Numbers your surety, your lender and your estimator can all use.

A subcontractor’s P&L can look healthy while cash drains into under-billed jobs and retainage. We close the books monthly and keep a WIP schedule that shows where each job really stands.

83 days¹: Average time to get paid in construction
5–10%²: Retainage typically held per pay app (reported)
5–10% of revenue³: Working capital a surety looks for (reported)

1.DocJoist — Construction Payment Statistics 2026: Slow Pay, Lien Filings, and Cash Flow (opens in a new tab), 2026
2.Siteline — Retainage: A Complete Guide for Subcontractors (opens in a new tab), accessed 2026-09-28
3.Marshall+Sterling — Bonding Capacity: What Contractors Need to Know (opens in a new tab), accessed 2026-09-28

Aerial view of a construction site with tower cranes

Where it hurts

Four things a subcontractor’s books have to answer.

Your surety wants a WIP schedule, not a P&L
Bonding capacity is set on your balance sheet and on how your jobs are tracking. A current WIP schedule every month keeps that conversation short.
Over and under billings move cash, not profit
Billing ahead of the work is a liability; billing behind it is money earned and not collected. Neither shows on the income statement on its own.
Margin fades by job, not by company
A job 60% complete with 80% of its budget spent shows up in the WIP schedule months before it shows up in the bank.
Retainage sits on the balance sheet for a long time
Retainage receivable has to be tracked by job and by general contractor, or it quietly ages into a write-off.

What we deliver

A WIP schedule every month, tied to the ledger.

Contract value, estimated cost, cost to date, percent complete, earned revenue, billed to date, and the over or under billing on each job, reconciled to the general ledger at month end.

Illustrative work-in-progress schedule for two hypothetical jobs
Job	Contract value	Est. total cost	Cost to date	% complete	Earned revenue	Billed to date	Over / (under) billed
Job A	$1,200,000	$960,000	$480,000	50%	$600,000	$690,000	$90,000
Job B	$800,000	$680,000	$510,000	75%	$600,000	$520,000	($80,000)

Illustration with two hypothetical jobs. Percent complete is cost to date over estimated total cost; earned revenue is contract value times percent complete.

The add-on

Available on any package. The hours it adds count toward your monthly cap like any other included hour.

Add-on: Job costing / WIP schedule (construction)
Fee: $750/mo
Hours added: 4

Wood framing of new single-storey houses on a dirt lot under a clear sky, bundles of sheathing and lumber on the ground

Florida

Three Florida rules a subcontractor’s books have to track.

The lien clock, workers’ compensation and the contract type that decides who pays sales tax on materials. We keep the dates on the close checklist and the records sales-tax-ready; filing stays with your outside accountant.

Rule 12A-1.051⁴: Contractor sales tax follows the contract type: lump-sum or retail-plus-installation decides who pays.
45 days⁵: The Notice to Owner deadline from first furnishing. No notice, no lien (Chapter 713).
1 employee⁶: The point at which workers’ compensation is required in the construction trades.

Where to start

A consult first. The Diagnostic if the job costs need it.

We ask about revenue, entities, who does the books today, what your lender or surety asks for, and what is late. Then we tell you whether the Diagnostic is needed or you can start with Controller Essentials directly.

If the job costs are not coded well enough to support a WIP schedule, the Financial Health Diagnostic ($2,500, 10 business days) shows it and sizes the package and add-on before you commit. Credited to month one of any band signed within 30 days.

Free 30-minute consult The Financial Health Diagnostic

All insights