If your quantity surveyor spends the days before every progress claim chasing photos, timesheets, dockets and variation approvals, the problem isn't your QS. It's that site information is captured late, in different places, and nobody connects it to the job. Capture it on site as it happens, tag it to the job, and feed it to the people who prepare claims. Your QS can then spend their time checking and pricing the claim instead of hunting for evidence.
It's near the end of the month. Your QS sits down to prepare a progress claim, and the first thing they do is start chasing. Chasing photos. Chasing timesheets. Digging through emails for a variation approval from weeks ago. Sound familiar?
The problem: information scattered everywhere
On most building jobs, the evidence a claim needs is spread across:
- Photos on supervisors' phones, sent by text or not sent at all
- Timesheets on paper, in an app, or in a spreadsheet someone updates on Fridays
- Delivery dockets in the ute, the site shed or an inbox
- Variation approvals buried in email threads with the client or architect
- Site diaries that are filled in late, from memory
None of these are hard to find on their own. The trouble is that your QS has to find all of them, for every job, every month, and then work out which ones belong to which stage of work. That's not quantity surveying. That's detective work.
It also costs more than time. When evidence is rebuilt from memory weeks later, claims get understated (work done but not claimed) or disputed (work claimed but not backed up). Both hurt cash flow.
The fix: capture data as it happens
If your site team captured this information as it happened, it would already be there when claim time comes. Tagged to the job, dated, with photos attached.
Site apps such as Dash Pivot or Fieldwire are examples of tools that do the capture part well. A supervisor fills in a short daily log on their phone, takes photos, notes deliveries and records instructions from the client. Each entry is stamped with the date and the job.
But an app on its own only moves the problem. If the site log lives in one system, timesheets in another, approved variations in email and the contract values in your accounting or estimating system, your QS is still the person stitching them together. The real gain comes from connecting them, so that the claim draws on one set of job information rather than five.
Practical steps to stop the chase
- List what a claim actually needs. Sit with your QS and write down every piece of evidence they collect for a typical claim, and where each one comes from today.
- Pick one place for site capture. Whatever tool you use, make it the only place site information goes. Paper and text messages become the exception, not the rule.
- Use the same job codes everywhere. Site logs, timesheets, purchase orders and your accounting system should all use the same job and cost-code structure. Without that, nothing lines up.
- Record variations when they're approved. Log each approved variation against the job straight away, with the approval attached, rather than leaving it in an email thread.
- Connect the systems. Once capture is consistent, link site data, timesheets and approved variations to your job costing so claim figures can be pulled together, not rebuilt. Our page on construction financial visibility explains how this fits with job costing, WIP and cash flow reporting.
- Review a claim cycle. After the first month, ask your QS what they still had to chase, and fix that next.
What changes for your QS
Your QS goes from detective to reviewer. Instead of collecting evidence, they check it: is the work complete, is the photo enough, does the variation match what was approved? The information is more accurate because it was captured on the day, not reconstructed weeks later. And when a client questions a line item, the supporting evidence is already attached to the job.
If your claims process involves a lot of copying between site tools, spreadsheets and your accounting system, construction process automation can take much of that retyping out.
Frequently asked questions
Do we need to replace our accounting or estimating software to fix this?
Usually not. Most of the gain comes from capturing site information consistently and connecting it to the systems you already use. Replacing core software is rarely the first step.
Will site staff actually use a daily log app?
They're more likely to if it's quick, works on their phone and replaces something rather than adding to it. Keep the log short, and make sure supervisors see the benefit, such as fewer phone calls from the office asking for photos and dockets.
What if our timesheets aren't recorded against jobs?
Start there. Labour is often one of the biggest parts of a claim and a job's cost. If hours aren't recorded against a job and cost code, neither your claims nor your job costing can be accurate.
Can this work for subcontractor claims as well?
Yes. The same idea applies: capture approvals, dockets and progress evidence against the job as it happens, so checking a subcontractor's claim is a comparison, not an investigation.
If your QS is still playing detective every month, book a free initial chat and we'll talk through where your claim information lives and how to bring it together.