A quantity surveyor (QS) is the construction professional who manages the cost and commercial side of a project: measuring and pricing work, valuing progress for payment, assessing variations and agreeing the Final Account. The term is standard in the UK, where the QS sits at the centre of cost control on most jobs.
Worked example
A contractor's QS receives a Subcontractor's application for £48,000 cumulative. The QS measures the work on site against the Subcontract and assesses £42,500: some partitions claimed as complete are not yet boarded on both sides.
The £5,500 difference is held back and the subcontractor is told why. The Main Contractor's own application to the Client then includes the assessed £42,500 plus its margin on that package, not the £48,000.
The QS and the monthly CVR
The CVR is where the QS's work lands. Each month the QS brings together:
- Income: the contract sum, agreed variations, and what has been applied for and certified.
- Cost: subcontract valuations assessed, Supplier invoices, and accruals for work done but not yet invoiced.
- Forecast: the expected final cost and final account, including variations not yet agreed.
The gap between income and cost, tested against the forecast, tells the business whether the job is making its margin. A QS who prices variations on time and holds subcontractor payments to measured work protects that margin directly.
Client-side and contractor-side
The same job can have two or more QSs. The client's QS (often a cost consultant) prepares the budget, helps tender the work and assesses the contractor's applications. The contractor's QS prices the tender, buys the subcontract packages, values subcontractors and submits applications. They negotiate, but they share a vocabulary: Valuation, Variation, final account, Bill of Quantities (BoQ).
In a smaller contractor, one QS may cover several live jobs, with the commercial director signing off. Visibility matters more there, because a QS who is stretched across five jobs will miss a variation notice that sits in an email.
Related terms
Valuation, Final Account, Variation, Bill of Quantities (BoQ), Cost Value Reconciliation (CVR).
Planyard's cost value reconciliation puts budgets, orders, valuations and variations in one place, so a QS builds the monthly CVR from current figures instead of rebuilding a spreadsheet.
