Commercial Management
Risk mitigationOngoingFor Self Builders
The whole money side of your build run for you, month by month, by a quantity surveyor who acts only for you: the budget tracked, every payment checked before it is made, every change priced before it is built, the records kept, and the final account being assembled from day one. You build the house; I run the building money.
The problem
A self build is a construction project, and on every other construction project of its size, somebody's whole job is the money. A developer would not dream of running a build without that person; the self builder does it between work and family, learning each discipline in the month it first goes wrong. The budget, the payments, the changes, the records and the final account - the build's last bill - are each manageable alone; together, on top of a life, they are why the overrun became the expected ending of a self build story.
The solution
One retained arrangement that takes the whole money side off your desk. The budget becomes a live document, tracked against reality every month. Every payment request is checked against the work before you pay. Every change is priced and agreed in writing before it is built, in a register that keeps the running total honest. The records are kept as the build's memory, and the final account assembles itself from them as the job runs. You get one report a month, in plain English, saying where the money stands. Monthly, agreed in writing, for as long as the build needs it.
What you receive
From the first payment checked to the settled final account, your build's money runs like a managed project: paid level with the work, changes priced before they happened, a record that would stand scrutiny, and a monthly report in plain English.
The Handover Pack accompanies the work with its dates and sources, likely outcomes and responses, scope boundaries and ready-to-send correspondence where needed.
Turnaround: five working days per cycle.
The working days start when the agreed scope and required inputs are available. Optional items do not hold the start unless the agreed scope says otherwise.
How it works
You bring me in and copy me in
The contract pack and the paperwork so far, then one habit: anything with a number on it comes my way before it is agreed or paid.
- A
Contract and quote
EssentialWithout it: There is nothing the monthly reporting can be checked against, so every figure in it is a guess dressed as a position.
Where to find it: Your own records; the builder's office can resend anything missing.
Why I need it: The mechanics everything runs on
- B
Budget and funding
ImportantWithout it: The monthly report has no baseline to measure against and no funding picture to warn you if the money looks like running out before the work is done.
Where to find it: Your own figures: the budget or cost plan as you have it, and your mortgage or self-build funding offer for the facts behind it.
Why I need it: The baseline the monthly position reports against
- C
History to date
ImportantWithout it: The account starts from zero instead of from where the build actually is, and everything already spent or agreed stays invisible to it.
Where to find it: Bank statements, emails and texts hold most of it.
Why I need it: The account starts true
- D
The photo habit
EssentialWithout it: There is no independent record between visits, so a payment request cannot be checked against what has actually been built.
Where to find it: Your own phone, on the walk before each request is due; the routine starts once we agree it, nothing more is needed.
Why I need it: The valuation's eyes
- E
Same-day forwarding
EssentialWithout it: Decisions get made and money gets committed before the retainer ever sees them.
Where to find it: Your inbox, the moment anything with a number on it lands.
Why I need it: The whole service's clock
- F
How the build is run, and the works type
EssentialWithout it: The retainer cannot be scoped or priced, because the route decides how much of every service there is
Where to find it: You know this already and it takes two minutes: who holds the contracts, one builder for the whole job or trades engaged separately or a kit company plus trades; who designed it; and whether anyone is administering the contract or certifying payments. Say if it has changed since you started
Why I need it: The route decides how many accounts run in parallel, what quotes and valuations are levelled onto, and which contract a change belongs in
Copies are fine. Send what you have and I'll tell you what's missing. Download the client request PDF or editable Word version to pass to whoever holds the files.
- A
I set up the build's money machinery
The budget baselined, the register opened, the payment routine agreed with the builder, the record-keeping running from week one.
I run the month, every month
Payments checked, changes priced, records kept, and one plain-English report: where the money stands, what moved, what is coming.
No payment skips the check
Any request for money outside the monthly rhythm, however urgent, goes through the same full payment check before you are asked to pay.
You make the decisions with the numbers in front of you
Every choice the build asks of you arrives priced. The stress of not knowing - the real cost of self building - is the thing this removes.
I run the building money
My products used
Tips that raise your odds of success
Questions I get asked often
This is the flagship service, and the one credit in the service set lands here like anywhere else: a General Support session's fee is credited against any self-build service taken within 90 days - once, against one invoice, never stacked. The seats this arrangement holds are also services in their own right: Valuation & Payment Checking and Variation Control for the build that only needs one discipline held, and Final Account & Close-out, which this arrangement carries with it to the end. And if you would rather learn to run the money side yourself, the Self Build Commercial Management Course is free.