CONSTRUCTION WIP REPORTING SERVICE.
A WIP schedule takes every active job and puts three figures side by side: cost to date, billing to date, and percent complete. From those three it calculates whether you've billed ahead of the work or behind it, job by job. Built monthly, it catches an overbilling or underbilling problem in the month it starts instead of the quarter it becomes visible in the bank account.
The WIP schedule is the single most scrutinized report a subcontractor produces. A surety underwriter and a bank credit officer both read it before they read the P&L, because it tells them whether the revenue on your income statement was earned or borrowed from work you haven't built yet. That's why the format counts as much as the math. A schedule assembled manually once a quarter tells them you don't watch it, which is a different message than the numbers on it.
WHAT IT MEANS.
WIP reporting is the monthly work in progress schedule that shows whether each active job is overbilled or underbilled against real progress, calculated using percentage of completion accounting.
Job costing and WIP reporting get treated as one thing and they're two. Job costing tracks cost against the bid so you know what a job is costing to build. WIP reporting takes that cost data and calculates the overbilling or underbilling position using percentage of completion, which is a separate calculation that depends on job costing without being the same report.
WHERE IT GOES WRONG.
We only need a WIP schedule when the bank asks
By the time a bank or a bonding company asks for one, an overbilling or underbilling problem has usually been building for months. Building it every month catches the problem while there's still time to act on it, not just time to report it. A schedule assembled under deadline for a lender is the one you have the least ability to change.
Ours is close enough, we update it a few times a year
Infrequent updates miss the monthly changes that count most on active jobs. On fast moving work, billing and cost can move meaningfully inside a few weeks, so a schedule built in March describes a business that no longer exists by May. The point of the report is the change between one month and the next, and a report built three times a year has almost no change to show.
WIP reporting is basically the same as job costing
Job costing tracks cost against a bid, one cost code at a time. WIP reporting calculates overbilling and underbilling using percentage of completion accounting, which is a distinct calculation built on top of the job cost data. Having good job costing and no WIP schedule is common, and it means the earned revenue on your financial statements has never been tested.
WHAT THE REPORT DOES.
The schedule shows cost to date, billing to date, and percent complete for every open job, with the resulting overbilled or underbilled position calculated off those three. One page covers the whole portfolio, so the jobs that are out of position are visible next to the ones that aren't. That side by side is what makes it a management report rather than a compliance exercise.
The schedule gets built every month from job cost and billing data that has already been reconciled, which is why the close has to happen before the WIP does. A WIP schedule built off unreconciled cost is worse than no WIP schedule, because it produces a number people believe. Monthly is the cadence, and the discipline behind it's the close.
The output is formatted for direct use with banks and bonding companies, in the same format those reviewers expect to see. That counts at renewal time, because a schedule an underwriter has to reformat is a schedule they have to question. Giving them a report that reads the way theirs reads shortens the conversation considerably.
FLAT MONTHLY FEE. NO SURPRISES.
Three tiers, priced by your trailing twelve month revenue. Which one you're in depends on how much of the work you want off your desk. No hourly billing. No payroll. The one-time onboarding fee is right here in the table.
| Last 12 months revenue | Monthly fee | One-time onboarding |
|---|---|---|
| Under $1M | $1,900 to $3,300 | $1,000 |
| $1M to $3.5M | $2,600 to $5,300 | $1,500 |
| $3.5M to $6.5M | $3,800 to $8,300 | $3,000 |
| $6.5M to $9.5M | $5,100 to $11,800 | $4,500 |
| $9.5M to $12.5M | $6,100 to $14,900 | $6,000 |
| $12.5M to $15.5M | $7,400 to $17,650 | $7,500 |
| $15.5M to $18.5M | $9,400 to $22,400 | $9,000 |
| $18.5M+ | Quoted individually | Quoted individually |
The onboarding fee covers migrating your books back to the start of your last taxable year and getting you fully operational in 60 days. It's billed once, with your first invoice. It's the same for all three tiers. Your first month is prorated, and your monthly engagement starts on the first of the first full month.
Range reflects the three tiers below. Which one you're in depends on how much of the work you want off your desk. No payroll. No hidden line items. The onboarding fee is right here in the table.
You stop guessing.
You get the CFO work. Job costing built against the way you estimate, a 13 week cash forecast, monthly WIP, and a meeting every month that ends in decisions and never in a report.
Your bookkeeper still does the books.
Every job shows its margin while it is still open.
Everything in Core, plus the bookkeeping and bank reconciliations done for you, and the job costing and WIP software set up, loaded with your cost codes, and managed every month. Use your own online software, or move to ours and we cover it.
A bookkeeper we choose does the books and reconciliations. No payroll.
You approve, and the money side gets handled.
Everything in Strategic, plus a controller we choose who handles your bills and receivables for you the way an in-house controller would. They call vendors, pay the bills and keep the accounting current. We plan the cash flow first, and you approve every payment because it is your money.
A controller we choose does the payables and receivables. No payroll, no pay applications, no collections.
FREQUENTLY ASKED.
