Snags, defects period and final account
How the Construction pack follows a job after practical completion: snag list, completion certificates, final inspection, retention and final account.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Construction businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
Launching soon. The Industry CRM add-on described in this article is launching soon. This article describes it as it will work at launch.
Practical completion feels like the finish line. The client moves in, the site team moves to the next job, and the contracts manager's attention goes with them. Yet money is often still outstanding: the retention the client is holding, the last valuation, and whatever the final account settles.
That money is collected in the least glamorous part of the job. Snags have to be fixed while the client is living or trading in the building, certificates have to be obtained, a final inspection has to be passed and the final account agreed. When nobody owns those steps, retention sits unclaimed and final accounts drag on.
The Construction & contracting pack in Achekam's Industry CRM keeps the job open, and visible, until all of that is done.
Where the defects period sits in a job
A job in the pack moves through Pricing, Estimate sent, Awarded, Contract signed, On site, Practical completion, Defects period and Closed out. The last three stages are the subject of this article.
The point of having them as stages is simple. A job at Practical completion or in the Defects period is not finished, and the pipeline says so. When the owner looks at the jobs, the ones with snags open or retention still held are sitting in their own columns rather than hiding among closed work.
The pack follows the job through the defects period in five steps: the snag list, completion certificates, the final inspection, retention claims and the final account.
The snag list
The snag list is where most close-outs stall. Items are reported by the client, the principal agent or your own site manager, they are spread across rooms and trades, and some depend on a subcontractor coming back.
Because tasks in the Industry CRM can have subtasks up to three levels deep, a snag list can be organised the way a site manager thinks about it: by block or floor, then by room or area, then the individual items. A workflow creates its tasks stage by stage, so the snag work appears when the job reaches that point, not on the day the estimate is priced.
Three habits make snag lists close faster:
- Record each item in plain words with its location, so the tradesperson can find it without a guided tour.
- Assign subcontractor items to the subcontractor's contact person and chase them through one channel.
- Close an item only when someone has checked it on site, not when the trade says it is done.
Subcontractors deserve the same attention. If you hold retention from your own subcontractors, their release usually waits on your snag list too, and a clear record of which items were theirs, and when each was fixed, keeps those conversations short.
Completion certificates
Completion certificates are their own step in the workflow. Under many building contracts, the client's principal agent issues the completion certificates, and the dates on them drive what follows, including when the defects period runs and when retention can be claimed.
Treat the certificates as documents to obtain and file, not as events to remember. A job record that shows whether each certificate is in hand saves a search through e-mail when the retention claim is being prepared.
The final inspection
The final inspection closes the defects period: the client's side confirms that the snags are fixed and the works are accepted. Walk the building with the snag list beforehand, so the inspection confirms work already checked rather than discovering new items.
If the inspection produces further items, add them to the snag list under the same job and repeat. The job should not move on until the inspection is passed.
Retention claims and the final account
Retention claims and the final account are the last two steps the pack follows. The pack keeps them on the job until they are done, so a finished job with retention still held is far less likely to slip out of view. AccountingTools explains retainage, the part of a contract price withheld until a project is completed to make sure the work meets the agreed standard.
The figures themselves are yours. The pack does not calculate progress claims or retention releases. The retention due under the contract, the final valuation and any agreed adjustments are worked out by your quantity surveyor or contracts manager, and the final account is agreed with the client's side as your contract provides.
When the amount is agreed, it is invoiced in receivables. An invoice starts as a draft you can change or delete, and issuing it takes the next number in your sequence and posts it to the ledger as debtors, sales and output VAT. Raise the final account invoice only once the figure is agreed, so that it does not have to be reversed.
What the pack does not do
Being clear about the limits avoids false comfort:
- It does not calculate progress claims or retention releases.
- It is not a construction programme or a site diary.
- It checks nothing with the municipality, so occupation certificates and municipal inspections are tracked by your team.
A close-out checklist
Before moving a job to Closed out, confirm that:
- Every snag item is closed and checked on site.
- The completion certificates are obtained and filed.
- The final inspection is passed, with any extra items resolved.
- The retention claim has been made and the retention received.
- The final account is agreed, invoiced and paid.
How the job got here is described in jobs, estimates and bill-of-quantities lines. For the controls that keep money from leaking on the next job, read stopping ghost workers and bank detail fraud and requiring several quotes on big purchases.
Look today at every job you consider finished, and check whether its retention has actually been claimed.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
