Resources
The resources section helps you prepare before you talk with a partner firm. It has practical guides, a glossary of plain definitions and, over time, downloadable checklists. None of it replaces advice from a qualified professional.
It is meant to help you ask better questions and gather the right records.
Guides
Our guides are short articles on common topics in cost and contract review. They fall into three series.
What to gather
Each article in this series lists the records a partner firm usually asks for in one cost category. Having them ready can shorten the first conversation. A selection:
Common errors
This series describes the kinds of billing and contract mistakes that reviews often look for, without promising that your records contain any. A selection:
Choosing and working with a firm
These articles explain how Fairview matching works and how to get value from a conversation with a firm. A selection:
Glossary
Cost review has its own vocabulary. Terms such as true-up, estoppel certificate and three-way match come up in early conversations with a firm. The Glossary defines them in plain words and explains how each shows up in a review. Every entry cites the sources used to check the definition, and entries are paraphrased rather than copied.
Downloads
The Downloads section will hold checklists in PDF form. Each will list what to have ready for a given cost category. No documents are published yet. When they are, they will be general checklists, not forms that create an engagement with a firm.
Services and industries
If you already know the cost area you are worried about, go straight to the Services section. If you want to see which cost areas businesses in your sector commonly have, the Industries section gives general background by sector.
Why these resources exist
A review goes faster when the business knows what it wants checked and can find its records. Many owners and controllers lose time at the start because nobody can say where the amendments are, or which vendor correspondence matters. The guides address that gap. They describe the usual documents, the usual questions and the usual points of confusion, in general terms.
The resources also help you judge a firm's answers. If you know what a true-up is, or why a payment history matters, you can follow the firm's explanation and challenge it where it seems thin.
How to use these resources
Start with the guide for your cost category. Gather what it lists. Read any glossary terms you do not know. Then submit a request. The partner firm will tell you if it needs anything else. You do not need to finish every item first.
Suggested reading order
If this is your first review, a short path works well. Read the guide for your cost category first. Next, skim the common errors article for the same category, so you know what a firm may look for. Then read the article on questions to ask a firm, so you are ready for the first call. Finally, submit your request.
If you have been through a review before, the articles on choosing and working with a firm may be the most useful, because they cover fees, expectations and the working relationship.
A note on accuracy
Where an article states a fact, it cites sources at the end. Where a point depends on law, tax rules or accounting standards, the article keeps it general and flags it for checking. Always confirm specifics with a qualified adviser. The Disclaimer explains the limits of the information we publish.
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