TIME AND COST MANAGEMENT
During the 1990-95 recession when the volume of construction work was drastically reduced, coupled with the increased use of competitive fees,
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many quantity surveyors were offering significant discounts on the scale fees which were no longer mandatory. This situation produced an urgent need to carefully monitor and manage office costs, to eliminate the mis-use or underusage of resources of staff, equipment and materials. This in its turn created the need for the proper recording of time spent and other resources used on each project in order that they can be effectively costed and the costs continuously monitored. Each member of staff has a responsibility to use his/her time as effi-ciently as possible and to be continually looking for ways to undertake tasks more effectively and in less time. One way of accelerating this pro-cess is by introducing profit sharing or end of year bonuses as an incen-tive to greater efficiency. The allocation of staff between projects needs to be done in a realistic and carefully considered way to avoid an inbalance between allocations to different projects of varying size and complexity a nd pension contributions, holidays and sick pay and other oncosts. The monitoring of the staff costs for each project should be performed regularly to provide a compariso. The planning and coordination of staff time may be portrayed on bar charts which show how each member of staff's time has been used and which can then be costed and charged to the particular project. Staff costs will include such related costs as national insurance n between estimated and actual costs, and to show whether the costs of the work on the project are within target. They can subsequently be used as a guide when preparing future fee bids. Each member of staff will also keep a diary showing how time has been spent each day and will encompass non-productive time as well as productive, the latter will be split between the different projects and activities, such as measure-ment, cost planning and preparation of valuations. This help to iden-tify methods of securing greater efficiency in the future. Progress charts provide another useful aid to effective management by indicating current progress on projects in hand and also future estimated commitments. Hence the overall situation is identified and appropriate action taken as necessary.