Abstract
The project-oriented nature of the construction industry makes it unique and different from other
business environments due to its “multi-faceted”, “complicated” nature and the level of
“uncertainty” it faces, an oversight in this view has only lead to a “higher-than-average” failure
rate compared to other businesses. Some of these failures were related to cost control and financial
issues and therefore the need to sort for more ways to improve the cost control/financial
systems/models in the construction industry, and led to the critical assessment into the inclusion
of ‘tracking amortization of advance payment’ as an indicator for project performance’. A
qualitative method of research was carried out to answer the research question i.e. can the tracking
amortization of advance payment’ be used to determine project performance status? through
conducting semi-structured interviews to gain insight and perceptions of real life scenarios by
interviewing experienced and practicing individuals in the Irish and UK construction industry. The
analysis of the interview of five experienced and practicing professionals was prepared and found
out that there is a relativeness between the amortization of advance payments and the performance
status of the project and there lies the possibilities of tracking project performance through
tracking amortization of advance payments but there were concerns of a complicated process in
the midst of changing variables i.e. time, cost, scope, client requirements etc. However, for the
realisation of positive results from this concept it has to be integrated into the firms control system
and also support from the construction industry at large in terms of policies, measures of control
etc. and the further development in terms of deeper research.
