Exploring the Role of Quantity Surveyor in Construction Projects

As the construction industry continues to grow in complexity with new technologies and job roles emerging, we at RIB Software are committed to providing the best software solutions on the market and insights into people who use them to fulfill their functions.

We have put together a series of blog posts that deep-dive into different construction roles, describing their skills, responsibilities, challenges, salary, and more. Following on from discussing the roles of a construction project manager and a construction manager, we now turn our focus to the quantity surveyor.

Keep reading to learn all you need to know about this exciting role!

Key Takeaways

• A quantity surveyor (QS) is a construction professional responsible for managing the costs and quality of a building project while participating in legal, contract review, tendering, and procurement activities.
• Communication, negotiation, technical prowess, industry knowledge, and project management are among the key skill requirements for a quantity surveyor.
• The QS faces challenges ranging from budget constraints and frequent change orders to inaccurate estimates and unrealistic client or contractor expectations.
• Resolving disputes, improving efficiency, and optimizing sustainability are accomplishments that make surveyors increasingly important in today’s construction industry.
• A quantity surveyor can expect to earn a good living in most parts of the world, with a current average annual salary of £52,006 in the UK and $98,265 in the US.
• Takeoff and estimation software, building information modeling (BIM), cost management software, and document control platforms are among the advanced tools that make the QS job easier and improve their results.

What Is a Quantity Surveyor?

A professional quantity surveyor (QS) is responsible for the costs and quality of a building project, managing contracts, expenses, material sourcing, legalities, and other aspects to ensure its successful completion.

The core of this role lies in the need for accurate and efficient construction cost estimation and management. In recent years, however, the profession has evolved into a more complex role that touches every project stage. The work of a modern QS begins during the initial stages, helping clients and contractors during budgeting, quantity takeoff, and tendering, all the way through monitoring and optimizing ongoing costs during the building process. Additionally, they ensure that delivery outcome meets the expected quality and legal standards to prevent costly disputes, resulting in a successful project with a high ROI.

What Does a Quantity Surveyor Do?

The responsibilities of a QS vary depending on whether they are working on the client or contractor side of the project. A client QS (also known as a consultant or private QS) advises and assists the client in several processes throughout the entire project while a contractor QS focuses more on overseeing the project from the site. That said, let’s explore the tasks typically associated with all quantity surveyors.

Collaborate with the client

In the early stages of a build, a QS meets with the client to understand the goals and objectives. This also involves carrying out a construction feasibility study to see if the proposed work is viable in terms of cost, time, and resources. If significant issues are found, the QS must offer expert advice that will ensure the client’s vision can be brought to life in a realistic way.

Cost analysis and control

Performing cost analysis and cost control in construction builds are key responsibilities for quantity surveyors. This starts with analyzing specifications, drawings, cost databases, and other relevant information to accurately estimate the costs of materials, labor, equipment, and other components. They use this data to monitor costs against the budget throughout the lifecycle. If any issues or discrepancies arise, they must propose efficient solutions to ensure profitability.

Bill of Quantities

One of the most important tasks of a QS is preparing the Bill of Quantities (BoQ). It’s a fundamental document that outlines the items of work required, with quantities, unit rates, and costs for each item. A BoQ is critical to tendering and is typically included in the tender package to help bidders price their work fairly.

Tendering and procurement

A QS assists in the tendering and construction procurement processes by preparing critical documentation, soliciting and evaluating bids, and selecting and negotiating contracts with suppliers and contractors. The negotiation process is of utmost importance, which requires the QS to utilize strong negotiation skills to secure the best deals in terms of pricing, timelines, and objectives.

Contribute to value engineering

The QS also contributes to construction value engineering by analyzing financial data and developing cost-effective solutions that don’t negatively impact on quality or functionality. These include researching alternative materials, construction methods, or design changes.

Risk and change management

To stay on budget and schedule, the QS needs to carry out smart construction risk management strategies to identify potential risks and analyze their potential implications, as well as develop smart mitigation strategies that ensure the project remains profitable and on course. This includes managing any changes and negotiating the terms of the changes with suppliers and contractors.

Manage subcontractors

The responsibility for subcontractor management usually falls to the contractor QS. They oversee and value the work carried out by subcontractors to ensure quality and schedule adherence. This involves managing and negotiating change orders efficiently and effectively.

Ensure legal compliance

As industry experts, quantity surveyors are responsible for compliance with relevant legal and regulatory requirements. These include compliance with building codes and permits, health and safety regulations, and contract laws, among other things. This task is super critical as non-compliance can lead to fines or legal issues affecting the entire project.

Prepare the final account

During the final stages of the build, the QS works on the final accounts to prepare for handover. The final account marks the end of the financial agreement between the contractor and the client, and it involves the reconciliation of actual vs estimated costs, variations, change orders, and other factors to get an accurate representation of the project’s financial performance and settle all financial obligations prior to closeout.

Key Quantity Surveyor Skills

To fulfill all of their responsibilities, quantity surveyors require a skill set that mixes technical industry knowledge with soft skills like communication and problem-solving. We previously dived into this topic in our blog post on quantity surveyor skills, but before you go there to read more about it, here’s a rundown to get you started:

• Written and verbal communication skills to collaborate with stakeholders and communicate critical information effectively
• Numeracy and financial skills to analyze and manage costs
• An analytical mind to make sense of detailed project data
• Critical thinking to spot issues and come up with smart solutions
• Attention to detail to cover every aspect for best results
• Tech-savvy to be able to use various quantity surveyor software and technologies
• Time management skills to meet deadlines under pressure and devise smart schedules
• Negotiation skills to manage contracts confidently in a way that benefits both parties
• Industry knowledge to understand how processes are carried out and which best practices to apply
• Teamwork capabilities for smooth collaboration with all project teams to avoid misunderstandings
• Project management skills to ensure all tasks are completed on time and remain coordinated with the overall budget and schedule
• Ability to collaborate on complex tasks and responsibilities involving a combination of architects, contractors, subcontractors, and other specialists

What Challenges Do Quantity Surveyors Face?

With great responsibilities and a complex environment come sticky challenges, even for the most experienced quantity surveyors. The best way to address these issues is to be aware of them early on.

• Budget constraints: One of the biggest daily challenges for a QS is finding cost-effective solutions that don’t compromise quality. This is where their experience can help them find alternative solutions that will work well for all the objectives.
• Managing scope changes: Scope changes are almost inevitable in construction and often impact the budget and the schedule. This is when professional quantity surveyors shine and ensure that changes are accurately reflected in estimates and budgets, and that any risks are mitigated.
• Accurate cost estimation: This happens especially in larger builds, where the QS needs to consider the costs of labor, materials, equipment, market fluctuations, timelines, and more to ensure accurate estimates. This can be somewhat difficult without the benefit of advanced software tools, since errors can pop up. Luckily, professional construction estimating software is available to automate the process and ensure high levels of accuracy.
• Communicating effectively: Communicating financial, progress, and other data to stakeholders in the evolving construction landscape can be challenging. A QS can rely on professional construction analytics software to ensure that all data is tracked and shared in real time.
• Managing expectations: With QS working together with a range of stakeholders to ensure successful delivery, managing all of their expectations can become very challenging as the goals and priorities of each are slightly different. That is why ensuring smooth collaboration and communication is paramount, since it helps keep everyone on the same page.

Why Are Quantity Surveyors Important Today?

As quantity surveyor responsibilities have evolved and the role has expanded, the QS has become one of the most important stakeholders on any project team. Their unique combination of  cost control, risk management, quality assurance, and financial negotiation roles means that superior performance in this job directly impacts on success. Other reasons that the QS is so important in modern construction: 

Efficiency improvements

The unique perspective and skills of the QS provide many money-saving opportunities via improved efficiency and productivity across all facets of a project. A quantity surveyor should be able to suggest alternate materials and methods, create precise estimates to avoid overruns and rework, and monitor expenses to ensure budget deviations are addressed quickly, and projects are more efficient and cost-effective. In some cases, they might also lead the implementation of lean construction practices to streamline operations and reduce waste. 

Dispute resolution

The QS role is known for data-driven decision-making and the use of advanced software and technology, but they also play a valuable part in dispute resolution using their expertise and project management, contract review, and cost analysis to objectively review issues between stakeholders and provide fair solutions based on facts. For more serious construction disputes involving legal proceedings, the QS might be called as an expert witness, based on their detailed and unbiased project knowledge.

Improved sustainability

Their quantity surveyor qualifications equip them to improve sustainability metrics as they progress from the initial material selection and BoQ development to oversee building operations and track costs through completion. Green construction design options, reused (or reusable) construction materials, and locally sourced equipment and parts that minimize embodied carbon are among the QS decisions contributing to a more sustainable operation and finished product.

The QS also weighs the tradeoffs between cost and sustainability as they perform automated takeoffs and estimates based on various design and construction options. Advanced design tools like 6D BIM and construction cost management software tools make it easier to see the full impact of sustainable choices on cost, quality, and durability instantly.

What Software Do Quantity Surveyors Use?

Innovative software solutions help to boost the performance of several processes thanks to automation and a digital environment, which is why quantity surveyors lean into the right technology and tools. Let’s explore the most effective tech tools available to quantity surveyors.

Planning and Estimating Software

Quantity surveyors oversee several aspects of planning, including one of the most crucial: cost estimation. Traditionally, this task was done manually, referring to drawings and infinite spreadsheets, leaving room for manual data entry errors. The fast pace of the modern construction industry makes this unsustainable practice today – estimates must be done quickly and accurately with the help of specialized software.

RIB Candy is a state-of-the-art planning and estimating platform with a superior user-friendly interface that makes the estimating process more accurate and agile than traditional methods. Key features such as electronic pricing templates, multi-user functionality, and the ability to integrate estimates with the program make RIB Candy an indispensable partner to increase the efficiency and accuracy of estimates for better outcomes.

Takeoff Software

Construction takeoffs are important for accurate estimates. Similar to estimates, takeoffs were traditionally done manually, with each element counted directly from drawings and blueprints. This method is no longer feasible – in part because of the risk of errors that can increase project costs, but also because of the time-consuming nature of the task. For this reason, quantity surveyors rely on professional takeoff software to digitize and automate the process.

RIB CostX is an innovative takeoff and estimation software tool that supports multiple design formats, including scans, PDFs, CAD files, and BIM models, digitizing the takeoff process to make it faster and more accurate.

A revision tracking mode highlights changes in the design that are automatically reflected in the takeoff, avoiding mistakes that can lead to rework. Any changes are recorded with an audit trail for full transparency and analysis.

Cost Management Software

Quantity surveyors support their efforts with cost management software to ensure all relevant data is visible in a single location and ready for decision-making. RIB BuildSmart is a cost management and enterprise accounting software solution with a centralized hub where firms can leverage the power of data for the overall improvement of their financial performance.

The platform features cost control and reporting functionalities that make it possible to compare actual costs with budgets in real time, allowing for timely interventions that protect project profitability.

Document Management Software

Professional document management software is one of the biggest allies of a quantity surveyor as they manage a wide range of documentation that needs to be securely stored and easily accessible to the different stakeholders. This has never been an easy task, since keeping documentation updated and organized is always challenging. Fortunately, digital document management facilitates the updating and sharing of documents, boosting collaboration and preventing misunderstandings.

RIB CX is a powerful web-based construction software that offers a single source of truth for all project data and documentation, keeping all teams connected and collaborating. Among its many valuable features, the platform offers a Publication Space module where teams can share files, reports, schedules, drawings, contracts, and more, in a secure and automated way.

People Also Ask: Quantity Surveyor FAQs

Since the QS role has quickly become one of the most varied and rewarding positions in construction, you might have a few questions about quantity surveyor responsibilities, salary expectations, and what to expect from a QS career. Let’s explore a few of the most frequently asked questions on the subject.

How to become a quantity surveyor

Quantity surveyors must be skilled in several areas to fulfill their many, varied responsibilities. Here’s how to gain the right knowledge and experience to become a successful QS:

Education

The field of quantity surveying is open to professionals from diverse backgrounds. For example, you can have a bachelor’s degree in civil or structural engineering, construction, economics, geography, mathematics, or land studies. In the UK, it is better if the RICS officially recognizes your degree, as it can help you get chartered more easily.

If you don’t have a related undergraduate degree, you can opt for a postgraduate degree in quantity surveying, construction, or engineering. Some professionals also apply for an apprenticeship and split their time between training and working. A surveying technician apprenticeship could be a great way to start your journey towards becoming a surveyor.

The last step required to become a fully qualified chartered surveyor is to apply for a RICS membership (MRICS). You’ll need to complete the Assessment of Professional Competence by RICS, which lasts two years, where you’ll have to show your expertise and complete a set number of hours of continuing professional development (CPD). Surveyors with substantial experience can skip the training and go straight to the final assessment.

Professional experience

Quantity surveyors can also get excellent positions based solely on their experience, even without formal education. They can start working on a construction site or at an architectural firm, and transition into a QS role once they have gained enough field experience. Naturally, a related degree will considerably increase the chances of finding a job, but practical knowledge is always highly valued in the construction industry.

What is the average quantity surveyor salary?

Salary depends on the country, qualifications, skills, and experience. Other factors that can influence a QS salary include the type of employer (contractor or client) or if the person is a chartered surveyor. That said, we can look at the average salary of a country to give you an idea of what a QS could earn. To date, the average annual salary in the UK is £51,829 and $100,384 in the US.

What is the difference between a contractor QS vs client QS?

Depending on the level of experience and knowledge, a QS will work on a specific area or become an overall adviser on cost estimation, budgeting, procurement, tendering, and more. That said, the role changes from the client’s and the contractor’s perspective.

A contractor QS works on behalf of the contractor. They spend most of their time overseeing subcontractors and collaborating with specialists on the building site. Conversely, a client QS helps the project owner budget and estimate costs. They work closely with engineers and architects to produce the tendering package, including the bill of quantities, drawings, specifications, and other key records and documents.

A client QS is often considered a cleaner version of the profession with less frequent visits on-site, keeping in mind that the experience of on-site quantity surveying is extremely valuable when transitioning into the client side of things.

During the project, the contractor and client QS are likely to collaborate to negotiate a final settlement and manage the different stages and tasks.

Is a quantity surveyor the same as a cost estimator?

Not quite. They have a similar function, with each professional spending time reviewing design and material information, and performing quantity takeoffs, material cost research, and historical reviews to complete detailed and accurate estimates. However, the responsibilities of the surveyor typically expand beyond this basic description, with tasks spanning the entire project lifespan.

The cost estimator focuses on the preconstruction and early planning phases of a project. This includes preliminary estimates that allow clients and owners to assess the viability of a proposed build. While the QS is also likely to perform these tasks, they build upon this foundation by preparing tender documents, developing detailed budgets, directing procurement activities, and monitoring expenses throughout to ensure financial success.

What are common quantity surveyor qualifications?

There are many different paths to becoming a QS, with employers often valuing both education and related experience for new hires. While qualifications are mandatory, less obvious traits and expertise can be key to landing a lucrative position. For example, knowledge of construction industry market trends, economic conditions, and current sourcing challenges demonstrates an interest level that cannot necessarily be learned in a classroom.

Advanced knowledge of technologies like BIM and sustainable construction software can also help to differentiate a prospective QS from the pack. Surveyors can upskill via courses and independent study to learn about the benefits and limitations of various sustainable methods and materials, along with the software tools used to perform lifecycle analysis (LCA) and monitor metrics like water utilization and energy efficiency that impact both cost and environmental impact. Combining advanced knowledge with the requisite education, professional experience, and certifications make for a winning combination. 

What is a quantity surveyor called in the USA?

In North America, what is usually called a quantity surveyor is simply known as a construction cost estimator. This same title indicates a more limited role in most other geographies, but in the US, a cost estimator is likely to mirror the quantity surveyor responsibilities found in Europe, Australia, and other regions. Cost managers, cost consultants, and cost analysts are additional roles and titles in the US that are often similar to what qualifies as QS responsibilities.

The primary cause for the differing titles was a basic difference in contractor-client relationships years ago that led to different costing practices on either side of the ocean. Contractor-driven practices in the US differed from the third-party cost control methods utilized in other countries, causing a dedicated professional to manage expenses over the entire course of a project to be deemed unnecessary. Tight timelines and budgets with low margins for error have increased the emphasis on cost management in the US and other countries, but the titles have so far remained unchanged.

Can engineers transition into quantity surveying?

Yes! Construction engineers share many common capabilities and skills with quantity surveyors, which can make the transition from one role to another relatively easy. Engineers are likely to have a bachelor’s degree or postgraduate degree in an appropriate field that helps them to make this transition, since 75% of engineers in construction have at least a four-year degree. Additional factors that help to make the transition between engineering and QS roles possible include:  

• Practical knowledge and experience related to material types, methods, and project sequencing.
• Problem-solving and analytical skills gained through engineering studies that help a QS to analyze complex data sets and make informed decisions.
• Knowledge of tools like BIM takeoff software that can be used for engineering and design functions as well as estimation and cost optimization.

Engineers who make the transition often find the QS role to be less stressful and more likely to open new career pathways and advancement. Despite the similar skill sets and educational requirements, engineers can improve their chances of moving into a surveyor role by obtaining a master’s degree in quantity surveying, shadowing a QS to gain firsthand experience, and successfully completing the RICS assessment.

How is BIM used in quantity surveying?

Building information modeling (BIM) is one of the most useful tools available to a QS since it moves design, material, and schedule information into a digital environment, making it easier to collaborate with various stakeholders and update cost and quantity information automatically. BIM eliminates the need for manual tracking of every revision and allows quantity surveyors, engineers, and architects to test different scenarios and run simulations to predict clashes and optimize costs.

The 3D models included in the BIM platform enable the QS to visualize all elements of the build from the earliest stages, which improves understanding of the scope and identifies issues that require attention before and during construction. As owners and investors seek to improve their return on investment (ROI), a QS working for either the client or contractor can also utilize BIM to complete lifecycle cost analysis (LCA) to predict future operational and maintenance costs.

Final Thoughts

As we reach the end of this guide, we hope you now have a deeper understanding of the function and impact of the quantity surveyor role on a successful build. By bringing their experience and expertise across all stages, these experienced professionals collaborate with the different teams and specialists to ensure the work is completed on time and, as importantly, on budget.

Professional construction software solutions play a crucial role in the day-to-day operations of a quantity surveyor, helping to streamline key processes to produce better results in significantly less time. Choosing the right software solution can amount to a huge competitive advantage.

At RIB Software, we have decades of experience developing innovative solutions tailored to the needs of professionals in the construction industry. If you want to learn more about what we have on offer and how it can benefit your organization, get your free demo of the RIB toolkit now.

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