PROFESSIONAL
PRACTICE
What is a Quantity Surveyor?
"A Quantity Surveyor is a construction professional whose main expertise is primarily to carry out an estimate, project cost control and quantity take off but whose duties also include commercial, risk and contract management to ensure that the party he works for gets the best value for money and to allow for a smooth project flow from inception to completion. He can be a Quantity Surveyor working for a Contractor, a Consultant or the Client."
Philippine Institue of Certified Quantity Surveyors (PICQS).
What does Quantity Surveying entail?
"A Quantity Surveyor can identify and collate the costs involved in order to develop an overall budget for any project. They can then undertake cost planning which aims to help all members of the design team arrive at practical solutions and stay within the project budget. It is the final detailed estimate prepared by the Quantity Surveyors, in consultation with a project architect, which forms a basis on which subsequent tenders can be evaluated. Schedules of quantities translate the drawing, plans and specifications produced by the design team to enable each contractor to calculate tender prices fairly, on exactly the same basis as the competitors.
Once tenders have been accepted, the Quantity Surveyor can provide cash flow data to enable a client to programme his resources adequately to meet contract commitments. In other words, the Quantity Surveyor decides how much of a job should be paid for at any one time. With interest rates the way they are, no one wants to hand over money before it is due."
New Zealand Institute of Quantity Surveyors (NZIQS).
Course Outline as stated in the UCT
Handbook 2013
"The Quantity Surveying Profession Act (No. 49 of 2000), Rules promulgated under the Act, and the implications of the Code of Conduct for registered practitioners; the commission; the Quantity Surveyor-Client Agreement; professional liability and professional indemnity insurance; fee scales; PROCAP; the Quantity Surveying function during the pre-contract, tender, post-contract, and final account stages: preparation and presentation of cost plans and Bills of Quantities, administration and adjudication of competitive bids, valuation for interim payment certificates, reconciliation statement, valuation of and payment for materials on and off-site; escalation; preparation and presentation of Final Accounts. Simulated Office project. DP requirements: 40% subminimum in both course work and examination. Submit Simulated Office Project Report."
Faculty of Engineering & the Built Environment (Postgraduate), (2013), p. 160.