You, as Party A, by mastering this knowledge, will no longer have to worry about Party B using tactics against you

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You, as the client, by possessing this knowledge, will no longer have to worry about the contractor using deceptive tactics. The various tricks related to project costs employed by the contractors are now known to you as the client; stop being foolish! Let’s list the areas in cost calculation where loopholes can be exploited: 1. Most contractors take advantage of the differences between the regulations set forth in the standards and the actual conditions of construction, violating the professional ethics requirement to calculate quantities based on facts, and instead overstate the amount of work done in order to increase their quotes ； 2. Most contractors will use the same change request to submit two or more separate requests for negotiation changes, thereby aiming to overstate the workload in project cost management. Generally, as long as minor modifications are made to the construction area, and without the supervision of on-site cost estimators, coupled with carelessness on the part of the on-site workers and supervisors, it is still quite easy to accomplish this ； 3. Most contractors take advantage of misinterpreting the terms of the contract; for example, for projects that require cost evaluation, they fail to apply the discount rate specified in the contract. As a result, they find various pretexts to demand cost evaluations indefinitely, using such evaluations to avoid any reduction in the budget for the construction project. For example, if the main material used in a certain sub-item is artificially changed, resulting in a difference between the comprehensive unit price of that sub-item and the comprehensive unit price specified in the winning bid, an request for price verification can be made on this basis ； 4. Most contractors take advantage of ambiguous provisions in the negotiations, the fact that cost estimators are not familiar with the construction site, and the careless attitude of the project managers on the part of the client, in order to obtain additional payment through such negotiations. This approach often works every time, and it is a common method used by contractors to gain unfair advantages through visas. The problem lies with the contractors, but the responsibility should lie with the client ； 5. Most contractors also alter the details of the negotiations in an attempt to deceive the project owner. Although this approach is likely to fail, since there are no cost specialists on site to oversee things, and the cost specialists based in the developer’s office buildings as well as those assigned to evaluate costs are not familiar with the site conditions, coupled with their reluctance to carefully verify the negotiation vouchers, this method still often works ； 6. Current quotas generally include many parallel sub-items, the purpose of which is to accommodate the cost calculation for various construction methods. By using this approach, the contractor gives the impression that nothing is wrong on the surface; in reality, however, some construction methods that are not actually carried out are also included in the cost, thereby increasing the unit price of those sub-items ； 7. Regarding the charging for labor and machinery costs, altering the designated amounts for labor and machinery costs leads to an increase in the total project cost. In other cases, the fixed labor cost rate is artificially converted into a market-based labor cost rate, which is then applied to the relevant quota items for pricing; visas are used to achieve the goal of increasing the cost ； 8. Modify the software to automatically calculate the workload. Everyone knows that cost estimation software automatically calculates the workload; if someone manually modifies certain amounts, few people will take the time to verify them carefully ； 9. Taking advantage of the fact that there are no cost professionals on site with the construction party, and since the construction party’s project managers sometimes prioritize the construction schedule, they tend to accommodate some unreasonable demands from the contractor; as a result, fake work items are created. By including these fabricated tasks, they manage to obtain payment for work that shouldn’t have been done at all ； 10. The contractor uses dishonest tactics, cutting corners and deceiving the owner. There is no need for examples to illustrate this; such situations occur very frequently during construction. The aforementioned methods are only basic approaches; there are many other methods, too numerous to list. However, since project settlement requires going through an audit process, and it is generally very difficult to get such methods approved in an audit; the contractors are well aware of this. As a result, the vast majority of contractors opt to use on-site visas to implement these methods in order to determine the volume of work and the comprehensive unit price per item. Auditors usually do not pay too much attention to properly documented visas. To identify such fraud, it is necessary to have a clear understanding of the construction site and the construction process; this requires that our contractors also have on-site cost management personnel who can keep track of the progress of the work as well as the technical aspects involved, and who can carry out proper monitoring of various costs and expenses. At present, many contractors do not pay much attention to this; they often do not assign or assign very few personnel responsible for cost control on site, believing that since there are project supervisors and audit services are also engaged, having additional staff for cost control on site is unnecessary. In fact, this is not the case. Whether it’s the supervision party or the audit team, they are ultimately working for the client. Although they must stay informed about the situation on site at all times, their different roles lead to some degree of discrepancies. Moreover, project supervisors often lack sufficient knowledge regarding costs, while audit team members are usually people sent by the auditing firm who either do not have the necessary skills in this area or simply lack such skills altogether. This gives the construction party an opportunity to take advantage of the situation. From the perspective of their own interests, the developers assign on-site cost control personnel, which yields excellent results both in terms of monitoring the construction party and in urging the appointed supervisors and audit firms to carry out their duties. As a cost estimator on site for the construction party, their main task is not to determine the cost of the project, but rather to oversee cost management and control. They need to analyze various situations that arise on site from the perspective of project costing and cost control, in order to prevent unnecessary financial losses resulting from overestimation or incorrect calculations. Therefore, when selecting personnel to handle cost estimation on site, the project owners must take these factors into account and try to assign those with substantial practical experience to this task, rather than simply choosing anyone who knows how to do cost estimation.