Progress billing and retainage
Bill what's due today. Keep track of what's held back.
- With Max
- Pay applications as PDF and CSV
- Lien waivers before you release
Bill by percent complete
Ask for exactly the work you finished.
No adding up by hand
- Type percent complete on each line
- It works out the new work for you
- One invoice for the whole period
Get paid for stored materials
- Bill materials bought but not in yet
- Installed, they count as work
- Nobody gets charged twice
A pay application every period
- Each period gets a pay application
- As a PDF or a CSV
- It matches your books
Retainage held back
Ask only for what's due today.
Ask for the right amount
- The invoice asks only what's due now
- Retainage shows on its own line
- Ask for too much and you wait longer
Earned, just not collected
- Retainage is money you made
- Kept in its own account
- Never mixed with what's due today
No nagging for held money
- Reminders chase only what's due
- No late notice for held money
- Keeps things friendly
Get it released
Collect it all at once, or in parts.
Never lose track of it
- Easy to forget once you move on
- Shown on the job and its invoices
- And on your aging report
Release some or all
- Release it all in one go
- Or part now, the rest later
- However you and the customer agreed
Each gets its due date
- Released money gets its own due date
- It ages from that date
- Reminders chase it like any invoice
What you hold from subs
Hold it until the waiver's signed.
Pay only what's due now
- The bill shows only what's due now
- So you won't overpay a sub
- The held part waits for release
Get the waiver first
- Require a signed lien waiver
- Held money won't release without it
- No waiver, a sub could still lien
Set it once per sub
- Put a percent on the subcontract
- Every bill on it holds that much
- Require waivers per vendor
How it works
Questions, answered.
It's the part of each payment a customer holds back until the job is finished, often 5 or 10 percent. You've earned it, you just can't collect it yet. Most contractors hold the same back from their subs, so they owe that money later too.
The contract, the work done and materials stored to date, the retainage, what you asked for before, and the current payment due, plus a sheet with each line of work. It comes from that period's invoice, so the current payment due is exactly what the invoice asks for. You can print it as a PDF or export a CSV.
No. Set the percent on the job and Bill next draw holds it too. You can also type a percent on a draft invoice you made yourself, or hold retainage on an invoice you already sent. A job bills one way at a time: draws, or a schedule of values.
Release the retainage first, then record the payment. If you already recorded it, the extra became a customer credit. Release the retainage, then spend the credit, and it all lines up.
On Projects, click Where each job stands. Add what a customer still holds back, and what you still hold back from a sub. Both are ready to release like any other. Pick the account the money sits in today, often Opening Balance Equity, so it isn't counted twice.
On accrual, a $30,000 invoice at 10% is $30,000 of income, $27,000 in Accounts receivable and $3,000 in Retainage receivable. On Cash, retainage counts as income once it's paid. A $12,000 sub bill puts all $12,000 of cost on the job, $10,800 in Accounts payable and $1,200 in Retainage payable.
Setting a retainage percent and saving a schedule of values need Max. Billing a period, releasing retainage and recording payments don't, so a job already under way keeps going if your plan changes.