Josh Luebker
Fractional CFO · The Construction CFO
Former commercial construction PM and master electrician. 150+ projects, $300M+ total value. Fractional CFO for commercial subcontractors doing $1M–$12M. About Josh → | LinkedIn →
The WIP schedule is the most important financial document a construction subcontractor produces — and the least understood. Your P&L tells you what happened. Your WIP tells you what's happening right now across every active job. Banks require it for credit. Sureties require it for bonding. Smart owners use it to catch billing position problems before they become financial problems.
WIP connects job cost to billing position to cash flow. Every resource below addresses a specific piece — from how to read a WIP for the first time to how sureties use it to evaluate your company's health.
A work-in-progress (WIP) schedule is a monthly document showing every active job's billing position. For each job it calculates: what you've earned (percent complete × contract value), what you've billed (from pay apps), and the difference — overbilled (a liability) or underbilled (an asset). The WIP is the most accurate real-time picture of your company's financial position.
Sureties require a WIP schedule to verify billings accurately reflect actual job performance. Heavy overbilling is a red flag — it means you've pulled forward cash and have no billing room if a job has issues. Banks require it because WIP represents the largest asset on a construction company's balance sheet.
Overbilled means you've billed more than you've earned based on actual percent complete. If you're 40% done but billed 55%, you're overbilled 15% of contract value. That excess billing is a liability. Overbilling is common and not always problematic, but heavy overbilling across multiple jobs is a risk that sureties and lenders take seriously.
Monthly. Some SPM clients produce it weekly during heavy job periods. Monthly is the minimum — anything less means you're making decisions without knowing your actual billing position. The WIP feeds your cash flow forecast, overhead allocation, and balance sheet.
Schedule a free call. We'll show you what your WIP actually says about your company's financial health.
Schedule a Free Call →See Pricing