AIA Billing: G702 and G703 Step-by-Step (2026)

If you have been in commercial construction for more than a few months, you have dealt with AIA billing. It is the standard language of pay applications on just about every commercial project in the country. Owners expect it. Architects require it. And if you get it wrong, your payment gets kicked back and you wait another 30 days.

The thing is, AIA billing is not complicated once you understand the moving parts. But a lot of contractors, especially those moving from residential into commercial work, treat these forms like a mystery. They copy what the last PM did, hope the numbers match, and cross their fingers that the architect approves it on the first pass.

That approach costs you money. Every rejected pay app, every correction cycle, every late submission means more time between you and your cash. So let’s break this down the way it actually works on a job site, not the way a textbook explains it.

What AIA Billing Actually Is (and Why It Exists)

AIA stands for the American Institute of Architects. Back in the day, every owner, architect, and contractor had their own way of requesting and approving payments. It was a mess. The AIA created a set of standardized contract documents, and the billing forms (G702 and G703) became the go-to format for progress payments on commercial work.

Here is what AIA billing really comes down to: you are showing the owner exactly how much work you have completed, how much you have been paid so far, and how much you are owed right now. That is it. The forms just give everyone a consistent way to present that information so there is no guessing.

On most projects, the billing cycle is monthly. Your contract will specify a cutoff date (say the 25th of each month) and a submission deadline. You fill out your G702 and G703, attach any required backup documentation, and submit the package to the architect for review. The architect certifies the amount, sends it to the owner, and the owner issues payment.

Simple in theory. In practice, there are a dozen ways to mess it up. But before we get into the pitfalls, let’s look at the actual forms.

Breaking Down the G702: Your Application Cover Sheet

The G702, formally called the “Application and Certificate for Payment,” is your summary page. Think of it as the cover letter for your pay application. It is one page, and it tells the story of where the project stands financially.

Here is what you will find on the G702:

Project information at the top: project name, owner, architect, contractor, contract date, and the application number. Every pay app gets a sequential number. Your first billing is Application No. 1, your second is No. 2, and so on. Sounds obvious, but you would be surprised how often these get mixed up on long projects.

The contract sum section is where the money lives. This includes:

• Original contract sum: what you signed the contract for
• Net change by change orders: the total of all approved changes (additions and deductions)
• Contract sum to date: original amount plus or minus changes
• Total completed and stored to date: pulled directly from your G703
• Retainage: the percentage held back from your completed work
• Total earned less retainage: what you have actually earned after the holdback
• Less previous certificates for payment: what you have already been paid
• Current payment due: the bottom line, what the owner owes you this month
• Balance to finish: how much contract value remains

The G702 also has a section for the architect’s certification. The architect reviews your numbers, confirms (or adjusts) the amount, and signs off. Without that signature, you do not get paid.

One thing that trips up newer contractors: the G702 is a summary. All the detail lives on the G703. If your G703 numbers do not tie back to the G702, your application gets rejected. Every time. No exceptions.

For tracking all of these moving pieces, having solid job costing in place makes a real difference. When your costs are organized from the start, filling out pay apps becomes a matter of pulling numbers rather than hunting for them.

The G703 Continuation Sheet: Where the Real Work Happens

The G703 is the backbone of your AIA pay application. This is where you break the project down into individual line items and show exactly how much work has been completed on each one.

Each row on the G703 represents a line item from your schedule of values (SOV). The SOV is basically your contract broken into pieces, and it gets established at the beginning of the project. Common line items include things like:

• General conditions
• Site work and excavation
• Concrete foundations
• Structural steel
• Mechanical rough-in
• Electrical rough-in
• Drywall and framing
• Finish carpentry
• Painting
• Final cleanup

For each line item, the G703 tracks these columns:

1. Item number: sequential reference
2. Description of work: what the line item covers
3. Scheduled value: the dollar amount allocated to this item in the SOV
4. Work completed from previous applications: what was billed in prior months
5. Work completed this period: what you are billing for right now
6. Materials presently stored: materials on site (or off site with proper documentation) that have not been installed yet
7. Total completed and stored to date: columns 4 + 5 + 6
8. Percentage complete: total completed divided by scheduled value
9. Balance to finish: scheduled value minus total completed
10. Retainage: the holdback amount for this line item

The G703 is where most mistakes happen. The math has to be perfect. Every column has to add up. And the grand totals at the bottom of the G703 have to match what is on the G702 exactly. If they do not, you are resubmitting.

This is also where your cost codes pay off. When your SOV line items align with your internal cost coding, you can pull completion percentages from actual job cost data instead of guessing. That means more accurate billing and fewer questions from the architect.

Step-by-Step G702/G703 Form Walkthrough

A lot of guides will tell you what the forms contain but never walk you through actually filling them out. Let’s fix that. Here is exactly how to complete a G702 and G703, field by field, using a real-world example.

Setting Up the G702 Header

Let’s say you are a general contractor on a $1.2 million school renovation. This is your third monthly pay application.

At the top of the G702, fill in:

• To (Owner): Lincoln County School District
• From (Contractor): Your company name and address
• Project: Lincoln Elementary Renovation
• Via (Architect): Smith & Associates Architecture
• Contract For: General Construction
• Contract Date: January 15, 2026
• Application No.: 3
• Period To: March 25, 2026
• Distribution To: Owner, Architect, Contractor, Lender (if applicable)

Every single one of these fields matters. If the application number is wrong, the architect may think they missed one. If the period date is off, the entire billing gets questioned. Fill in every field, every time.

Working Through the G702 Financial Summary

Now for the money section. Here is how each line builds:

1. Original Contract Sum: $1,200,000.00
2. Net Change by Change Orders: $45,000.00 (two approved COs totaling $45K)
3. Contract Sum to Date (Line 1 + Line 2): $1,245,000.00
4. Total Completed and Stored to Date: $487,500.00 (this number comes straight from the G703 grand total)
5. Retainage (5% of Line 4): $24,375.00
6. Total Earned Less Retainage (Line 4 minus Line 5): $463,125.00
7. Less Previous Certificates for Payment: $332,500.00 (what you have already been paid net of retainage from Apps 1 and 2)
8. Current Payment Due (Line 6 minus Line 7): $130,625.00
9. Balance to Finish, Including Retainage (Line 3 minus Line 6): $781,875.00

Line 8 is your paycheck for the month. That is the number the owner writes a check for once the architect certifies. Every single line has to be traceable, so keep your math clean.

Building the G703 Line by Line

Now flip to the G703. Using the same school project, here is how a few line items might look:

Line Item 1: General Conditions

• Scheduled Value: $120,000
• Previous Applications: $40,000
• This Period: $20,000
• Stored Materials: $0
• Total Completed: $60,000
• % Complete: 50%
• Balance to Finish: $60,000
• Retainage (5%): $3,000

Line Item 2: Demolition

• Scheduled Value: $85,000
• Previous Applications: $85,000
• This Period: $0
• Stored Materials: $0
• Total Completed: $85,000
• % Complete: 100%
• Balance to Finish: $0
• Retainage (5%): $4,250

Line Item 3: Concrete Work

• Scheduled Value: $145,000
• Previous Applications: $72,500
• This Period: $36,250
• Stored Materials: $7,250
• Total Completed: $116,000
• % Complete: 80%
• Balance to Finish: $29,000
• Retainage (5%): $5,800

You continue this for every line item on the schedule of values. At the bottom, the grand total of column 7 (Total Completed and Stored) must match Line 4 on the G702. The grand total of the Retainage column must match Line 5. If those numbers are off by even a dollar, fix it before you submit.

The Architect’s Certification Section

The bottom half of the G702 is reserved for the architect. You do not fill this out. The architect reviews your application, walks the site if needed, and then certifies the amount they agree with. Sometimes they adjust your completion percentages down. If that happens, the architect notes the adjusted amount and signs.

The architect’s certification is what triggers the owner’s payment obligation. Without it, the pay app is just a request sitting on a desk.

Common AIA Billing Mistakes That Delay Payment

After years of watching pay apps get rejected, here are the issues that come up over and over again. And these are not hypothetical problems. These are situations that happen on real job sites every single month.

Overbilling. This is the number one reason architects reject pay applications. If you say concrete is 80% complete but the architect visited the site and the forms are not even stripped yet, you have a problem. Bill what you can defend. Period.

One contractor on a hospital project billed mechanical rough-in at 90% when only the first floor was piped. The architect rejected the entire application, not just the one line item. The contractor had to resubmit, and the 45-day payment clock started over from zero.

Math errors. It sounds basic, but a single column that does not add up will get your entire application kicked back. Double-check your totals. Then check them again. If you are doing this in a spreadsheet, make sure your formulas are right and nothing got accidentally overwritten.

Here is one that happens more than you would think: a PM copies last month’s G703 to start this month’s billing. They update the “this period” column but forget to update the “previous applications” column with last month’s numbers. Now every line item is wrong, and the totals do not match the G702. Rejected.

Missing backup documentation. Most projects require supporting documents with your pay app. This can include sub payment requests, material invoices for stored materials, updated project schedules, and lien waivers from subs and suppliers who were paid in the previous cycle. If it is missing, the app comes back.

A GC on a retail build-out submitted their pay app without conditional lien waivers from two subs. The architect returned the entire package and would not review any of it until the waivers were included. Two weeks of delay because of two missing pieces of paper.

Late submission. Your contract says the pay app is due on the 25th. If you submit on the 26th, many architects will not process it until the next billing cycle. That is a whole month of waiting because you were one day late. Mark your billing dates on the calendar and treat them like they are written in stone.

Retainage tracking errors. Retainage seems simple at first. Hold back 10% (or whatever the contract says) from each payment. But once you start dealing with partial retainage releases, reduced retainage rates at 50% completion, or different retainage percentages for different scopes, the tracking gets complicated fast.

Not reconciling with your subs. Your pay app to the owner is built from your sub pay apps. If a sub overbills you and you pass that through without catching it, the architect will catch it. Now you are resubmitting and your sub is resubmitting. Use your progress billing process to verify sub requests before rolling them into your application.

Ignoring WIP reports. Your WIP (work in progress) reports should tell you whether you are overbilled or underbilled on each project. If your WIP says you are overbilled and you keep pushing billing higher, you are setting yourself up for a cash flow cliff at the end of the project. Check your WIP before you submit every pay app.

Submitting without a signature. Sounds dumb, right? But it happens. The G702 requires the contractor’s signature and notarization in many jurisdictions. If you email a PDF without a signature, it comes right back.

Wrong application number. On a 14-month project, it is easy to lose track. If you submit Application No. 8 but the architect’s last approved application was No. 6, there is going to be a conversation. Keep a billing log with every application number, submission date, certified amount, and payment received date.

How to Handle Retainage on AIA Billing Applications

Retainage is one of the most misunderstood parts of AIA billing. On the surface it is simple: the owner holds back a percentage of each payment as security until the project is done. In practice, retainage tracking gets messy fast.

Standard Retainage Structure

Most commercial contracts start with 10% retainage. Some specify 5%. A growing number of states have passed laws capping retainage at 5%, so check your state’s rules before you assume the contract rate is legal.

On the G702, retainage is calculated against the total completed and stored amount. If you have billed $500,000 in total completed work and retainage is 10%, the owner is holding $50,000.

Retainage Reduction at 50% Completion

Many contracts allow the contractor to request retainage reduction once the project reaches 50% completion. This often means dropping from 10% to 5% on future billings. Some contracts apply the reduction retroactively to all previous billings. Others only apply it going forward.

Here is where it gets tricky on the G703. If retainage drops from 10% to 5% and it applies retroactively, your retainage column has to be recalculated for every line item. You cannot just change the rate on new billings and leave old numbers alone. The cumulative retainage on the G702 has to reflect the new rate across the board.

Different Retainage Rates for Different Scopes

Some owners apply different retainage percentages to different portions of the work. For example, 10% on the base contract but 5% on approved change orders. When this happens, you need to track retainage separately on the G703 for each category.

This is one of those situations where a spreadsheet starts to fall apart. Having invoicing software that handles multiple retainage rates on a single project saves hours of manual calculation.

Retainage Release Process

Retainage is typically released in two phases. The first release happens at substantial completion, when the owner can occupy and use the building. The second release happens after the punch list is complete and all closeout documents are submitted.

On your final or near-final pay application, you will include a line requesting retainage release. The G702 has a specific way to show this: the retainage line decreases while the current payment due increases by the same amount.

One common mistake is waiting too long to request retainage release. As soon as substantial completion is achieved, get that retainage request on the next pay application. Retainage sitting in the owner’s account earns interest for the owner, not for you.

Retainage and Your Subcontractors

Your subs are subject to retainage too. You hold back the same percentage (or sometimes more) from their payments. When the owner releases retainage to you, you are contractually obligated to pass it through to your subs within a specified timeframe. Many states have laws requiring retainage pass-through within 7 to 14 days.

Track sub retainage separately from your own. When retainage release time comes, you need to know exactly how much each sub is owed. This is where solid job costing really pays off because you can see every dollar held from every sub in one place.

AIA Billing for Subcontractors vs General Contractors

The AIA billing process looks different depending on which side of the table you sit on. Subs and GCs both use the same forms, but the workflow, the politics, and the pressure points are different.

How Subcontractors Handle AIA Billing

As a subcontractor, you submit your pay application to the general contractor, not directly to the owner. Your G702/G703 covers only your scope of work. The GC then rolls your numbers into their own application.

Here is the reality that most subs deal with:

Your billing deadline is earlier than the GC’s. If the GC has to submit to the architect on the 25th, your pay app is probably due to the GC on the 15th or 20th. That gives the GC time to review your numbers, ask questions, and incorporate your billing into theirs. Miss that deadline and your billing gets pushed to next month.

The GC will scrutinize your percentages. A good GC walks the job and compares your claimed completion to what they see. If your drywall is not hung and you are billing 60% on drywall, the GC is going to adjust your numbers before passing them through. Do not be that sub.

You do not control the payment timeline. Even if the GC approves your billing, you do not get paid until the owner pays the GC. And the owner does not pay until the architect certifies. You are at the end of a chain, and every delay upstream affects you. This is why accurate, defensible billing is so important for subs. You cannot afford a rejected application.

Lien waivers are your leverage. The GC needs your conditional lien waiver to submit their application. That means your billing and your waiver need to match. If they do not, it creates a delay for everyone.

How General Contractors Handle AIA Billing

As a GC, you are the one assembling the entire pay application package. That means collecting billing from every sub, verifying their numbers, rolling everything into your G703, making sure the math works on the G702, attaching all required documentation, and getting it to the architect on time.

Here is what makes this harder than it sounds:

You are only as fast as your slowest sub. If you have 15 subs on a project and 14 of them submit their billing on time, but the plumber is three days late, your entire application waits. Build in buffer time and hound your subs early.

You carry the risk of sub overbilling. If a sub bills 70% on electrical and the architect thinks it is closer to 50%, the architect rejects your application. Now you are going back to the sub, getting revised numbers, redoing your G703, and resubmitting. All because you did not verify the sub’s numbers before passing them through.

Change order management is on you. When a change order gets approved, it needs to show up on the G703 as a new line item or an adjustment to an existing one. The contract sum on the G702 needs to update. If you have multiple change orders in different stages of approval, tracking which ones are included in your billing and which ones are still pending takes real organization. Good change order tracking keeps this manageable.

You are the point of contact for questions. When the architect has a question about a completion percentage, they call you, not the sub. You need to be able to defend every number on your application. That means walking the job before you submit and knowing what is actually done.

AIA Billing Software: Manual vs QuickBooks vs Construction-Specific Tools

How you prepare your AIA billing makes a huge difference in how long it takes and how many errors slip through. Here is a comparison of the three most common approaches.

Manual (Paper Forms or Basic Spreadsheets)

Some contractors still fill out AIA forms by hand or use a basic Excel template.

Pros:

• No software cost
• Full control over the document
• Works if you only have one or two projects at a time

Cons:

• Math errors happen constantly
• No automatic carry-forward from month to month
• Re-entering the same data every billing cycle wastes hours
• No connection to your actual job cost data
• Virtually impossible to track retainage accurately on complex projects

If you are doing one small commercial project a year, paper might work. For anything more than that, you are spending time and money you do not need to spend.

QuickBooks (or Other General Accounting Software)

A lot of contractors try to make QuickBooks handle AIA billing. It can sort of work, but it requires significant customization.

Pros:

• You are probably already paying for it
• Progress invoicing feature exists
• Integrates with your banking and accounts payable

Cons:

• QuickBooks was not built for construction. There is no native G702/G703 format.
• Schedule of values tracking requires workarounds
• Retainage tracking is clunky and error-prone
• No built-in connection between field progress and billing
• Change orders have to be managed manually alongside the invoice

QuickBooks is a great general accounting tool. It is not a great AIA billing tool. If you use QuickBooks for your accounting (and many contractors do), you want a construction-specific platform that syncs with it rather than trying to force QuickBooks to do everything.

Construction-Specific Software

Platforms built for contractors handle AIA billing as part of the overall project workflow. Your schedule of values, job costing, change orders, and billing all live in one place.

Pros:

• G702 and G703 formats are built in
• Numbers carry forward automatically from month to month
• Change orders update the SOV and contract sum automatically
• Retainage calculates correctly at any rate or tier
• Field progress connects directly to billing percentages
• Integrates with accounting (QuickBooks, etc.) for payment tracking

Cons:

• Monthly subscription cost
• Learning curve when switching from spreadsheets

When your invoicing, job costing, and change order tracking all feed into the same system, your pay application practically builds itself each month. You review the numbers, verify against field conditions, and submit. That is the difference between spending a full day on billing and spending an hour.

How to Set Up Your Schedule of Values the Right Way

Your schedule of values is the foundation of every pay application you will submit for the life of the project. Getting it right at the beginning saves you headaches for months.

Thousands of contractors have made the switch. See what they have to say.

Here is what experienced GCs know about building an SOV:

Front-load carefully. Every contractor wants to bill as much as possible early in the project. That is just smart cash flow management. But if your SOV is too obviously front-loaded, the architect will push back. The trick is to be strategic without being ridiculous. General conditions, mobilization, and early-phase work items can carry a bit more weight, but they still need to be defensible.

Match your SOV to your subcontractor structure. If you have one mechanical sub, do not split mechanical into fifteen line items unless you need to. On the flip side, if you have a sub handling both plumbing and HVAC, you probably want separate lines so you can bill each trade as work actually gets done.

Include stored materials as a separate consideration. Some owners and architects do not like paying for stored materials. Others are fine with it as long as you provide documentation (invoices, photos, insurance certificates). Know the rules on your specific project before you build your SOV around storing materials.

Keep line items manageable. A 200-line SOV is a nightmare to maintain. A 15-line SOV does not give enough detail. Most commercial projects work well with somewhere between 30 and 60 line items, depending on project size and complexity.

Your SOV also needs to account for change orders as the project progresses. When a change order gets approved, it gets added as a new line item (or modifies an existing one) on the G703. The contract sum on the G702 adjusts accordingly. Keeping change orders organized from day one prevents billing chaos later.

Getting Paid Faster: Tips from the Field

Knowing how to fill out the forms is only half the battle. Here is how experienced contractors actually speed up the payment process:

Build a relationship with the architect’s project manager. The person reviewing your pay app is a human being with a stack of other pay apps on their desk. If they know you, trust your numbers, and can call you with a quick question instead of sending a formal rejection, your apps get processed faster. It is not about cutting corners. It is about making their job easier.

Submit early, not just on time. If the deadline is the 25th, submit on the 20th. This gives the architect time to review, ask questions, and certify before the end of the month. When you submit on the last day, you are already behind.

Pre-walk the job with the architect. Before you submit your billing, walk the site with the architect or their rep. Agree on completion percentages before you put them on paper. This eliminates 90% of the back-and-forth that delays payment.

Use a consistent format every single month. Do not change your SOV line items, column formatting, or file naming conventions from month to month. Consistency makes it easy for the reviewer to compare against last month and spot what changed.

Keep a billing checklist. Every month, use the same checklist: collect sub pay apps, verify percentages, update stored materials, calculate retainage, check math, attach backup, get signatures, submit. When billing becomes a repeatable process, errors drop.

Go digital where you can. Tracking all of this in paper forms or disconnected spreadsheets is a recipe for errors. Having your invoicing and billing connected to your job cost data means the numbers flow from one place instead of being re-entered three times. If you want to see how that works in practice, check out a demo and see how your billing process can run tighter.

Track your payment timeline. Know exactly when you submitted, when the architect certified, and when the owner is supposed to pay. Most contracts specify payment terms (often 30 days from certification). If the owner is late, you need to know it immediately, not when your accountant notices six weeks later.

Stay on top of change order billing. Approved change orders should show up on your very next pay application. Do not let them pile up. Every month a change order sits unapproved or unbilled is a month your cash flow suffers.

AIA Billing and Your Cash Flow Calendar

One thing that does not get talked about enough is how AIA billing affects your cash flow timing. Understanding the timeline helps you plan around it instead of reacting to it.

Here is a typical commercial project payment timeline:

• Day 1 to 25: Work gets done throughout the month.
• Day 25: Billing cutoff date. You calculate completion through this date.
• Day 25 to 28: You prepare the G702/G703 package, collect sub billing, and compile backup.
• Day 28 to 30: You submit to the architect.
• Day 30 to 45: The architect reviews, walks the site, and certifies (or rejects).
• Day 45 to 75: The owner processes payment (net 30 from certification is standard).

That means the work you do on Day 1 of the month might not generate a check in your hand until Day 75. That is two and a half months of carrying costs on labor, materials, and subs before you see a dollar.

Now multiply that by three or four active projects, and you understand why cash flow management is a survival skill in commercial construction. Every day you can shave off the billing and payment cycle puts money in your account faster.

This is also why rejected pay applications hurt so badly. A rejection on Day 40 means you resubmit on Day 45, the architect takes another two weeks, and suddenly that Day 1 work does not get paid until Day 100 or later. Your subs are calling. Your suppliers are calling. And you are floating the project on credit.

Putting It All Together

AIA billing is not glamorous. Nobody got into construction because they love filling out G702 forms. But getting this right is directly tied to getting paid, and getting paid is how you keep your crews working and your business running.

Here is the honest truth: the contractors who bill accurately and on time every single month are the ones who have the best relationships with owners and architects. They get invited back for repeat work. They have fewer disputes. And they spend less time chasing money and more time building things.

The process comes down to a few basic principles:

1. Set up your schedule of values carefully at the start of the project
2. Track actual completion percentages based on real job cost data
3. Reconcile sub billing before you submit your own
4. Double-check every number on the G702 and G703
5. Submit early with complete backup documentation
6. Track retainage and change orders from month one

If you are still managing this process with spreadsheets and paper forms, you are spending more time on billing than you need to. The right construction billing software can save you hours every billing cycle. When your job costing, change order tracking, and invoicing all live in the same system, pulling together a pay app becomes a straightforward process instead of a monthly fire drill.

Want to put this into practice? Book a demo with Projul and see the difference.

AIA billing is just the language of getting paid in commercial construction. Learn it, respect it, and build a process around it. Your cash flow will thank you.