10th November, 2026
Qflow’s newly released design matches now checks what actually arrives on site against what the design specified, at the moment of delivery. It turns “as-designed” from an assumption into a verified fact. This shift, from retrospective estimates to field-verified data, changes how buildings are delivered, handed over, operated and designed.
How it works
Qflow captures materials, waste, utility and carbon data at source, using AI document processing on delivery tickets and site records and enriching that data. [Fun Fact: 70% of data in Qflow is ‘enriched’ with the raw fields extracted from delivery tickets accounting for just 30%]. Design matches compare each delivered product against the design specification and flag mismatches early.
- What it checks: product, specification, certificates and sustainability credentials against design intent
- What it catches: unapproved substitutions, wrong or non-compliant products, and drift from the design baseline
- Why it matters: UK industry estimates put avoidable cost from poor data and rework at £10–25bn a year, or 10–25% of project value (Get It Right Initiative)
What this means for Construction: verify, don’t assume
Contractors move from finding problems at snagging to catching them at the gate. A wrong product flagged on delivery costs a phone call; the same product found after installation costs rework, delay and a dispute.
- Substitutions become visible and approved, not discovered later
- Compliance evidence (Building Safety Act, BREEAM, embodied carbon targets) is built as work happens, not reconstructed at the end
- Carbon reporting and cost control rests on actual deliveries, not design-stage projections
You may have heard our Co-founders Jade Cohen and Brittany Harris speaking alongside Autodesk about how this site data can be matched with the design specifications to verify what was designed is what gets built. No? Check out this interview from DevCon that explores this topic.
Informing and verifying Design: closing the feedback loop
For the first time, designers learn what was actually built. Design intent stops being a one-way handoff and becomes a loop.
- Specifications can be checked against real procurement and supply chain outcomes
- Embodied carbon models can be calibrated with as-built data, as NORR is doing on its zero carbon workplace project (Construction Owners)
- Integration with CDE and construction management platforms brings site data back into the tools teams already use (see integrations page for further details).
What this means for the future of Asset management: a record you can trust
This accurate as-built record of materials is the foundation of an accurate Operation and Maintenance manual. Owners inherit a verified record of what is actually in the building, not what the drawings say should be there. That is the foundation of a real Golden Thread.
- That means faster, defensible handover: product-level evidence travels with the asset
- Safer operation: when a product recall or safety issue emerges, owners can see exactly where it impacts their buildings
- Better long-term decisions on maintenance, retrofit and reuse; because material passports start from verified data
Looking ahead
The industry is moving from “trust the paperwork” to “prove it with data”. Design matches make as-designed equal as-delivered, and connect design, construction and operation into one verified data chain.
