Construction Audit Seminar - Dallas, TX - November 2021

This two-day course covers proven construction audit strategies and techniques to enhance your organization's ability to effectively audit and control construction costs. Attendees will learn "how-to" effectively establish and implement audit coverage to achieve "risk-based" cost avoidance and/or cost recovery results.

"The material and teaching technique left me feeling well equipped to perform an effective construction audit."
Recent EACA Attendee

Who Can Benefit From This Learning Experience

Owner organization representatives who are involved with auditing or administering construction activity including:

- Owner's construction audit representatives (internal audit and/or external consultants)
- Owner's construction management executives, project managers, contract administrators, construction contract accountants, procurement representatives and/or legal representatives

Types of Contracts Covered

The course will emphasize effective construction audit strategies and construction cost control techniques for projects involving the use of the following types of construction contracts:

Cost plus FEE - Construction Manager at Risk- Guaranteed Maximum Price (GMP) contracts
Cost plus FEE - Design-Build GMP contracts
Cost plus FEE contracts with General Contractors (with or without a GMP)
Cost Plus FEE contracts with major subcontractors/trade subcontracts (with or without a GMP)
Lump sum and/or Unit price trade subcontracts or prime construction contracts

Learning Objectives

Owner's representatives (procurement, legal, project management, auditors and others) will learn specific "how to" techniques for conducting effective audits of their organization's construction activity, such as:

Issues to consider to help your organization avoid making costly mistakes when entering into construction contract agreements
Key steps to ensuring the best value is received when the CM/GC contracts with subcontractors
Critical process to ensure subcontractor change orders are fairly priced
Process to control costs related to materials purchased by the Contractor
How to structure your contract to ensure you do not overpay for contractor owned equipment
Possible overcharges for third party equipment to watch out for
How to avoid making excessive payments for subguard and/or contractor controlled insurance programs
Methods to effectively minimize the loopholes in contracts that create opportunity for contractors to realize excessive hidden profits
Management/construction audit partnering strategies to ensure construction cost controls are working as anticipated to benefit the project
Owner's Project Managers will learn specific key control points that will increase their ability to manage the costs of their construction projects
Owner's Project Managers will learn how to effectively partner their construction auditors to more effectively control the costs of their construction projects

Learn The Pros and Cons of

Lump sum pre-construction services versus cost reimbursable pre-construction services
Pre-established labor billing rates versus reimbursement of actual wages and verifiable labor burden
Lump sum general conditions versus cost reimbursable general conditions
Lump sum self-performed contractor work versus cost plus fee with GMP for self-performed contractor work
Converting GMP contracts to lump sum contracts
Supported payment applications versus percentage of completion payment applications
Pre-agreed labor burden percentages versus reimbursement for actual defined labor burden costs
Bonding both the prime contractor and the subcontractors
Subcontractor default insurance (subguard) versus conventional performance and payment bonds
Savings Sharing clauses versus no savings sharing clauses
Worker's Compensation and General Liability Insurance - Conventional insurance versus Contractor
Controlled Insurance Programs (CCIP)
Worker's Compensation and General Liability Insurance - Conventional insurance versus Owner Controlled Insurance Programs (OCIP)

Benchmarking Topics

Typical contractor fees for cost plus fee with GMP construction manager/general contractor projects of various sizes
Whether or not to reimburse for general liability insurance or have it covered by Fee
Typical charges for general liability insurance
Typical charges for Subcontractor Default Insurance (subguard)
Typical charges for Contractor Controlled Insurance Programs (CCIP)
Typical charges for worker's compensation when the contractor is self-insured and/or uses high deductibles
Change order markup percentages allowed on subcontractor self-performed work and work performed by sub-subcontractors
Actual wire and conduit costs versus public "book prices"

Course Outline

Introduction to Effective Auditing of Construction Activity

Audit objectives related to controlling construction costs
Project team roles and responsibilities
Delivery systems - fast track, design build, conventional
Contract procurement methods, types, and phases

Cost Plus and Time and Material Contracts - Typical Overcharges

Design contract billings for time and reimbursables
Billings for personal computer and/or mainframe computer time
Construction contractor and/or construction manager billings for labor and labor burden
Billings for contractor-owned equipment, third-party equipment rental, expendable tools, equipment and
consumables, and material used during construction
Transactions dealing with subcontractors

Auditing Construction Change Orders

Typical overcharges in lump sum change orders
Electrical change order - discussion exercise
Change order labor and labor burden pricing

Auditing Lump Sum or Unit Price Contracts

Quality and scope of work overcharges
Substitution of materials or methods
Not performing required services
Not installing proper quantities
Special types of lump sum contract overcharge situations
Adjusting allowances
Required bonds and insurance
Improper charges for sales tax
Special unit price overcharge situations
Excessive quantities billed
Improper measurement method used
Inaccurate measurements
Billings for excessive quantities actually performed

Program Fee

REGULAR SEMINAR REGISTRATION Fee = $1,195

Program fee includes instruction, all program materials, breakfast and lunch each day and refreshment breaks.

Program Schedule

Tuesday: 8:30 am - 4:30 pm

Wednesday: 8:30 am - 4:30 pm

CPE

All participants are eligible to receive up to 16 Continuing Education Credits (CPE’s) to fulfill professional accreditation requirements. Participants will receive 1 CPE credit for every 50 minutes in attendance. Field of Study: Auditing. Course Level: Basic. Group-live, lecture-style seminar; no prerequisites or advanced preparation required.

Accommodations:
Dallas/Plano Marriott at Legacy Town Center

Surrounded by scenic parks and water features, the Dallas/Plano Marriott at Legacy Town Center is a luxurious Plano hotel conveniently located within walking distance to upscale shopping, fine dining and entertainment.

Venue

The seminar classes will be held at:
Dallas/Plano Marriott at Legacy Town Center 7121 Bishop Rd, Plano TX 75024

Instructor

Rich Townsend is a principal of the consulting firm R. L. Townsend & Associates, LLC, which provides construction audit and construction cost control consulting services to Owners.

Since 1985, Mr. Townsend has been the instructor for the seminar entitled "Controlling Construction Costs" and "Effective Auditing of Construction Activity" sponsored by Courtenay Thompson & Associates. He has also instructed in-house seminars related to construction contract audit and construction cost control for a wide variety of organizations and industries throughout the United States and Canada.

Prior to starting his consulting firm, Rich spent 13 years with the auditing department of a major retail corporation. During his internal auditing career (1971-1984), he served in several staff and audit management positions with a specialization in audits of construction contract activity.

Mr. Townsend is a Certified Internal Auditor (CIA), a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), and Certified Construction Auditor (CCA). He currently serves on the advisory board for The National Association of Construction Auditors.

He is a graduate of Waynesburg College (Waynesburg, Pennsylvania) where he obtained a Bachelor of Science Degree with a major in accounting.

Reviews from Seminar Participants

"I found the 2-day training really useful, and informative. Great class! Personally, I have a lot of takeaways back to my organization. Thanks a lot for sharing your knowledge and experience. "

"Phenomenal class!"

"Very informative with great interaction for real world applications and discussions."

"The material and teaching technique left me feeling well equipped to perform an effective construction audit."

"The information and shared knowledge will assist tremendously. Thank you for providing clear direction on the documents needed to test pay applications."

"Learned a lot about contract language we can add to our contracts and also things we can look for during construction audits."