WIP Reports in Construction: Job Profitability

You can have every crew booked solid and still lose money. It happens all the time in construction. A company stays busy, invoices go out, cash comes in, and then tax season hits. That is when the owner finds out three jobs lost money and one of them lost a lot.

A WIP report stops that from happening. It is the single best tool a contractor has for knowing the real financial health of every active job. If you are not running one, you are guessing. And guessing in construction is expensive.

This guide breaks down everything you need to know about construction WIP reporting: what it is, how to build one, how to read one, and how to use it to protect your business.

What Is a WIP Report?

WIP stands for Work in Progress. A WIP report is a financial snapshot of every active job your company is working on right now.

For each project, it shows:

• Contract value (what the client agreed to pay)
• Estimated total cost (what you expect the job to cost)
• Costs to date (what you have spent so far)
• Percent complete (how far along the job is)
• Earned revenue (the revenue you have actually earned based on work done)
• Billings to date (how much you have invoiced)
• Over-billing or under-billing (the gap between what you billed and what you earned)

Think of it as a report card for every job. It tells you which projects are on track, which ones are bleeding money, and which ones have billing problems that need attention right now.

The WIP report is not just an internal tool. Banks, bonding companies, and CPAs all use it to judge your company’s financial health. If you want a bond or a line of credit, you will need a clean WIP report.

Why WIP Reports Matter for Contractors

Most contractors track revenue. They know how much they billed last month. But billing is not the same as earning. You can bill $500,000 in a month and still lose money if your costs are out of control.

Here is why construction WIP reporting matters:

Banks Require Them

If you apply for a line of credit or a construction loan, the bank wants to see your WIP report. They want to know that your jobs are profitable and that your cash position is real, not inflated by over-billing.

Bonding Companies Require Them

Before a surety issues a performance bond or payment bond, they review your WIP. A messy WIP report with lots of over-billing or fade (shrinking margins) is a red flag. It can cost you the bond, which means you lose the job.

They Reveal Hidden Problems

A job can look fine on the surface. The crew is working, invoices are going out, and the client is paying. But underneath, the costs might be running 20% over budget. Without a WIP report, you will not know until it is too late.

WIP reports catch these problems early. They show you when a job’s profit margin is shrinking so you can take action before the damage is done.

They Show Your True Financial Position

Your bank account balance does not tell the whole story. If you are over-billed on several jobs, that cash in your account is not really yours. It belongs to future work you have not done yet. A WIP report makes this crystal clear.

Key Components of a WIP Report

A standard construction WIP report has seven columns. Here is what each one means:

1. Contract Value

This is the total amount the client agreed to pay for the project. It includes the original contract plus any approved change orders. If you signed a $500,000 contract and later added a $30,000 change order, your contract value is $530,000.

2. Estimated Total Cost

This is what you expect the job to cost when it is finished. It includes labor, materials, equipment, subcontractors, and your share of overhead. This number should be updated every time something changes on the job.

3. Costs to Date

This is what you have actually spent on the job so far. It includes every dollar that has gone out the door: payroll, material purchases, sub invoices, equipment rentals, and any other direct costs.

4. Percent Complete

This tells you how far along the job is. There are two ways to calculate it (more on that below). The most common method in construction is the cost-to-cost method, which divides costs to date by estimated total cost.

5. Earned Revenue

This is the revenue you have actually earned based on the work completed. You calculate it by multiplying the contract value by the percent complete.

Example: If the contract value is $500,000 and you are 40% complete, your earned revenue is $200,000.

6. Billings to Date

This is the total amount you have invoiced the client so far. It may or may not match your earned revenue. The gap between the two is where over-billing and under-billing show up.

7. Over-Billing or Under-Billing

This is the difference between your billings to date and your earned revenue.

• Billings > Earned Revenue = Over-billed
• Billings < Earned Revenue = Under-billed

Both situations create problems, and we will dig into that below.

How to Calculate Percent Complete

There are two main methods contractors use to figure out how far along a job is. The method you pick affects every other number on your WIP report, so it matters.

Cost-to-Cost Method

This is the most common approach in construction WIP reporting. It uses a simple formula:

Percent Complete = Costs to Date / Estimated Total Cost

Example: You estimated a job would cost $200,000. You have spent $120,000 so far.

$120,000 / $200,000 = 60% complete

The cost-to-cost method is popular because it is based on hard numbers. You can pull the data straight from your job costing system without making judgment calls.

The downside? It assumes costs happen at a steady rate throughout the project. If you front-load material purchases, the formula might say you are 70% complete when the job is really only 50% done physically.

Physical Observation Method

This method uses a field estimate. A project manager or superintendent walks the job and estimates how far along the work is based on what they see.

It can be more accurate for certain types of work, but it is subjective. Two people might look at the same job and come up with different numbers. It is also harder to defend to a bank or bonding company because there is no formula behind it.

Which Method Should You Use?

Most CPAs and bonding companies prefer the cost-to-cost method because it is objective and consistent. If you use physical observation, document your reasoning and keep records. Many contractors use cost-to-cost as the primary method and physical observation as a sanity check.

Over-Billing vs. Under-Billing

This is the part of the WIP report that catches most contractors off guard. Both over-billing and under-billing are problems, just in different ways.

What Is Over-Billing?

Over-billing means you have invoiced the client for more than the work you have completed. Your billings to date are higher than your earned revenue.

Example: You are 30% complete on a $1,000,000 job. Your earned revenue is $300,000. But you have billed the client $400,000. You are over-billed by $100,000.

That $100,000 is not profit. It is money you have collected for work you have not done yet. If costs run over budget, that cash disappears fast.

Why it is a problem:

• It inflates your cash position. You think you have more money than you do.
• It hides job losses. A job can look profitable while it is actually losing money.
• Banks and bonding companies see heavy over-billing as a warning sign.
• If a client disputes work or the project gets delayed, you may owe money back.

What Is Under-Billing?

Under-billing means you have done more work than you have billed for. Your earned revenue is higher than your billings to date.

Example: You are 60% complete on a $500,000 job. Your earned revenue is $300,000. But you have only billed $220,000. You are under-billed by $80,000.

That means you have $80,000 worth of completed work sitting on the table that you have not collected for yet.

Why it is a problem:

• You are financing the project out of your own pocket.
• It creates cash flow problems, especially across multiple jobs.
• It means your billing process is behind, which often signals bigger issues with progress billing.

The Ideal State

You want billings to be close to earned revenue on every job. Small gaps are normal. Large gaps on either side are red flags that need attention right away.

How Often Should You Run WIP Reports?

The short answer: at least once a month. The better answer: as often as your data allows.

Monthly (Minimum)

Every contractor should run a WIP report at the end of each month. This gives you a regular check on job health and catches problems before they snowball. Your CPA will also need monthly WIP data for financial statements.

Weekly (For Large Projects)

If you are running jobs over $500,000 or managing multiple projects at once, weekly WIP reviews make a big difference. A lot can change in a month. Material prices spike. A sub sends an unexpected invoice. A change order gets approved but nobody updates the budget.

Weekly reviews catch these issues while they are still small.

Real-Time (The Goal)

The best contractors do not wait for a report. They track live construction costs in their project management software and review job health throughout the week. When your data is always current, your WIP report is just a summary of what you already know.

Common WIP Reporting Mistakes

A WIP report is only as good as the data behind it. Here are the mistakes that make WIP reports unreliable:

1. Ignoring Change Orders

When a change order gets approved, two things need to happen on the WIP: the contract value goes up, and the estimated cost goes up. If you add the revenue but forget to add the cost (or the other way around), your percent complete and margin calculations will be wrong.

2. Not Updating Estimated Costs

Your original estimate is a starting point, not a fixed number. As the job progresses, you learn things. Material costs change. Scope shifts. Subs come in higher or lower than expected. If you do not update your estimated total cost, your percent complete will be off, and your WIP report will lie to you.

3. Using Old Cost Data

If your WIP report runs on last week’s numbers, it is already outdated. This is a big problem with spreadsheet-based WIP reports. By the time you gather the data, enter it, and run the formulas, the numbers are stale.

4. Lumping Overhead Into Jobs Inconsistently

Some contractors throw all overhead costs into their biggest jobs. Others spread them evenly. Others ignore them entirely. However you handle overhead, be consistent. Changing your method mid-year makes it impossible to compare jobs accurately.

5. Only Running WIP Reports at Year End

If you only look at your WIP report once a year for your CPA, you are using it as a historical document instead of a management tool. By the time you see a problem, it is 12 months old. Monthly reviews are the minimum.

6. Not Reconciling With Your Accounting System

Your WIP report and your accounting records should match. If they do not, one of them is wrong. Reconcile every month to make sure your costs to date, billings, and revenue numbers are accurate.

Using Software to Automate WIP Reporting

Building a WIP report by hand in a spreadsheet takes hours. You have to pull cost data from one system, billing data from another, and contract values from a third. Then you enter it all into a template, double-check the formulas, and hope nothing got copied wrong.

Construction management software like Projul eliminates most of that work. Here is how:

Real-Time Cost Tracking

When your team logs costs in the field, those numbers feed directly into your job cost reports. No manual entry. No waiting for the bookkeeper to catch up. Your costs to date are always current.

Automatic Percent Complete Calculations

With accurate cost data flowing in, the software calculates percent complete using the cost-to-cost method automatically. You do not have to do the math or worry about formula errors.

Built-In Reporting

Projul’s reporting features let you pull a WIP report with a few clicks. Every active job, all in one place, with current numbers. You can run it monthly, weekly, or any time you want to check on job health.

Progress Billing Integration

When your billing is connected to your job progress, you can see over-billing and under-billing in real time. Projul’s progress billing tools keep your invoicing aligned with the actual work completed.

No More Spreadsheet Errors

Spreadsheets break. Formulas get deleted. Someone copies last month’s template and forgets to update a cell. Software removes those risks. The data is entered once, stored in one place, and calculated the same way every time.

How to Use a WIP Report to Make Better Decisions

Running the report is only half the job. You also need to act on what it tells you. Here is what to look for:

Fading Margins

If a job’s projected margin is shrinking month over month, something is wrong. Dig into the costs. Find out what changed. Maybe a sub came in over budget, or material waste is higher than expected. Catch it early and you can still fix it.

Large Over-Billing Balances

If you are over-billed by a large amount on several jobs, be careful. That cash is not yours yet. Do not spend it on new equipment or use it to cover losses on other jobs. Set it aside for the work still ahead.

Consistent Under-Billing

If you are under-billed across multiple projects, your billing process needs work. You are doing the work but not collecting for it. Review your billing schedule and make sure invoices go out on time.

Jobs With No Recent Cost Activity

If a job shows on your WIP but has not had any cost activity in weeks, something is off. Either the job is stalled, or costs are not being recorded. Both need your attention.

WIP Reporting and Your CPA

Your CPA uses your WIP report to prepare financial statements using the percentage of completion method. This is the standard accounting method for construction companies that work on long-term contracts.

Under this method, revenue is recognized based on the percent complete, not based on when you send invoices. That means your WIP report directly affects your income statement and balance sheet.

Give your CPA clean, accurate WIP data every month. It makes their job easier, keeps your financial statements accurate, and helps you avoid surprises at tax time.

If your WIP data is messy, your CPA has to make assumptions. Those assumptions might not match reality, and that can lead to tax problems down the road.

WIP Schedule Calculation: A Step-by-Step Walkthrough

The best way to understand a WIP report is to build one from scratch. Here is a complete example using a real project scenario that walks through every calculation.

The Setup

Let us say you run a commercial remodeling company. You have three active jobs this month:

• Job A: Office Buildout - Contract value $420,000. Estimated total cost $336,000. Costs to date $201,600. Billed to date $230,000.
• Job B: Restaurant Renovation - Contract value $185,000. Estimated total cost $152,000. Costs to date $98,800. Billed to date $85,000.
• Job C: Retail Storefront - Contract value $92,000. Estimated total cost $73,600. Costs to date $66,240. Billed to date $88,000.

Now let us walk through the WIP schedule for each one.

Step 1: Calculate Percent Complete

Use the cost-to-cost method for each job:

Job A: $201,600 / $336,000 = 60.0%

Job B: $98,800 / $152,000 = 65.0%

Job C: $66,240 / $73,600 = 90.0%

This tells you how far along each project is based on spending relative to the total budget.

Step 2: Calculate Earned Revenue

Multiply each job’s contract value by its percent complete:

Job A: $420,000 x 60.0% = $252,000

Job B: $185,000 x 65.0% = $120,250

Job C: $92,000 x 90.0% = $82,800

Earned revenue is the amount of revenue your company has legitimately earned through completed work. This is different from what you have billed.

Step 3: Calculate Projected Profit and Margin

For each job, subtract the estimated total cost from the contract value:

Job A: $420,000 - $336,000 = $84,000 projected profit (20.0% margin)

Job B: $185,000 - $152,000 = $33,000 projected profit (17.8% margin)

Job C: $92,000 - $73,600 = $18,400 projected profit (20.0% margin)

These margins assume your estimated total cost is accurate. If costs are climbing and you have not updated the estimate, your real margin is lower than what shows here.

Step 4: Calculate Profit Earned to Date

Multiply the projected profit by the percent complete:

Job A: $84,000 x 60.0% = $50,400 earned to date

Job B: $33,000 x 65.0% = $21,450 earned to date

Job C: $18,400 x 90.0% = $16,560 earned to date

This tells you how much of the total expected profit you have earned through the work completed so far.

Step 5: Determine Over-Billing or Under-Billing

Compare billings to date against earned revenue:

Job A: $230,000 billed - $252,000 earned = Under-billed by $22,000

Job B: $85,000 billed - $120,250 earned = Under-billed by $35,250

Job C: $88,000 billed - $82,800 earned = Over-billed by $5,200

Step 6: Read the Results

Looking at the complete picture across all three jobs:

• Total earned revenue: $455,050
• Total billings: $403,000
• Net position: Under-billed by $52,050

This company has done $52,050 more work than it has collected for. That is cash the company is owed but has not invoiced yet. If this pattern continues, the company will face serious cash flow pressure even though the jobs themselves are profitable.

This is exactly why running a WIP schedule matters. The jobs are healthy on paper, but the billing lag is creating a funding gap that the company has to cover out of pocket.

What to Do With This Information

After you complete the WIP schedule, the action items are clear:

1. Job A and Job B need billing attention immediately. Get invoices out to close the under-billing gap. Review your invoicing process to make sure progress billings go out on schedule every month.
2. Job C is slightly over-billed. This is a small amount and not a concern on its own, but keep an eye on it. If costs climb in the final 10% of the job, that over-billing could turn into a loss.
3. Update your cost estimates. Before the next WIP cycle, confirm that estimated total costs are still accurate on all three jobs. If material prices shifted or a subcontractor came in higher than planned, adjust the estimate now.

A WIP schedule is not a one-time exercise. Run it every month, compare it to the previous month, and watch for trends. A job that was on track last month but slipped this month needs your attention before the problem gets worse.

Over-Billing vs. Under-Billing: How to Spot and Fix Imbalances

We covered the basics of over-billing and under-billing earlier. Now let us go deeper into how these imbalances show up in practice, what causes them, and what you can do to fix them before they damage your business.

How Over-Billing Builds Up

Over-billing rarely happens on purpose. It usually starts with front-loaded billing schedules. You negotiate a payment schedule that gets you more cash early in the project to cover mobilization costs, material purchases, or equipment. That is common and often necessary.

The problem starts when you treat that early cash as earned revenue. You deposit the check, see a healthy bank balance, and assume the job is going well. But the WIP report tells a different story. You have collected money for work that has not been performed yet. That money belongs to the remaining scope, and if anything goes wrong on the job, it evaporates.

Warning signs of dangerous over-billing:

• Your bank balance looks strong but your WIP shows over-billing on most active jobs
• You are using cash from one job to fund costs on another job
• Your total over-billing across all jobs exceeds two months of operating expenses
• Jobs that are 80% or more complete still show significant over-billing

How Under-Billing Creeps In

Under-billing is more common than most contractors realize, and it is almost always a process problem. The work gets done, but the paperwork falls behind. Here are the usual causes:

Slow change order documentation. You do the extra work because the client asked for it on site, but the formal change order does not get written up for weeks. During that time, you are spending money on work you cannot bill for.

Billing cycles that do not match work pace. If you bill monthly but your crews are moving fast, you can easily fall a full billing cycle behind the actual work completed.

Missing cost documentation. If field costs are not recorded promptly, your percent complete looks lower than it really is, and your billing stays artificially low.

Lack of integration between field and office. When your job costing data does not flow automatically from the field to the billing team, delays are inevitable.

How to Fix Over-Billing

1. Stop spending over-billed cash on other things. If your WIP shows $150,000 in total over-billing, mentally set that aside. It is not profit and it is not available for discretionary spending.
2. Align your billing schedule with actual progress. If you front-loaded the billing, start spacing out future invoices to let the work catch up to the billings.
3. Update cost estimates monthly. Over-billing often hides cost overruns. If costs are climbing, you need to increase the estimated total cost so your percent complete and margin calculations stay honest.
4. Review progress billing accuracy. Make sure the line items on your pay applications match the actual work completed in the field. Progress billing software keeps these aligned automatically.

How to Fix Under-Billing

1. Speed up your invoicing cycle. If you are billing monthly, consider billing every two weeks on large projects. The faster you bill, the smaller the under-billing gap.
2. Process change orders immediately. Do not let extra work sit undocumented. Get change orders written, approved, and added to the contract value and billing schedule within the same week the work happens.
3. Connect field data to billing. When your crews log progress in the field using a tool like Projul, that data is available to the office the same day. No more waiting for end-of-month reports to figure out what work has been done.
4. Set up billing alerts. Configure your system to flag any job where under-billing exceeds 10% of earned revenue. That threshold is where cash flow impact starts to get serious.

The Compounding Effect

The real danger with billing imbalances is that they compound across multiple jobs. If you are under-billed by $30,000 on five different jobs, that is $150,000 in completed work you have not collected for. That kind of gap can drain your working capital and force you to take on debt just to make payroll.

On the flip side, if you are heavily over-billed across your portfolio, you are operating on borrowed time. One bad job, one client dispute, or one economic slowdown can expose the gap and create a cash crisis.

The solution is the same in both cases: run your WIP report monthly, review every job’s billing position, and take corrective action before small imbalances turn into big problems.

WIP Reporting for Bonding Companies: What Your Surety Wants to See

If your company bids on public projects or large commercial jobs, you need surety bonds. And if you need surety bonds, your bonding company is going to look at your WIP report very carefully. Understanding what they are looking for can help you present your company in the strongest possible light.

Why Sureties Care About Your WIP

A surety bond is a guarantee. The bonding company is telling the project owner that your company will finish the job according to the contract. If you fail to perform, the surety has to step in and cover the cost of completion.

That means the surety needs confidence that your company is financially healthy, well managed, and not carrying hidden risks. Your WIP report is one of the primary tools they use to evaluate all three.

What Your Surety Looks For

Consistent profit margins across jobs. Your surety wants to see that your jobs are earning the margins you projected when you bid them. If you bid jobs at 18% margin but your WIP shows they are finishing at 8%, that is a problem. It means your estimating is off, your cost control is weak, or both.

Minimal fade. Fade is the industry term for margin erosion. If a job’s projected margin was 20% three months ago and it is 14% today, that job is fading. A little fade is normal. A lot of fade across multiple jobs tells the surety that your company cannot control costs.

Balanced billing. Your surety does not want to see heavy over-billing or heavy under-billing. Over-billing suggests you might be using job cash to fund operations (a sign of financial stress). Under-billing suggests poor billing practices and potential cash flow issues.

Accurate cost estimates. If your estimated costs at completion have not changed in six months across any of your jobs, your surety knows the estimates are stale. They expect you to review and update estimates regularly as conditions change on each project.

Clean reconciliation with financial statements. Your WIP report numbers should tie back to your audited or reviewed financial statements. If there are discrepancies, the surety has to question which set of numbers is real.

Reasonable backlog. Your surety looks at your work in progress plus your committed backlog (signed contracts not yet started) to make sure you are not taking on more work than your company can handle. Overextension is one of the top reasons contractors fail.

How to Present a Strong WIP to Your Surety

1. Update your cost estimates before submission. Go through every active job and make sure the estimated total cost reflects current conditions. This is not the time for stale numbers.
2. Reconcile with your QuickBooks integration or accounting system. Make sure your WIP costs match what your books show. Discrepancies erode trust.
3. Explain any large variances. If a job has significant over-billing, under-billing, or margin fade, include a brief explanation. Maybe a large material purchase front-loaded costs, or a change order is pending approval. Context matters.
4. Show trends over time. If you can provide WIP reports from the last three to six months, your surety can see that your jobs are stable and your margins hold. Consistency builds confidence.
5. Include completed job data. Many sureties want to see a completed jobs schedule alongside your active WIP. This shows your track record: did jobs finish at the margins you projected? If yes, that builds credibility for your current estimates.
6. Keep your WIP current. Submit WIP data that is no more than 30 days old. Stale data makes your surety nervous and slows down the underwriting process. If you are tracking costs in real time with construction management software, generating a current WIP takes minutes.

What Happens When Your WIP Looks Bad

If your WIP report shows significant problems, your surety may reduce your bonding capacity, require additional collateral (like personal guarantees or letters of credit), increase your bond premiums, or decline to write the bond entirely.

The worst time to find out your WIP has issues is when you need a bond for a new project. By then it is too late to fix the underlying problems. Regular monthly WIP reviews give you time to address margin fade, billing imbalances, and cost overruns before your surety ever sees them.

Real-Time WIP Tracking vs. Quarterly Manual Spreadsheets

Many contractors still build their WIP reports in Excel or Google Sheets. They gather data from their accounting system, their project managers, and their billing records, then manually enter everything into a template. This process works, but it has serious limitations.

The Problem With Spreadsheet WIP Reports

They are slow to produce. Depending on how many jobs you have, building a WIP report by hand can take a full day or more. That is a day your office staff spends on data entry instead of managing projects or collecting receivables.

They are always outdated. By the time you finish entering data, the numbers are already stale. If you run your WIP on the first of the month using data from the end of the previous month, you are making decisions based on information that is two to four weeks old.

They are error-prone. Manual data entry introduces mistakes. A wrong number in one cell cascades through every formula. A copy-paste error from last month’s template can make a profitable job look like a loser (or hide a real loss). These errors are hard to catch because the spreadsheet looks right even when the data is wrong.

They do not scale. A spreadsheet WIP works fine when you have five active jobs. When you have 15 or 25, the process becomes unmanageable. The more jobs you add, the more data you have to collect, and the more likely errors become.

They live in isolation. A spreadsheet is disconnected from your job costing system, your billing system, and your accounting records. Every month, someone has to manually bridge the gap between these systems. That is where numbers get lost or transposed.

What Real-Time WIP Tracking Looks Like

With construction management software like Projul, WIP data is not something you build once a month. It is a living picture of your job portfolio that updates as your team works.

Costs update as they happen. When a foreman logs labor hours, when a material invoice gets entered, when a subcontractor submits a bill, those costs flow into the system immediately. Your costs to date are always current, not weeks behind.

Percent complete recalculates automatically. As costs post, the cost-to-cost calculation updates in real time. You do not have to wait for someone in the office to run the numbers.

Billing stays connected to progress. When you use integrated invoicing tied to job progress, your billings to date are always accurate. Over-billing and under-billing show up the moment they occur, not at the end of the month when you finally run the report.

Reports generate in minutes. Instead of spending a full day building a spreadsheet, you pull a WIP report with a few clicks. The data is already in the system. The formulas are already built. All you have to do is review the results and take action.

Historical data is always available. Want to compare this month’s WIP to last month? Or see how a job’s margin has trended over the last six months? Software keeps every snapshot, making trend analysis simple. With spreadsheets, you have to dig through old files and hope the templates were saved correctly.

The Cost of Waiting

Contractors who rely on quarterly or year-end WIP reports are flying blind for most of the year. A job can go sideways in a single month. Material costs spike. A subcontractor walks off the job. A change order gets done but never documented. If you do not catch these issues until the next quarterly review, you have lost weeks or months of time that you could have used to course correct.

The difference between catching a cost overrun in week two versus month three can be tens of thousands of dollars. On a large project, it can be six figures.

Making the Switch

If you are currently running WIP reports in spreadsheets, the transition to software does not have to happen overnight. Start by getting your job costing into a system like Projul. Once your costs are flowing in real time, the WIP report builds itself.

The key integrations that make real-time WIP tracking work:

• Job costing that captures labor, materials, equipment, and subcontractor costs as they happen
• Budgeting that lets you set and update estimated total costs for each job
• Progress billing that ties invoices to actual work completed
• Accounting integration through a QuickBooks connection that keeps your books and your WIP in sync

When all four pieces are connected, your WIP report is no longer a monthly chore. It is a dashboard you can check any time you want to know how your jobs are doing.

Getting Started With Construction WIP Reporting

If you are not running WIP reports today, start simple:

1. List every active job with its contract value and estimated total cost.
2. Gather your costs to date for each job from your accounting system.
3. Calculate percent complete using the cost-to-cost method.
4. Calculate earned revenue (contract value times percent complete).
5. Compare billings to earned revenue to find over-billing and under-billing.
6. Review the results and look for red flags.

Once you have the process down, move to a monthly schedule. And when you are ready to stop doing it by hand, look into software that handles it for you.

Projul gives contractors real-time job costing, progress billing, and reporting in one platform. You can see exactly where every job stands without building a single spreadsheet.

Check out Projul’s pricing to see which plan fits your company, or book a free demo to see it in action.