How to keep monthly construction billing tied together from contract value to payment.
Progress billing requests payment for the portion of a construction contract completed during a defined period. A reliable workflow has to preserve prior history, current progress, retainage, contract changes, supporting documents, and the eventual payment record.
1. Start with the current contract value
The original contract value is the baseline. Only approved changes that the project’s billing rules permit should adjust the contract value. Potential and submitted changes can be tracked, but they should not silently inflate the amount available to bill.
2. Build a schedule of values
The schedule of values divides the contract into reviewable work items. Each line should have a code, description, and scheduled value. The sum of the lines should reconcile to the current contract value, subject to the recipient’s requirements.
BuildDue can import an existing CSV and automatically match common column names. Teams starting from scratch can also use the optional BuildDue sample CSV.
3. Preserve prior completed work and prior retainage
Every billing period depends on the one before it. Prior completed work and prior retainage should be stored as snapshot values. That prevents later project edits from changing an application that was already submitted and avoids subtracting cumulative retainage twice.
4. Enter current work and stored materials
Current work represents progress performed during the billing period. Stored materials may be billable when the contract permits and the required invoices, storage evidence, insurance, or other backup is included.
5. Validate before submission
Check that no line exceeds its scheduled value, the period dates are valid, the requested amount matches the calculation, unapproved changes are not billed, and every required document is ready. During CSV import, BuildDue identifies the exact row and value causing a block, lets the user exclude a bad source row, and requires acknowledgement when the schedule total differs from the project contract.
6. Track approval, revisions, and payment
A submitted application can move through review, revision, approval, scheduled payment, partial payment, and final payment. Record each event and follow-up so the accounting team does not have to reconstruct the collection trail from an inbox.