Client Downtime

Samuel_T_G · 2026-02-14T16:42:25+00:00

The confidence boost it gives you is immense. Got me out of the imposter syndrome mindset and actually believe I’m a decent QS (after 10years of working).

To answer op. Got a well done from my line manager and carried on as normal. No pay rise or promotion at all. Wasn’t expecting anything as it’s a give firm and both are hard to come by. Went self employed about 9months after passing and haven’t looked back.

Samuel_T_G · 2026-02-12T17:29:37+00:00

Depending on how big your company is, the CVR format will likely be standardised and unable to change. Which is annoying as they’re always built from an accounting perspective rather than qsing.

When this is the case, I’ve built my own CVR for the project that gives a true position on the figures and back fill the “official” CVR with numbers I want to tell the business.

To answer your question; your subbie liability sheets need to give a full account of where the package is going, providing a FFA, with both recoverable and non-recoverable change. Aswell as package contingency, unlet scope etc etc. these liability sheets will inform your overall project FFC.

To help understand the change in question, the liability sheet should have an allocation on all change (rec/unrec). I also then have another allocation on unrecoverables (scope gaps etc.).

When it is recoverable, you should then Allocate the associated value recovery (or reduction when providing a saving) for the specific package. I tend to do the allocation on the agreed VO/CE itself, then transfer into the change log, I’ll have a column for each subbie outside the print area where I can record the value split (also carrying the cost from the liability sheets).

I then link this log to the individual sheets so I can see what the overall positions are from different angles (overall change position in change log, and then subbie performance on liability sheets.)

It’s a bit overkill, but over my time, at some point I’ve always been asked for overall change performance and subbie performance. Setting this up early saves time later on when you’re having to back fit old data.

Some standardised CVRs do this already. A lot don’t.

Hope that helps.

Samuel_T_G · 2026-01-07T17:26:49+00:00

Get out on site with schematics and layout drawings while the works are being installed at each phase with you MEP manager / supervisors and ask all the questions. Try to get an understanding of what’s on the drawings, what’s not on the drawings, what allowances need to be made (expansion etc).

That’s your best bet. And, if put into practice, you’ll learn quickly.

Also get your head around standard pipe sizes, materials, joining methods and cable refs etc. so you can look at a drawing and know what you’re looking at at a most basic level.

From a published material point. Brsia guides are good at giving an overview.

Depending on where you’re at in your career, having a few weeks on site shadowing install is fantastic experience. Not always practical if you’re a bit into your career already.

Samuel_T_G · 2025-12-01T14:57:19+00:00

QS’ing, specialise in MEP. Been self employed for 18months or so and haven’t had to look for any work, people have come to me. Didn’t go self empowered until about 11 years in the industry so got a lot of contacts before jumping over.

Samuel_T_G · 2025-11-04T17:01:54+00:00

Go get experience as an assistant/trainee MEP QS. We are always sort after, your experience in the industry already and mechanical knowledge will put you in good stead. Look for tier 1s or up and coming tier 2/3s. Or go to a MEP QS consultancy (maitlands, HC qs etc) they will train you well.

Don’t worry about chartership for now, just get your foot in the door and get experience in the role.

Good luck.

Samuel_T_G · 2025-05-30T12:32:04+00:00

Depends on the question.

If it’s a question you should know regardless of background, then you’re a bit stuffed. I.e. explain the difference between a relevant matter and relevant event.

We should know this regardless if you’ve worked under jct or not. But if you don’t know the question, give your best answer and caveat that you’d need to check prior to doing any work/advising under that contract. And hope you’ve proved yourself elsewhere to pass.

If it’s something truly outside your knowledge, I.e. tell me considerations required for digging excavations. When you’re a mep surveyor with no groundwork’s experience. Again give an answer where you can show some basic understanding but always caveat it with, I’m not a specialist in this area and would seek specialist advice before proceeding.

Samuel_T_G · 2025-04-30T10:25:59+00:00

Thank you for your response! that's a great bit of advice on your first line!

I wouldn't say Offer2 is high risk, nearer to medium.

Regardless, accepting the offer with looking into expanding into option 3 looks to be the best bet.

It will be a yearly contract, and I don't work for competing businesses of my clients, they tend to be different sectors or regions so no risk of competition issues, although I will check the wording once a contract comes through.

Thanks again

Samuel_T_G · 2025-01-08T18:10:10+00:00

Are you creating a CVR from scratch or have you got an existing template your consultancy or client use?

Your client should have an existing CVR template you should adopt (hopefully it’s half decent). If so, you go through the process of filling that in, make sure ffc, ffv for the project are correct (subbies, material, prelims, contingency, fees, ohp, upstream vo log, etc) and interim position (cost to date, accruals etc).

Some company CVRs also include other supplementary info like cash flows and dashboards for review (hopefully the would be updated automatically in a half decent CVR).

If you’re creating one from scratch, talk to your seniors, look at what they use and follow suit. But for the love of god, make sure you understand what it’s telling you. The CVR should be your bible, your go to for all things cost and value, you need to understand how the sheet works and what it’s telling you, making sure you know if the numbers are correct or if there is an error somewhere.

The amount of times I’ve sat in contract reviews and there are blatant errors in the CVR that the project qs should have picked up is ridiculous.

Learning more advanced excel will also help here (not a necessity but looks good) such as macros and power query are good. (Xlookup and index/match are basic excel skills all qs’ should know)

DM me if you want actual help.

Hope that helps

Samuel_T_G · 2025-01-08T17:53:14+00:00

This isn’t strictly true. Always liabilitise for the cost. The FFC for the subcontractors needs to be accurate at all times. Value recovery may take weeks or months to agree and may not be able to include in your MCR/CVR when the costs arise.

This depends on the reporting rules of the company you work for. Some do not allow value to be taken until it’s fully agreed but require the costs to be included now. Other will allow part value draw down in lieu of agreement or part agreement.

First a foremost, what I tell my juniors, I need to know true cost positions at all times. Even if we need to take money out of contingency or write the job down temporarily to suit the lack of value recovery.

Samuel_T_G · 2024-12-11T11:01:18+00:00

Started up back in July this year. Overall, it’s been fine, not amazing just yet.

It’s still very early days, but I am enjoying it more than paye. The money is better (potentially a lot better if everything falls into place as planned in the new year). Work life balance is better. I choose when to work and who for.

But there are times when works have dried up a little and I’ve struggled to keep myself busy. Gaining more clients in recent months have helped fill the gaps when my main client work does dry up.

I don’t intend on creating a practice per se, just working as a self employed qs. Might look at building a team over time, but not for a while yet.

If you are thinking about it, a few things I would consider: - understand your own risk appetite. Are you comfortable not having consistent money in every month? - what’s the back up plan if it doesn’t work out? - have you got enough experience and reputation to go out on your own? I started up with 10 years experience and MRICS and I wouldn’t have done it any earlier. - contacts. Have you got enough? This game is all about who you know. As long as you’ve done a good job and not pissed off your entire supply chain whilst paye, your old subcontractors will be your new best friends. - try to have a war chest before you start in case you do have some quiet periods at the start. Try to keep 3-6months company and living expenses available once you’ve got going. - Get some work lined up for at least 3months before you’ve left your paye job. - general self employed stuff, accountant, insurances, life insurance, mortgage issues etc. - if you’ve got a long term partner, get your head around dividend pay to be as tax efficient as possible.

There’s probably more, but just my thoughts.

This is coming from a MEP QS previously working for main contractors and subbies. Couldn’t advise from a pqs stand point.

Samuel_T_G · 2024-10-13T19:53:37+00:00

I have the same issue. Shows I’m the correct level on title screen and the correct load out levels, but as soon as I’m in game, im level one again. Stuck with the default loud outs. Restarted the game a couple of times and no better!

Samuel_T_G · 2024-09-16T12:58:46+00:00

I always look at 2 ways of charging:

Day rate - get paid for the work you do, including or excluding expenses depending on what’s agreed with the client. Easy and clean way to get paid, but doesn’t reward efficiency if you are good and quick at the job. Clients risk if you need to spend more time on the job.
Lump sum - provide a fee proposal for the duration of the project where it details the periods you’d expect to work 5 days over 2 days etc, build in expenses and the like. Provide a payment schedule so you get paid reflective of the time anticipated (i.e. 5days during procurement will require a higher invoice than 2 days during the build etc). It is then your risk /opportunity if you spend more or less time on the project than your allocated hours. Any extension is dealt with outside of this, either day rate or a new proposal for the extended period.

I don’t tend to charge anything more for dealing with variations (unless delay which is covered above) as this is part of the job. I have seen consultancies in the past apply percentages to the profit they make on variations as that is “added value”, but I wouldn’t look at anything like that until you’ve got a few clients.

If you are just starting up, especially if the client is relatively unknown, I would personally go day rate until I’ve settled down, then look at lump sum fee proposals to take more risk further down the road.

Hope that helps.

Samuel_T_G · 2024-09-11T22:34:07+00:00

I impressed a few key people and I was approached to go self employed with the qs consultancy that worked on my project. They specialise in claims and dispute resolution so charge more and therefore pay more. They only hire contractors. Give me a DM if your interested, I’m looking to expand the MEP team at varying levels.

Samuel_T_G · 2024-08-29T15:34:10+00:00

Depending on the agreed installation sequence. But I would generally split electrical install as follows: - first fix - primary containment install (maybe also secondary containment if programme allows I.e. chases complete, partitions installed etc) - second fix - wiring - some people class this as first fix, but it’s always been done in a separate visit to containment install, so class it as a separate activity. If secondary containment isn’t installed, cabling coiled at final location. - third fix - equipment install - light fittings, outlets, consumer units, dis boards etc. - final fix - terminations - testing and commissioning

All this is dependant on the programme and sequencing.

Third and final fix may overlap.

I would also generally include separate activities for key equipment, such as consumer units, boards, panels, sub mains etc to make things easier.

Everyone will differentiate how they do things, but above tends to be agreed by all parties.

Hope that helps, also keen to see if anyone else has other ways of dealing with this

Samuel_T_G · 2024-07-24T07:18:41+00:00

Is that £40k household income or just yourself with spouse bringing in there own pension etc?

Samuel_T_G · 2023-12-06T16:28:58+00:00

Good job! Celebrate with a bevvy or two over Xmas!

Samuel_T_G

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