Bespoke defined cost audit training for Senior Commercial Leaders, tailored to your delivery environment.
Gain the confidence and know-how to ensure robust cost assurance and governance across your projects. This course gives you the tools to set assurance strategy, identify red flags, and lead cost oversight on complex programmes – while adding real value and driving greater efficiency at every stage.
What you’ll gain:
- Tools to identify key cost risks and triggers
- Strategies for challenging assumptions and supporting your teams
- Knowledge to build strong governance and avoid surprises at closeout
- The ability to confidently engage senior stakeholders on cost matters and clearly demonstrate efficiency gains
Duration:
2 days which can be scheduled together or on a weekly or monthly basis
Learning Outcomes:
By the end of this course, you will:
- Lead your teams to deliver accurate, transparent costs
- Recognise when and where deeper dives are required
- Engage stakeholders with risk-based, pragmatic assurance
Overview of Course Structure:
Day 1: Strategic Foundations
- Fundamentals of open book assurance
- Key triggers for deeper cost review
- Roles and responsibilities in cost governance
- Establishing the right assurance framework
Day 2: Assurance in Practice
- Red flags and root cause analysis
- Audit and assurance planning (the 3 Lines of Defence)
- Reviewing and challenging audit reports
- Lessons learned and continuous improvement
Senior Commercial Leaders responsible for high-value projects or programmes with demanding audit needs.
This course is designed for those overseeing open book contracts, managing or building cost verification audit teams, and engaging with senior stakeholders on cost matters. It will help you strengthen your assurance approach and give you the tools to manage your audit activity with confidence and clarity.
Tailored to Your Needs
Our course content can be customised to reflect your organisation’s specific requirements – whether you are a client, main contractor, or subcontractor. We adapt the programme to your project challenges, and learning objectives, ensuring maximum relevance and impact for your team.
DAY 1: Explore the fundamentals of open book accounting, NEC contract structures and how Defined Cost principles shape contract payments
OPEN BOOK ACCOUNTING: what is open book accounting and why do we do it (difference between audit and open book cost management and inspection of accounts and records)
CONTRACTS: understanding the form of contract, extracting key commercial rules and the benefits of effective contract administration and regular audit (from contract commencement)
NEC STANDARD FORM OF CONTRACT: how do they get amended, Z clauses , Contract Data, Price Options. Focus on ECC/PSC contracts across NEC3/4
TARGET, RISK & INCENTIVES: how do contracts get incentivised. Use of target price mechanisms and pain gain shares and other forms of contractual incentives. Understanding risk and approaches to pricing and difference between “cost”, “price” and “value”
TEAMWORK: benefits of teamwork and collaboration, effective communications with stakeholders/contractors and working with mutual trust and co-operation
COST MANAGEMENT & REPORTING: importance of effective cost management and controls including dashboards, comparisons between cost and value and breakdowns into work breakdown structures and how these influence audits
DAY 2: Apply risk-based audit techniques, plan your assurance programme, identify cost risks and develop strategies to challenge contractor costs effectively
AUDIT TERMINOLOGY: understanding audit risk – what it is and how we manage it. Making sense of terms such as; inherent risk, control risk, detection risk, value for money risk, reimbursable contract risk, materiality, audit standards
RISK BASED AUDIT PRINCIPLES: understanding your “audit universe” including subjects by supplier, by cost head, by process. Understanding the importance of internal controls. Sampling approaches. Rules of evidence. Assessing risk and building an audit scope
WHEN THINGS GO WRONG: spotting red flags and how and where audit can help. Examples of common areas across each cost head where mischarging may occur. Your role in reviewing audit reports from your team and the importance of root cause analysis
COST VERIFICATION PLANNING: establishing an assurance plan across your project/programme for verification or validation of actual cost and effectively implementing it to ensure that actual cost has been robustly assessed. Key to this will be understanding the 3 Lines of Defence
CLAUSE 50.9 / FINAL ACCOUNT: planning for project close out and pulling together all learnings from monthly assessments, inspections and audits to ensure a swift yet robust close out can be achieved
THINKING WIDER/ IMPROVING QUALITY: how to develop your cost/commercial team and supply chain to learn lessons from audit work and get better for the future i.e. more accurate/transparent costs, better controls, right first-time applications and light touch audits
The training is delivered by the UK’s leading experts in defined cost audit and NEC contract assurance. With decades of hands-on experience across the UK’s largest and most complex programmes, our trainers don’t just teach the theory, they bring real-world lessons from live projects into the room.
Darren Ward – Director and Course Lead
Chartered Accountant and Fellow of the ICAEW Darren is widely recognised as the UK’s foremost expert in defined cost auditing. Darren is a trusted contributor to NEC guidance and the ICAEW Construction Advisory Committee.
Over the past 20 years, Darren has led audit programmes on many of the UK’s highest-risk and highest-value capital projects. Among them Heathrow, Hinkley Point C and Sellafield. His work has helped clients recover significant overcharges and build lasting confidence in cost transparency and accuracy.
Known for his engaging, pragmatic delivery style, Darren brings each session to life with current real-world examples and insights drawn from mega-project audits. Participants consistently value his ability to make complex NEC cost issues understandable and practical.
Whether you’re a senior commercial leader or part of a delivery team, Darren’s sessions will equip you with the tools and mindset to challenge costs effectively, apply risk-based thinking, and drive better outcomes on open book contracts.
Paul Railton – Director and Senior Trainer
Paul Railton is a Chartered Accountant with a deep background in audit, risk, and financial controls. With over 20 years of experience, including senior roles at Royal Mail and Bupa Care Homes, Paul now leads major cost assurance programmes for public and regulated sector clients across water, rail, and central government.
For the past eight years at The Orange Partnership, Paul has delivered complex defined cost audits under NEC and other open book arrangements, often in challenging environments where audit rights or cost trails are unclear. His strength lies in analysing complex commercial processes, identifying root causes, and reporting with clarity and confidence.
Calm, diplomatic, and always focused on solutions, Paul is known for his pragmatic approach and ability to maintain constructive relationships even in high-stakes or contentious settings.
Course participants benefit from Paul’s clear communication style, forensic thinking, and deep sector insight, especially where strong governance and financial discipline are critical.
Lisa Bee – Senior Manager and Senior Trainer
Lisa Bee brings a wealth of hands-on commercial experience from the contractor side of the industry. Having spent over 15 years in senior roles with Tier 1 construction firms, Lisa understands the realities of project delivery, commercial pressures, and how cost information is really pulled together on major sites.
Lisa’s deep construction background perfectly complements the audit expertise of Darren and Paul, bringing balance and real-world relevance to every session. She helps participants see both sides of the table, giving them a sharper understanding of how to challenge costs constructively and work more effectively.
Her delivery style is down to earth, lively, and refreshingly practical. Lisa has a knack for cutting through jargon and making even technical topics engaging and accessible whether you’re new to defined cost or have years of experience.
Participants consistently value her real-life examples, relatable teaching style, and her ability to bring NEC principles to life through the lens of actual project scenarios.
