The two records that hold the site accounts together, from measuring the work to paying for it.
Work that has been covered up cannot be measured again. That is why measured work is written down as it is built, on the day it is measured, in a record both sides can check. The rule is traceability: whoever reads the record has to be able to see how each quantity was arrived at — parts, length, width, height or weight — and which contract item it belongs to.
The measurement book is the first record in the chain: the dated, chronological entry of the work measured, taken jointly with the contractor wherever that is possible. Each entry carries the date, the contract item it relates to and the dimensions the quantity comes from. Sketches, photographs and site notes go with it, so that a quantity taken before backfilling can still be evidenced a year later.
The quantities are then carried into a priced register, where the contract rates are applied and the values come out, in date order and signed by the parties. That register is the account of record for the contract: the summary by section and the interim valuations come out of it, and so does the final account.
Italian contracts formalise both records. The libretto delle misure is the measurement book, filled in by the works supervisor in contraddittorio — jointly with the contractor, who signs the entries. The registro di contabilità is the priced register, and it is the official accounting document of the contract. For public works the arrangement of these documents is set by D.Lgs. 36/2023 and by its annex on works supervision.
Writing measurements up from memory at the end of the month instead of as the work goes on; forgetting the deduction lines; using units that do not match the contract item; not having the entries signed by both sides. These are the mistakes that turn into claims and disputes: a clean set of accounts is the best defence every party has.
In ComputoLab you record the measurements against the bill item and the measurement book writes itself, with the same measurement rules as the bill; the site account register and the interim valuation come from the same data, with nothing retyped. It all prints to PDF or Word from the Project documents tab.
Read also: Interim valuations · How to prepare a bill of quantities
Bills of quantities, site accounts and quotations in one program, offline, on Mac and Windows.
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