Bespoke defined cost audit training for your commercial team, tailored to your delivery environment.
Equip your commercial team with the skills and confidence to audit, challenge, and verify defined costs. This course delivers practical, risk-based audit techniques honed over 20 years providing cost assurance on the UK’s largest capital projects.
What you’ll gain:
- Clear understanding of defined cost principles under NEC contracts
- Ability to analyse contractor cost records and spot inconsistencies
- Risk-based testing techniques to focus on the costs that matter
- Tools to confidently verify people, plant, material, and subcontractor and manufacture and fabrication costs
- Skills to engage with contractors and subcontractors for meaningful discussions
- Proven tips, templates and a practical, risk-based audit guide—brought to life with real project examples
Duration:
3 days which can be scheduled together or flexibly on a weekly or monthly basis
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this course, participants will be able to:
- Conduct defined cost audits with confidence
- Identify risks and focus efforts where they matter most
- Produce audit reports that drive actions and add value
Overview of Course Structure
Day 1: Foundations
- Open book accounting essentials
- NEC contract structures and cost principles
- Target price mechanisms, risk and incentives
Day 2: Audit Techniques
- Audit risk and sampling principles
- Data analysis and visualisation
- Risk-based audit planning, assessment, sampling and testing
- Templates and reporting best practice
- Reviewing people costs
Day 3: Practical Approaches
- Validating plant, materials, subcontractor, equipment and manufacturing and fabrication costs
- Fee percentages and common issues
- Real-world examples
This course is designed for Quantity Surveyors and Commercial staff, both client and contractor side, who are relatively new to NEC contracts and have day-to-day responsibility for inspections and audits
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”
RIGHT FIRST TIME AFP: how to gain confidence that you subcontractor or contractor has produced a robust application. Run through of simple checks and balances to consider, so you get confidence in the application and its summary of all the numbers before you drop down into the detailed numbers in each of the schedule of cost components
UNDERSTANDING COST RECORDING SYSTEMS: explaining cost recording/ledger systems used by Contractors i.e. SAP or COINS etc
ACCOUNTS AND RECORDS: explaining a basic standard for financial accounting and site records i.e. what does the contract provide for, what should be expected versus what is provided and how retained. Also how accounting and site records can compliment one another
DATA CLEANSING AND ANALYSIS: techniques to cleanse and improve data, coupled with trend analysis and the use off Excel pivot tables and graphs etc. with practical examples
DAY 2: Learn risk-based auditing, forensic cost analysis and best practices for planning and conducting a cost verification review
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 and audit standards
RISK BASED AUDIT PRINCIPLES: understanding your “audit universe” including subjects by supplier, by cost head and by process. Understanding the importance of internal controls. Sampling approaches. Rules of evidence. Assessing risk and building an audit scope
THE AUDIT: the audit itself. Getting ready for it. The audit plan and implementing it. What to look at, and what to expect
AUDIT REPORTS: the do’s and don’ts of producing an audit report with templates and “best practice” examples
NEC SCHEDULE OF COST COMPONENTS.
REVIEWING PEOPLE: staff, labour and agency. Risks to consider, analysis to run, sampling approaches
DAY 3: Assessing Equipment, Plant, Material and Subcontract costs using the NEC Schedule of Cost Components to validate submissions
REVIEWING PLANT AND MATERIALS: Risks to consider, analysis to run, sampling approaches
REVIEWING EQUIPMENT: Risks to consider, analysis to run, sampling approaches
REVIEWING SUBCONTRACT COSTS: Risks to consider, analysis to run, sampling approaches
REVIEWING CHARGES, MANUFACTURING AND FABRICATION AND DESIGN: Risks to consider, analysis to run, sampling approaches
REVIEWING FEE: Understanding what should be in fee percentages and how issues develop
From the Defined Cost Audit Experts
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.
