What Is a Quantity Surveyor?

Quantity surveyor (QS for short) is derived from the Commonwealth-type Quantity Surveying pricing system. Professional and technical personnel engaged in this work are called quantity surveyors. Member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).

Quantity Surveyor

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Quantity surveyor (QS for short) is derived from the Commonwealth-type Quantity Surveying pricing system. Professional and technical personnel engaged in this work are called quantity surveyors. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS)

Origin of quantity surveyor A fire in 1834 burned down the famous Westminster Palace in the United Kingdom, and also spawned the quantity surveying profession. During the process of approving the construction contract of the new House of Commons, the British government adopted the measurement system and Accept open bids based on bill of quantities. Quantity surveyors have stood alongside architects and engineers in the UK.

Quantity surveyors can generally work in government agencies (Government), developers / clients (Consultants), and contractors (Main-contractor) / Sub-contractors (Sub-Contractor), mainly in engineering materials , Project quantity, project change, extra project quotation, cash flow analysis and project cost control, etc. provide reliable digital basis for project management. Its work is similar to domestic cost engineers, but its methods and specific operations are significantly different.

Specifically, the quantity surveyor is mainly responsible for the "quantity" -related work in the entire project, including the calculation and accounting of the entire engineering quantity, and the management and control of project revenue and expenditure (Budget Management and Control). , Inspection and valuation, project claims equal to one, highly comprehensive and technical professional and technical personnel.

Different clients have different jobs and roles.

The quantity surveyor is mainly responsible for assessing and testing the construction cost in the feasibility stage, which includes the stage from bid preparation to construction project, and even later. This profession is not a profession of pure engineering, but a marginal subject of engineering and business. It is not like civil engineering, which requires students to learn the detailed principles of building structures and materials.

In civil engineering, the quantity surveyor of a contractor is mainly responsible for the following tasks:

1. Calculation of project quantity.

There are two aspects to the calculation of the number of projects. The first is the calculation of the total content of each project. This work is mainly performed at the beginning and end of the project. Although the project quantities are listed in the Bill of Quantity [BQ] list of the contract, due to various reasons, these quantities are often not accurately calculated, which requires the quantity surveyor to make Detailed calculations are made for certain key quantities to control the engineering and materials procurement process. At the end of the project, all the project content will be calculated again in detail, and after consultation and agreement with the consulting engineer, a final account will be made (Final Account).

The calculation work done by the quantity surveyor can be represented by two English words, Taking-off and Break-down, which are called "reading" in Chinese. Both of these standard methods are derived from ICE (The Institution of Civil Engineers) contracts, and they play an effective role in the management of engineering projects, so they are widely used in the United Kingdom and some countries of the Commonwealth. The FIDIC (FIDIC is the International Federation of Consulting Engineers) contract follows both approaches. Taking-off is to calculate the number of projects from the design drawings, and Break-down is to divide a project into several detailed items according to unified regulations. Simply put, according to a certain rule, each project content listed on the drawings and the bill of quantities is recorded on a standard format paper and summarized after classification. The advantage of these methods is that they are clearly documented and easy for others to check.

The calculation of another type of engineering quantity is implemented during the project's mid-term payment. In addition, the calculation of some engineering contents that are difficult to determine on the drawings in some changes or contracts. The calculation of such quantities needs to be performed on the site measurement sheet in a standard format after measuring and obtaining actual data on site according to the actual situation on site.

2. Application and issuance of interim payment.

Interim Pay-ment, also known as "inspection valuation", includes two levels of work: one is to apply to the owner for the inspection cost of the contractor, and the other is to issue the subcontractors to complete the project. After due. Generally, civil engineering works make monthly payment once a month. The FIDIC contract stipulates a specific time for this. The quantity surveyor must complete the calculation of the completed workload and application documents before the settlement date specified in the contract. The manager submits it to the consulting engineer after review. Some contracts will stipulate a minimum inspection price as a limit on the reported amount. After the consulting engineer receives the contractor's payment declaration (Interim State-ment), he must verify the content and quantity of the application within a certain period of time. After the verification is completed, a payment approval certificate (Interim Certificate) is issued. Payments are made accordingly (Interim Payment).

When the contractor submits the payment declaration to the consulting engineer, he will also receive an interim payment application from his subcontractor. Quantity surveyors should study each subcontract very carefully. For example, the material part, some subcontractors only cover part of the material, etc., the situation is different. In general, the deadline for subcontractors' medium-term payments is a certain period ahead, which facilitates the check of the project volume. After receiving the payment application from the subcontractor, the quantity surveyor needs to verify the details of the project and the quantity of the project, and then issue a payment certificate. After review by the project manager, the consulting engineer reports to the owner to approve the payment.

As the contractor's quantity of work needs to be confirmed by the consulting engineer before the owner's project payment, which is directly related to the progress and efficiency of the entire project, the two tasks mentioned above are the focus of the quantity surveyor's work. , Is also the main content of daily work.

3. Cost control in progress.

There are many costs involved in the progress of the project. All of these will affect the profit and loss of the project, so pay attention to controlling the project's income and expenditure, including detailed records and summary of the project's daily income and expenditure. The project budget is made when the project is started, and the budget is updated and adjusted at regular intervals, so that it can reflect the current operating situation of the project at any time, and provide specific data of the project to the superior supervisor in order to implement comprehensive management of the project. It can be said that the quality management of the quantity surveyor plays an important role in the overall profit and loss of a project.

4. Temporary quotation in progress.

Temporary quotation during the progress of the project refers to the quotation of the changes in the implementation of the project (the engineering order issued by the consulting engineer or the consulting engineer's Variation Order [VO]), and certain subcontractors contracted Review of quotations for temporary work. In the course of the project, sometimes there will be some changes according to the actual situation on the site. If the change involves a small amount of money, after receiving the engineering change order from the consulting engineer, the quantity surveyor will do according to the actual situation of the changed project. The price analysis and calculation of this item will be quoted to the consulting engineer after being reviewed by the project manager. If the change involves a large amount, the quantity surveyor and the subcontracting department need to analyze the quotation together.

Sometimes during the project, there will be some temporary work that belongs to the contractor's responsibility, or the contractor will receive an engineering change order from a consulting engineer. At this time, these tasks need to be assigned to a subcontractor. Ask your subcontractor for a quote. If it is necessary to control the subcontracted project amount within a certain range, it will be handed over to the quantity surveyor after receiving the quotation from the subcontractor. In the case of a large number of quotations, the quantity surveyor should analyze and screen a reasonable price; if there is only one quote, the quantity surveyor will analyze and calculate. At this time, many break-down tasks will be involved. Reasonable, and then negotiate with subcontractors to determine a reasonable price.

Education and Training

Quantity surveyor focuses on five areas: economic management construction technology legal information exchange

If a qualified professional in RICS wants to be designated as a Chartered Quantity Surveyor, he must add a construction subject.

Eligibility for RICS membership

(I) Graduate Path

You must first graduate from a university course recognized by RICS, and then you must obtain 2 qualifications, academic and practical.

1. Academic qualification: Refers to passing the RICS professional examination and obtaining a degree and academic degree recognized by the society, generally a master's or doctoral program.

2.Practical materials: refers to those who have passed 5 years of work in related fields after obtaining academic qualifications, and insist on writing work notes every day, and submit work diaries after 5 years. After being reviewed by the RICS audit committee, they can meet the requirements of the interview. Annual Professional Qualification Interview (APC).

After successfully completing the academic requirements and passing the APC professional interview, you can apply to become a student member of RICS.

(II) Cohesive Path One

The cohesive path is a new path that RICS specifically opened for Chinese people in 2007. This path requires RICS candidates to have more than ten years of industry experience and at least a college degree. Professionals who meet the above conditions can become full members of RICS by participating in the RICS admission training jointly organized by Tsinghua University and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

As the graduate route is aimed at foreign students, no student in China currently meets the graduate route to join the association. At present, China's recognized university courses are only some master's programs of a few universities such as Tsinghua University, Renmin University of China, Tianjin University, Tongji University, and Chongqing University. And the university course has just been approved, and the students have not graduated. At present, most Chinese people apply for RICS through the connection path one.

Five and cost engineer

In order to implement the spirit of the "CEPA" and strengthen exchanges and cooperation between professionals from the Mainland and Hong Kong, China Construction Engineering Cost Management Association (hereinafter referred to as "China Price Association") The Department of Standards and Quotas of the Ministry of Urban and Rural Construction entrusted the signing of the Mutual Recognition Agreement between Mainland Cost Engineers and Hong Kong Quantity Surveyors (hereinafter referred to as the "Mutual Recognition Agreement") with the Hong Kong Institute of Surveyors on May 24, 2005. The Association and the Hong Kong Institute of Surveyors have repeatedly negotiated and decided to supplement the Mutual Recognition Agreement.