Construction payment disputes can become difficult to resolve when financial records alone do not tell the full story. Determining whether invoiced costs are supported may also require understanding what work was actually completed in the field.
During the construction of a new temple, a monastery became involved in a dispute with its contractor over charges for work it believed was either unsupported or had not been completed. YA Group was engaged to evaluate the contractor’s pay applications, construction costs, and supporting project documentation to determine whether the amounts billed aligned with the work performed.
Challenge Overview
Evaluating the disputed charges required more than reconciling invoices and payment records as part of the construction cost analysis. The financial documentation needed to be compared against the actual status of construction to determine whether the contractor’s billing was supported.
YA Group’s initial analysis identified approximately $400,000 to $500,000 in unsupported or excessive charges. As additional documentation became available through discovery, the disputed amount continued to be refined as part of the ongoing litigation process. YA Group brought together forensic accounting and construction consulting expertise to evaluate the dispute from both financial and construction perspectives. Forensic accountants analyzed pay applications, costs, and supporting financial records, while construction consultants assessed whether the work associated with those charges had actually been completed. By working together, the teams were able to connect the financial documentation directly to conditions in the field and provide a more complete analysis than either discipline could have produced independently. The resulting findings provided objective support for the monastery’s concerns regarding overbilling and its decision to stop making payments. Rather than receiving separate financial and construction opinions, the client received a coordinated report that brought both areas of expertise together to support the ongoing legal proceedings.
