What Is a Project Final Account?
The final account is the comprehensive final settlement of the contract value after the actual quantities, the variation orders, the claims and the deductions have all been closed.
What gets closed in it
The final account gathers into one document: the final executed quantities at contract rates, every approved variation order both added and omitted, the settled claims, delay damages if any were earned, the recovered advance payment, and the retention with the status of its release. The difference between the original contract value and the final value is the sum of everything that happened on the project financially.
When does preparing it begin?
The common mistake is to begin preparing it after handover. The correct practice is to build it cumulatively from the first progress claim: every variation order documented with its value and its time effect at the moment it is approved, and every remeasured quantity fixed by a signed record. Whoever leaves the documentation to the end finds themselves negotiating over events two years old that nobody now remembers precisely.
Why closing it stalls
Four reasons above all: work done on a verbal instruction without a variation order; remeasured quantities with no joint records; claims submitted after their contractual deadlines; and retention tied to closing a snag list that was never closed. Every one of them is preventable by a simple administrative step taken at the time.
What it means to the contractor
The final account is not an administrative formality: it is the moment the project’s real profit becomes known, and it is also the gateway to releasing the final retention and discharging the bank guarantees that go on consuming your credit limits until they are released. Delaying it six months means freezing liquidity that could have funded another project.
Worked example
An apartment building with a contract value of SAR 6.4 million: approved additional works of 480,000, an omitted canopy item of 95,000, a remeasurement of the excavation that reduced it by 40,000, and 11 days of delay damages. The final value came to 6.745 million, 5.4% above the contract, and closed in 38 days because every variation order had been documented when it was issued.
FAQ
How long does closing a final account usually take?
Anywhere from weeks to more than a year, and the decisive factor is not the size of the project but the quality of the documentation kept during execution: a project documented item by item closes quickly however large it is.
What is the difference between the final progress claim and the final account?
The final claim is the last payment document; the final account is the comprehensive settlement on which that claim is built, covering every adjustment, claim and deduction.
Can I sign the final account with a reservation?
Signing off usually closes out the claims, so if you still have a live claim, record it in writing as an express reservation before signing rather than relying on a verbal promise to deal with it later.
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