A prototype system for the prediction of final cost in construction projects

List of Abbreviations xvii

“…Project price usually includes Value Added Tax (VAT), income tax, and all other construction cost components such as materials, labour, contingency, profits, and overheads (Aretoulis et al, 2006;Giammalvo, 2007 andand Šiškina et al, 2009). Taxes are normally related to government agencies and regulations.…”

“…Cost overruns in construction projects must be prevented, and eventually have to be run under budgets to help avoiding any financial losses. The project contract price should recover all components of project costs such as materials, labour, contingency, overheads, and extra profits for the contractor (Aretoulis et al, 2006;Giammalvo, 2007 andand Šiškina et al, 2009 …”

“…Numerous authors and professionals have discussed the differentiation between general-office and site-project overheads in construction projects in different ways (e.g., Kim and Ballard, 2001;Assaf et al, 2001;Aretoulis et al, 2006;Enshassi et al, 2008;Singh and Taam (2008); Beaulieu and Mikulecky, 2008;and Šiškina et al, 2009 It is thought that indirect-fixed costs for projects may refer to indirect-project overheads (also known as general-office overheads). While, direct-fixed costs can be identified as direct-project overheads (also known as site-project overheads).…”

“…Project costs may include profits, contingency, direct, and indirect costs (Aretoulis et al, 2006;Giammalvo, 2007 andand Šiškina et al, 2009). Project profits can be measured as excess revenue against project costs.…”

“…Project managers should have an understanding of which specific resources are required by particular activities in order to perform jobs, projects, and services during the construction stage. Project costs should recover all operational cost components such as materials, labour, contingency, profit, and overheads (refer to Aretoulis et al, 2006;Giammalvo, 2007 andand Šiškina et al, 2009). The procedure of activitybased project costing requires project costs to be accounted on each particular component by breaking resources separately (e.g., differentiate between direct and indirect resources).…”