A WIP schedule built from memory is a guess. ControlQore produces the WIP schedule from actual cost incurred and estimated cost to complete — automatically, every month, in 15 minutes.
Most contractors who produce a WIP schedule do it manually — estimating percentage complete by feel, not calculating it from actual cost incurred versus total estimated cost. A job that feels 50% complete might be 38% complete by cost. The manual WIP overstates progress, understates underbilling, and gives a false picture of the financial position to the owner, the surety, and the lender.
A P&L shows revenue earned and expenses incurred. It does not show whether active jobs are overbilled or underbilled relative to work performed. An overbilled position is a liability — work the contractor has been paid for but has not yet done. An underbilled position is a receivable — work performed but not yet billed. Without WIP, both are invisible.
A surety underwriting a $3M bond for a $5M revenue contractor needs to see a WIP schedule that shows the contractor's active financial position accurately. A contractor without job costing cannot produce a WIP schedule the surety trusts — which caps bonding capacity below what the balance sheet would otherwise support.
ControlQore calculates percentage complete as cost incurred to date divided by total estimated cost. Both inputs come from real data: cost incurred from the job costing entries, estimated cost to complete from the estimator's input at job setup (updated when scope changes). No manual estimate of percentage complete. No feel-based guess. The calculation is consistent every period.
For each active job: billings to date versus the value of work performed (contract value × percentage complete). If billings exceed value of work performed, the job is overbilled — a liability. If value of work performed exceeds billings, the job is underbilled — submit a corrected pay app. ControlQore calculates both positions automatically and flags them on the monthly WIP report.
SPM produces the ControlQore WIP schedule at the end of every month as part of the standard monthly close. The owner reviews it in the monthly financial meeting — 15–20 minutes to walk through every active job's overbilled or underbilled position, percentage complete versus billing percentage, and projected final margin. The meeting is 60–90 minutes total including WIP, cash flow, and overhead rate review.
The consistent monthly WIP schedule — produced from ControlQore data with cost-to-cost methodology — is the document SPM provides to surety agents and lenders on behalf of clients. After 12 months of consistent WIP reporting with outcomes that match projections, the contractor has the financial reporting history that supports higher bonding limits and better credit terms.
This contractor had no WIP schedule when SPM engaged. Bonding capacity was capped at $2M single-project despite a balance sheet that should have supported $4M+. The surety did not trust the financial reporting because there was no WIP history.
ControlQore job costing built, active jobs entered, first monthly WIP produced at day 60.
Bonding conversations reopened at 12 months of consistent WIP reporting. Limits increased.
A free call with Josh takes 30 minutes. Bring your last P&L and current bank balance.
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