Final payment certificate template in Excel

When do you need a final certificate?

• When the works are finished and provisionally handed over, to settle the contract on the measured quantities, not the BOQ quantities.
• To see how each item changed between the last interim certificate and its final quantity, up or down.
• To work out how much retention comes back now and how much stays held until final handover.
• For subcontractors too: the same table settles a subcontract with the main contractor.

What is in the file?

• One right-to-left sheet, set to print on A4 landscape.
• The items table in two sections, ordinary works (BOQ items) and additional works (variation orders), with the final quantity and the change from the last interim certificate.
• A settlement built with formulas: the final contract value, the retention held, the part released, what was already paid and the net due.
• Boxes for the handover record numbers and the discharge, then the signature boxes.

How to fill it, step by step

1. Type the project, contractor, contract number and completion date in the title lines.
2. Copy the BOQ items and variation orders with their rates and contract quantities, then type each item's final quantity from the final measurement record.
3. Copy each item's cumulative quantity from the last approved interim certificate, so the change shows next to it.
4. In the settlement, type any agreed price adjustment, agreed claims and delay penalties, then check the retention rate and the released share against your contract.
5. Type the total already paid to the contractor as a negative: the advance payment plus the net of every approved interim certificate.
6. Type the handover and discharge record numbers, then the amount due in words, and sign.

Column guide: what goes in each column

A worked example from the file

The reinforced concrete columns and slabs item: 296 m3 in the last interim certificate, measured at 304 m3 at the end at a rate of 4,700, so the final certificate pays the extra 8 m3. For the whole contract (the six example items, with no price adjustment or penalties):

Paid to date in the example = an advance of 231,355 (10% of the original contract value) + the net of the interim certificates, 2,015,727.5. The whole advance counts here because what was recovered of it was already taken out of the interim certificates' net.

Practical notes

• Do not submit the final certificate before a joint final measurement; the final quantity is what both sides agree, not the contractor's estimate.
• The retention rate and the share released at provisional handover are examples in the file; your contract sets both, and when the rest comes back.
• Make sure the advance payment is fully recovered before or in the final certificate; the «paid to date» figure settles it.
• Items far above or below their contract quantity may fall under the contract's quantity-variation clause; check it before signing.