SERVICE, WIP REPORTING

CONSTRUCTION WIP REPORTING SERVICE.

QUICK ANSWER

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 arithmetic. A schedule assembled manually once a quarter tells them you don't watch it, which is a different message than the numbers on it.

BY JOSH LUEBKERPublished 2026-08-06Updated 2026-08-07
THE DEFINITION

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.

COMMON MISTAKES

WHERE IT GOES WRONG.

01

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.

02

Ours is close enough, we update it a few times a year

Infrequent updates miss the monthly swings 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.

03

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 sitting 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.

HOW SPM FIXES IT

WHAT THE REPORT DOES.

Every active job, three figures, one page

The schedule carries 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.

Built monthly, off reconciled data

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.

Formatted for the people who read it hardest

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.

$10.7M+
Client AR Recovered Since 2023
48
Active Trade Specializations
60 DAYS
Average Onboarding Time
PRICING

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, and no add-ons.

Last 12 months revenueMonthly fee
Up to $1M$1,900 to $2,900
$1M to $3.5M$2,600 to $3,900
$3.5M to $6.5M$3,800 to $5,700
$6.5M to $9.5M$5,100 to $7,100
$9.5M to $12.5M$6,100 to $8,500
$12.5M to $15.5M$7,400 to $11,000
$15.5M to $18.5M$9,400 to $13,500
$18.5M+Quoted individually

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.

Core

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 rather than a report.

Your bookkeeper keeps doing the books.

Executive

You stop touching the books.

Everything in Core, and we run the bookkeeping and the controllership as well. Nobody in your office is answering coding questions or chasing a reconciliation at month end.

We do the books. No payroll.

Strategic

Every job shows its margin while it's still running.

Everything in Executive, plus the job costing and WIP platform set up, loaded with your cost codes, and managed for you every month. You never have to learn it.

We do the job costing.

COMMON QUESTIONS

FREQUENTLY ASKED.

A monthly work in progress schedule showing cost to date, billing to date, and percent complete for every active job, with the resulting overbilled or underbilled position calculated for each one. The output is formatted for direct use with banks and bonding companies. It's one page for the whole portfolio rather than one page per job.
Monthly, as part of the standard engagement cadence. It gets built after the books are closed and the bank reconciliations are done, because the schedule is only as good as the cost data underneath it. Anything less frequent than monthly misses the swings the report exists to catch.
Yes. The schedule is formatted for direct use in bonding and lending contexts, in the same format banks and sureties typically expect to review. That's deliberate, because a report a reviewer has to rebuild before they can read it invites questions the numbers don't deserve.
Three tiers, and which one you are in depends on how much of the work you want off your desk. Core is where you stop guessing: job costing built against the way you estimate, a 13 week cash forecast, monthly WIP, and a monthly meeting that ends in decisions, while your bookkeeper keeps doing the books. Executive is where you stop touching the books, because we run the bookkeeping and the controllership as well. Strategic is where every job shows its margin while it is still running, because the job costing and WIP platform is set up and managed for you. No payroll. No scope gaps.
Sixty days. We migrate your books back to the start of your last taxable year, set up ControlQore, and build your job costing structure from scratch. Fully operational in two months.
WHAT THIS TIES INTO
Josh Luebker, The Construction CFO
Josh Luebker
FRACTIONAL CFO · THE CONSTRUCTION CFO

Former commercial project manager and master electrician: 150+ projects worth $2.1B combined, from $50,000 to $300M. Now fractional CFO to commercial subcontractors.

WHEN WAS YOUR LAST WIP SCHEDULE BUILT?

Bring your open jobs and your last billing register. We will tell you which jobs are out of position before we talk about working together.

You don't hire a CFO because it's safe, you do it because the real risk isn't having one.
Book a 20 minute diagnostic

20 minutes. No sales pressure. We will tell you exactly what's broken before we talk about anything else.

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