What is a WIP schedule and why does my construction company need one?

A work-in-progress (WIP) schedule reconciles each active job's costs, billings, and estimated cost-to-complete to show real-time profit and over or under billing. It is the single most important report most contractors lack. It catches a job going underwater while you can still do something about it, and no surety will bond you without one.

How is job costing different from regular bookkeeping?

Bookkeeping records what happened across the whole company. Job costing puts every cost and every dollar of revenue on one job. You then see which jobs make money and which lose it. You see it before the job closes, not months later.

What are overbillings and underbillings?

Overbilling means you have billed more than the work completed, a cash cushion that can mask a profit problem. Underbilling means you have done work you have not billed yet, often a hidden drain on cash. The WIP schedule shows both.

ServicesService 01 of 06

Know which jobs make you money.

Most contractors find out a job lost money after it is done. We catch it while you can still do something about it.

Concrete contractors Sitework & excavation contractorsConstruction financial management across Central Texas

In short

What does job costing & wip schedules cover?

We build and keep a WIP schedule that shows what each active job is really making, right now, not at closeout. You catch an overrun while there is still time to do something about it, and you bill off real numbers instead of a gut feel.

ProofHidden loss surfaced

“Eleven years thinking I understood my books. First month in, they found a job I thought made money had quietly lost about $80,000 over two years.”

General contractor, Phoenix AZ

$80,000

What we do4 line items

You are busy and the work keeps coming. But can you say which jobs actually made money? Most cannot. By the time the numbers show up, the job is done and the loss is already yours.

01WIP schedule preparation
02Cost-to-complete analysis
03Overbilling and underbilling review
04Estimate against actual variance

Questions3 answered

01

What is a WIP schedule and why does my construction company need one?

A work-in-progress (WIP) schedule reconciles each active job’s costs, billings, and estimated cost-to-complete to show real-time profit and over or under billing. It is the single most important report most contractors lack. It catches a job going underwater while you can still do something about it, and no surety will bond you without one.
02

How is job costing different from regular bookkeeping?

Bookkeeping records what happened across the whole company. Job costing puts every cost and every dollar of revenue on one job. You then see which jobs make money and which lose it. You see it before the job closes, not months later.
03

What are overbillings and underbillings?

Overbilling means you have billed more than the work completed, a cash cushion that can mask a profit problem. Underbilling means you have done work you have not billed yet, often a hidden drain on cash. The WIP schedule shows both.

NextAustin, Texas

Which job loses money right now?

One job going sideways can eat the profit from three that went fine, and usually nobody catches it until the money is already gone.

Get your numbers correct Check your WIP first