THE WIP SCHEDULE IS THE HONEST NUMBER.
The WIP schedule is the only report that reconciles what a job has earned against what it has billed. Overbilled positions mean you're holding cash you haven't yet earned; underbilled positions mean you've done work you haven't asked to be paid for. Both distort the profit and loss statement, and a monthly WIP is what stops either one becoming a surprise.
What makes this the honest number is that it can't be flattered. An overbilled job gives you cash today and takes the profit back later, an underbilled job does the reverse, and a profit and loss statement reports both as though the month simply went well or badly. That's why this hub covers profit fade, revenue recognition method, backlog quality, and the cash a backlog demands before it pays anything back, because those are questions a WIP schedule answers and nothing else does. Read it monthly with the project managers in the room and the surprises stop being surprises, which is also the difference between keeping a surety bond and explaining why you lost one.
WHAT IT MEANS.
A construction work in progress schedule is a job by job statement of contract value, cost incurred, cost to complete, percentage complete and amount billed, which together show whether each job is ahead of or behind its own billing and whether the margin it was bid at still holds.
WHY IT BREAKS.
Cost to Complete Is a Guess Nobody Revises
Percentage complete is calculated from cost to complete, and cost to complete is often the original budget minus what has been spent. That arithmetic assumes the remaining work will go as bid, which is the one thing that's never true on a job in trouble. A WIP built on an unrevised cost to complete reports the margin you hoped for rather than the one you have.
Overbilling Reads As Profit
Billing ahead of progress puts cash in the account and margin on the statement, and both reverse later. A company that overbills its way through a quarter shows a strong quarter and then an inexplicably weak one, and the weak one is where the real number was all along. Profit fade is usually overbilling coming home rather than a job going wrong late.
It Is Produced for the Bank, Not for the Business
A WIP assembled once a year for a surety or a bank is a compliance document. It comes too late to change a decision, and because nobody uses it to manage, nobody checks it hard. Monthly is the cadence at which it becomes a management tool, and the difference isn't the format but the timing.
EVERYTHING ON THIS SUBJECT.
Every guide below is a full page on one part of this subject. Start at the top if the whole thing is new; jump to the one that describes your week if it's not.
- Cost to Complete, How ToBuild remaining work line by line, match the percent complete method to each cost type, and run it monthly in 20 to 30 minutes a job.
- Profit Fade ExplainedA job bid at 25 percent gross margin that finished at 11.
- WIP Meeting Best PracticesThe PM knows why job four cost to complete moved, and a spreadsheet doesn't.
- How to Read a WIP ScheduleFive columns, one worked job: $480,000 of contract billed to 65 percent at 52 percent complete, and what closing that distance costs before final billing.
- WIP Reporting for BondingOverbilling that funds working capital, a schedule built off open books, and the four CONTROL Book standards a WIP gets read against in a bonding review.
- How to Read Backlog RiskFour tests turn signed volume into something you can act on: mobilization cash, one GC over 40%, margin quality, and who owns your start date.
- Aggressive Revenue RecognitionOverstating percent complete by 13 points pulls an extra $65,000 into this month's billing on a $500K job, and the underwriter cuts your limit for it.
- The Backlog That KillsSix weeks of cost on a $600,000 civil job, then 30 to 45 more days before the GC pays.
- Backlog Cash RequirementsWeekly cash burn times the mobilization period.
- Backlog ManagementUnder 2 months you bid anything, over 9 months crews strain and bonding tightens.
- Backlog Quality AnalysisWhat separates them: margin spread inside 200 to 400 basis points of target, top 3 customer concentration under 65%, and when the work converts to cash.
- Backlog Revenue ForecastBurn rate by project, a 2 to 4 week schedule risk buffer, and a 24 month view turn signed contracts into a monthly revenue and cash position you can use.
- Backlog vs CapacityA 15-person crew across 12 weeks runs 25% short of what the backlog needs.
- Lost Surety BondWhy sureties pull a bonding program, what they underwrite inside your WIP, and the 3 numbers that get your capacity reinstated.
- Completed Contract MethodWhen completed contract applies, how it differs from percentage of completion, and why a 9-month commercial project reported this way misstates your position.
- Cost to CompleteThe estimate reflects the estimator's own performance, month three's optimism becomes month four's baseline, and percentage of completion overstates revenue.
- Percentage of Completion MethodThe three formulas, a worked $900K electrical contract, and the stale cost estimate that recognizes profit closeout will take right back.
- Profit Fade and Change OrdersUnbilled COs are 40 to 60 percent of profit fade.
- Revenue RecognitionPercentage of completion against completed contract, what each does to your P&L, your taxes and your WIP, and how a bank or a surety reads the difference.
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 and no payroll.
Pricing
| Last 12 months revenue | Monthly 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.
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.
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.
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.
FREQUENTLY ASKED.
