The Quantity Surveying section is responsible for:

·         Strategic construction consultancy

·         Construction management, economics, planning, contracts and materials procurement, management, and health and safety relating to all forms of construction.

Surveying profession services in civil, heavy, mechanical, electrical, petrochemical and instrumentation engineering.

The Quantity Surveyor is a building economist, sometimes known as a Construction Cost Consultant. They advise building owners and architects on probable costs of construction schemes and on cost of alternative designs.

They prepare cost plans for projects which enable the design team to arrive jointly at practical designs for projects and stay within the budget. Their advice enables design and construction at all stages to be controlled within predetermined expenditure.

They prepare bills of quantities and other tender documentation and where appropriate, negotiates with the main contractors.

They also prepare valuations for payments to the contractor as work proceeds and cost reports providing forecasts of final costs. They are responsible for the measurement and valuation of variations in the work during the contract and for the preparation and agreement of the final account.

Generally, Quantity Surveyors are engaged in private practice either as a partner or employee in a professional firm. However, there are also Quantity Surveyors employed in Government Departments, Semi-State Bodies, and Public Authorities. Chartered Quantity Surveyors also work in building contracting firms.

Functions:

1. To provide independent, objective, accurate, and reliable capital and operating cost assessments usable for investment funding and project control.
2. To analyze investment and development for the guidance of owners, financiers and contractors.

QS includes:

• estimates of capital or asset costs including development costs;
• estimates of operating and manufacturing costs through an asset's life cycle;
• risk assessment and analysis;
• trending of scope and cost changes;
• decision analysis;
• financial analysis (eg, net present value, rate of return, etc);
• project cost control;
• appraisals of existing assets;
• project analyses, databases, and benchmarking;
• planning and scheduling;
• siting studies, etc.;
• productive and investment needs assessment;
• facility management needs assessment;
• project feasibility and budget assessment;
• cost management;
• procurement management;
• contract administration;
• whole-life appraisals;
• quality audits;
• value management;
• dispute resolution.

These are typical functions of the QS but not all practitioners in the field perform all of these functions. Many specialize in a limited number of these functions.

The QS provides information by:

• estimating costs and analyzing risk,
• trending and controlling costs and assessing design, and
• documenting costs.

These are interdependent and feed back to each other. They include:

• analyzing cost,
• assessing design,
• assessing risks,
• trending costs,
• advising clients,
• managing cash flows,
• preparing feasibility analyses, and
• assessing life-cycle costs.