Final Account
The final account is the conclusive statement of the total sum payable under a construction contract once the work is complete and all variations, claims and adjustments are agreed or determined.
Everything ends up here. Interim valuations were instalments against work done; the final account reconciles the whole — measured work remeasured, variations priced, loss and expense settled, retentions released. Because it is where the money argument concludes, it is also where poor records exact their price: an account that cannot evidence its build-up negotiates against itself.
A properly run final account starts before practical completion, not after. Assemblies built as the job proceeds — variation registers, dayworks sheets, agreed valuations, notices preserved — turn the close-out from a second project into arithmetic.
Related: retention · variations · practical completion