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It depends on the contract. Under a JCT Standard Building Contract the contractor sends its documents and the contract administrator or quantity surveyor prepares the statement. Under a JCT Design and Build Contract the contractor prepares and submits the Final Statement. Under NEC4 the Project Manager makes the final assessment. In practice the contractor’s QS does most of the work on all three, because the contractor holds the records.

The contracts set the outer limits. Under JCT the process runs to a due date for final payment that usually falls a month or two after the end of the rectification period, which is often 6 to 12 months after practical completion. Under NEC4 the Project Manager has four weeks from the Defects Certificate. Accounts where variations were agreed during the job can close in weeks. Accounts with a pile of unpriced changes can take a year or more.

Act quickly. Under the main JCT forms the Final Certificate or Final Statement becomes conclusive evidence of the sums due unless adjudication, arbitration or court proceedings are started within the short window the contract allows, 28 days in the standard wording. Under the JCT Design and Build Contract the employer can also give notice disputing the contractor’s Final Statement before the due date. Read the clause in your own contract, because amendments are common.

Yes. The Construction Act gives either party to a construction contract the right to refer a dispute to adjudication at any time. The adjudicator must decide within 28 days of the referral, extendable by 14 days with the referring party’s consent, and the decision is binding until the dispute is settled by agreement, arbitration or the courts. Adjudication is fast, but a large final account squeezed into 28 days favours the side with the better records.

Under JCT contracts half of the retention is usually released at practical completion and the rest when the defects are made good at the end of the rectification period, which is also when the final account is closing. Under NEC4 retention only applies if Option X16 is used. The release should appear as a line in the final account.