CVR Production & Maintenance
Risk mitigationOngoingFor Subcontractors & Main Contractors
I produce your monthly cost value reconciliation and keep it honest, value from the account's real position, cost from the ledger and the accruals, margin movement explained month on month. It is the discipline that stops a profitable-looking job quietly going backwards.
The problem
On a busy job the value lives in the surveyor's head and the cost in the accounts system, rarely brought to the same date, so the margin is assumed rather than managed. When a CVR is run it usually flatters: value is read off what has been certified rather than the true account, and cost is pulled straight from the purchase ledger, so the plant still on hire and materials against an unbilled order are missing. It looks fine this month, then the assumption holds until the final account proves it wrong.
The solution
Each month I build the reconciliation properly: value from the account's real position, variations at your honest current assessment and claim exposure marked as exposure, and cost from the ledger plus the accruals for everything consumed but not yet invoiced, taken to the same cut-off date so the two reconcile. Then I set this month's CVR beside last month's and explain every movement in margin, so you read why it moved and where it is travelling. A slip with a named reason is a job being managed; the same slip found at the end is a disaster.
What you receive
You know, every month, the true margin the job is earning and where it is travelling, from value read off the account and cost accrued to the same date rather than a payment-cycle mirage. A slip shows up in the period it happens, tied to a cause you can act on, so the profitable-looking job that quietly goes backwards is caught in time. By the final account the margin holds no surprises.
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 tell me about the job and how it is judged today
One call on the project, the margin it was priced to make and how you currently know whether it is on track. The first conversation is free and commits you to nothing.
You send me the account position and the cost ledger
The list below lets the first CVR be built from the account's true value and a cost accrued to the same date, rather than from the payment cycle.
- A
Contract sum and all variations, with the variation register showing against each item its status, the date it was submitted to the payer and the date it was answered
EssentialWithout it: There is no value side to reconcile, so no margin can be calculated at all this period.
Where to find it: The commercial folder, the surveyor's working files and the variation register. The submission and answer dates are on the register where it is kept properly, and otherwise on the covering correspondence each variation went out with.
Why I need it: The income side, and the dates the ageing of the unagreed items is built from
- B
The cost ledger or actuals
EssentialWithout it: There is no cost side to reconcile, so no margin can be calculated at all this period.
Where to find it: The accounts or job-costing system, and the purchase ledger.
Why I need it: The cost side, and the half that is usually wrong
- C
Accruals
ImportantWithout it: Accruals are built from site records and subcontractor applications instead of your own schedule, and anything with no record behind it is left out of cost altogether.
Where to find it: The plant register, the site's delivery records, the timesheets and the subcontractors' latest applications.
Why I need it: What is incurred but not yet invoiced
- D
Valuations to date
EssentialWithout it: There is nothing to reconcile the agreed value against, so the value side cannot be checked against what has actually been certified.
Where to find it: Your surveyor's file of applications and the certificates issued against them, or the payment folder.
Why I need it: What was certified against what was applied for
- E
Subcontract commitments
ImportantWithout it: Cost to date is actuals and accruals only, with nothing committed on open orders included, so the margin range reported is narrower than it should be.
Where to find it: The order register, or your buying team's list of subcontract orders placed and value paid to date.
Why I need it: What is owed to the supply chain
- F
The programme
OptionalWithout it: The report cannot say whether the period's spend is on track against time, only what the money itself shows.
Where to find it: The current programme, from the planner or the last progress report, if you hold one; it is not required to run this report.
Why I need it: What decides whether the period is on track
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.
Cost Map Agreed
The cost code structure the reconciliation runs on is confirmed with you in writing first, so every month's margin is measured against categories you recognise.
- A
I set the value from the account, not the certificate
Measured entitlement against the pricing document, variations at your honest assessment, claim exposure marked as exposure, valued to a fixed cut-off date.
I accrue the cost to the same cut-off date
Ledger cost plus the plant, materials, labour and subcontract work consumed but not yet invoiced, so value and cost reconcile against the same day.
I explain every movement in margin against last month
Each shift since the prior CVR tied to a named cause, so you read not just where the margin sits but why it moved and where it is heading.
You act on what the reconciliation shows
The over-allowance rate priced into the next tender, the slipping variation pushed while the evidence is fresh, the decision taken against a margin you can trust.
I keep the margin honest month by month
Between projects the service pauses rather than cancels: nothing is re-onboarded, the file and the diary stay warm, and it resumes the day the next project starts.
Free Service Pack
A step-by-step Handbook, with the templates and working documents you need to carry out the work it covers yourself. You supply your own project information and records.
Follow the Handbook's scope and stopping points, and obtain independent advice where required. The pack is not project-specific advice or independent sign-off.
Tips that raise your odds of success
Questions I get asked often
The CVR reports the margin; where that margin turns into cash and when is the neighbouring Cashflow Forecasting Against Programme, and where the account will finally land is Forecast Final Account Maintenance. The value side of the CVR is only as good as the variations behind it, which are priced and registered by Variation Pricing in the Variations theme.