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‘A fool beholdeth only the beginning of his works, but a wise man taketh heed to the end.’ (Anon)
It is likely that payments will have been made against observable milestones during the course of the project. Finalisation of the project will thus generally involve only the completion of the final milestone(s).
Once a client has ‘signed off’ on a project (or milestone), the consultant is entitled to consider the job (or part thereof) to be complete. It is therefore important that final acceptance (‘signing off’) does not occur without prior reconciliation of all outputs against those specified in the contract. The reconciliation should obviously take place early enough for remedial action or additional work to be undertaken if necessary.
The main factors to check during a reconciliation include:
Where a cooperative relationship has been maintained with the consultant, and variations to the contract have been documented throughout, there should be little difficulty in agreeing on the final deliverables.
Should difficulties nevertheless arise, consult your agency’s legal adviser immediately.