The account starts in month one
Everything that will be argued about at the end happens during the works: an instruction given on site, a drawing revision nobody priced, a week lost to something outside your control. Each of those is cheap to record on the day and expensive to reconstruct a year later.
The contractors who settle well are rarely the ones who argue best. They are the ones whose file already contains the answer.
Entitlement first, then value
Before any figure matters, the account has to show why the money is due: which instruction, which clause, which event. An item with a convincing value and no stated entitlement invites the response that it is simply part of the works.
Taking the two in order also shortens the argument. Where entitlement is agreed, the discussion narrows to rates and quantities, which are matters of measurement rather than opinion.
The record you already have
Site diaries, delivery tickets, allocation sheets, photographs with dates, marked up drawings and the instruction log are usually enough. They are also usually scattered across people who have moved on to the next job.
Collect them while the job is live and keep them in one place, organised by the item they support rather than by the week they were produced.
Where accounts stall
Accounts rarely stall over the whole figure. They stall over a handful of items where the record is thin, and those items then hold up everything that was already agreed.
Separating the agreed from the open, in writing, is often what restarts the process. It also makes clear how small the genuine dispute is, which changes how both sides treat it.
What this means for you
Treat the final account as a document you are building from the first valuation, not a negotiation you prepare for at the end. The work is the same, but spread across the job it is a fraction of the effort and worth more.
Reltic assembles accounts on that basis and supports contractors through negotiation, mediation or adjudication where agreement does not come.
Tell us where the account has stopped
Send the contract and the open items. We will tell you what the record supports and what it does not.