Landscape Architect Registration Examination (LARE) Practice Exam

When computing payments requests, which approach is most commonly taken?

1. Percentage of work completed

2. Total cost of project

3. Past payment history

4. Material costs incurred

The correct answer is: Percentage of work completed

The percentage of work completed is the most commonly taken approach when computing payment requests for construction and landscape architecture projects. This method allows for a clear assessment of how much of the project has been finished at any given point in time. By tracking the work completed against the planned milestones or deliverables, stakeholders can ensure that payments correlate to the actual progress made on the project. Using the percentage of work completed provides several benefits. It aligns payments with tangible results and encourages continuous progress towards project completion. Additionally, it fosters transparency between the contractor and the client, as both parties can easily track the project's advancement in terms of physical work completed. Other approaches, although they have their merits, do not provide the same level of connection to actual physical work done. For example, considering the total cost of the project may not accurately reflect progress, as it does not necessarily take into account how much work has been completed at that point in time. Similarly, basing calculations on past payment history or material costs incurred might lead to discrepancies, as these methods do not directly link payments to current progress on the project. Therefore, the percentage of work completed stands out as the most objective and fair method for implementing payment requests in landscape architecture and similar fields.