budget setting and cost planning
We build the initial budget from measured quantities and benchmarked rates rather than a rate per square metre, and we state explicitly what it includes: construction, professional fees, statutory charges, fit-out, contingency, inflation and VAT. Splitting the budget this way stops the familiar situation where a construction figure is treated as a project figure. As the design develops we reissue the cost plan at each stage, showing the movement against the previous version element by element, with the cause of each movement identified so the design team can respond.
cash flow, forecasting and reporting
Clients need to know not only the final figure but when the money leaves. We prepare cash-flow forecasts aligned to the construction programme and update them against actual certified value, which turns a payment schedule into a funding plan that banks and boards can work with. Our cost reports set out committed cost, forecast final cost, approved and pending variations, risk allowance drawdown and the reasons for any change since the last report. Anything trending in the wrong direction is flagged with options attached rather than presented as a fact to be absorbed.
change control and cost close-out
Change is inevitable; uncontrolled change is not. Every proposed variation is priced and assessed for time impact before it is instructed, so the client approves a known cost rather than discovering it in a valuation three months later. Contingency and risk allowances are managed as a formal drawdown with a written justification for each release. At completion we drive the final account to a documented agreement, reconciling it against the original budget so the client can see, item by item, how the project moved from the first cost plan to the amount finally paid.