QScope counts the certificate and payment dates in calendar days from the Statement: the Interim Payment Certificate within 28 days, payment within 56, on the 1999 Red Book defaults.
  4. Edit the day counts if your Particular Conditions differ.
FIDIC has no payment notice or pay-less notice, so the certificate carries the Statement date and the two calendar-day deadlines instead of the four Construction Act dates. The jurisdiction banner is a reminder that statutory dates and taxes are starting points to verify locally.

Check before issuing

  1. Look at the summary: gross this period, less retention, net due.
  2. Check the statutory dates panel shows four dates. If it says they cannot be computed, you have not set a due date.
  3. Read the line at the foot of the certificate stating the sum considered due and the basis of it. That statement is what the Construction Act requires, and it is why the valuation schedule prints with the total.

Issuing

Print or save as PDF. The document carries your practice name and logo, never QScope branding.

It prints in black and white on purpose. Certificates get photocopied, scanned and put into bundles, and anything that relies on colour stops being readable at that point. Negative amounts appear in brackets, which is the accounting convention and survives the same treatment.

Keep reading

Related

Valuations Interim valuations and payment certificates by percentage or fixed sum, with retention and previously certified. UK JCT and NEC, plus FIDIC certificates. Read this next Raising and valuing a variation How to record a variation in QScope on JCT, NEC or FIDIC: the instruction, the basis of valuation, then certifying it inside a valuation or Statement. Read this next Materials on site and off site Valuing materials in an interim valuation, why they drop out when built in, the five off-site conditions, and how FIDIC handles this under 14.5 and 14.2. Read this next