Day-to-day operating brief
What Quantity Surveyor (Professional Services) work looks like in practice
A consulting Quantity Surveyor advises clients on construction cost, procurement, tendering, valuations and change from feasibility through final account. The role handles confidential budgets, contractor submissions and site evidence while professional appointments define scope and liability. Terms should cover project types, travel, site safety, measurement standards, software, report review, valuation and certification authority, conflicts, expenses and CPD. Valuations should separate measured work, materials, variations, retention and disputed amounts, linking each conclusion to the relevant contract basis. Site observations do not automatically certify workmanship outside the appointment. Cost reports need consistent treatment of contingency, inflation and committed expenditure so movement is intelligible. When instructions arrive informally, the surveyor should record source, scope and commercial status before incorporating them into forecasts or recommending payment. Change control should reconcile site instructions, quotations, agreed valuation and forecast exposure as separate stages. Final-account preparation also needs a clear list of unresolved claims and supporting records, rather than a single unqualified settlement estimate. Tender comparisons should normalise scope qualifications and provisional sums; the lowest headline total may not represent the lowest comparable commercial offer.
Individually written and reviewed against the maintained role record.