WIP & Bonding
The schedule your surety actually reads
Every contractor already produces a work-in-progress schedule once a year, for somebody else. It is the most valuable document in the business and it gets treated as a filing chore. We produce it monthly and read it for you.
Where it goes wrong
WIP reporting and bonding capacity
Cost-to-cost is only as good as the estimate behind it
Percent complete is normally derived cost-to-cost: costs incurred to date over total estimated cost. That makes your estimated cost to complete the most important number on the schedule, and the one most often left stale. An untouched estimate quietly reports a job as healthier than it is.
Underbillings look like a hole
Work performed and not yet invoiced sits on the schedule as cost without revenue. To an underwriter reading quickly it looks like money going out with nothing coming back, and it pulls your working capital picture down at exactly the wrong moment.
Overbillings can flatter a bad month
Cash collected ahead of work performed makes a period look stronger than it was. Read without the schedule beside it, you can be looking at a profitable month that is actually borrowed from next quarter, and planning on money that is already committed.
Without a roll-forward, fade is invisible
A single WIP is a snapshot. The roll-forward compares this month against last and shows which contracts moved and why. Gross profit slipping across periods on the same job is job fade, and the roll-forward is where it becomes visible while there is still something to manage.
Capacity becomes the ceiling on the business
When the picture is unclear, a surety underwrites conservatively. You end up bidding within a limit set by your reporting rather than by your capability, and the work you could have carried goes to somebody whose paperwork was better.
Why this one document
The same computation answers four different questions
Your surety reads the WIP to set your capacity. Job fade shows up in the WIP roll-forward. Diligence at sale reads the WIP. Bank covenants require the accrual basis the WIP produces. The percentage-of-completion tax calculation under IRC 460 is the same computation again. One schedule, produced properly and read every month, is doing all of that work at once. Produced once a year, it does none of it.
What this covers
What arrives, and when
- A work-in-progress schedule prepared monthly, by contract, not annually in arrears
- Cost-to-cost percent complete, with the estimated cost to complete actually revisited
- Over- and under-billing calculated and explained, with the movement since last month
- A WIP roll-forward showing which contracts moved between periods, and why
- Job fade flagged as it emerges rather than reported after closeout
- Working capital and equity presented the way an underwriter expects to see them
- Statements formatted for your surety and your bank, ready when the renewal comes
- A view on what would move your capacity before the next renewal, not after it
This sits inside one engagement rather than being sold as a line item. What it costs depends on your contract volume, your entity and payroll-state count, and how much of the compliance substrate sits with us. We scope it against your numbers and put it in writing before you commit.
How the engagement worksQuestions
What contractors ask about this
What is a WIP schedule and why does my surety want it?
A work-in-progress schedule lists every open contract with its contract value, costs incurred, estimated cost to complete, and amounts billed. From that it derives whether each job is over- or under-billed. A surety uses it, alongside working capital and equity, to judge how much work you can safely carry. It is the single most important report in a bonded contractor’s statements.
What is the difference between over-billing and under-billing?
Over-billing means you have invoiced ahead of the work performed, so you are holding cash against work still to do. Under-billing means you have performed work you have not yet invoiced, which is effectively money you have spent and not claimed. Both distort a period if read without the schedule, and persistent under-billing weakens how a surety reads your position.
How is percent complete calculated on a construction contract?
Most commonly cost-to-cost: costs incurred to date divided by total estimated cost, applied to the contract value to determine revenue earned. That makes the estimated cost to complete the number the whole schedule depends on. If it is not revisited as the job progresses, percent complete drifts away from physical reality and the schedule reports a job as healthier or worse than it actually is.
What is a WIP roll-forward and why does it matter?
A roll-forward compares this period’s schedule against the last one, contract by contract, and shows what moved. It is where job fade becomes visible: gross profit slipping across periods on the same contract, usually because the estimated cost to complete has been rising quietly. A single WIP is a snapshot. The roll-forward is the report that tells you which direction things are going.
How often should a WIP schedule be prepared?
Monthly, while contracts are open. A schedule prepared once a year is a historical record. Prepared monthly, it becomes a management report that shows a contract drifting from its estimate while there is still time to change the outcome, and it means your statements are ready when a bonding renewal or a bid deadline arrives.
Can better reporting actually increase bonding capacity?
Reporting does not change the underlying business, but it changes how clearly the underwriter can see it. Clean, current, well-presented schedules remove the uncertainty that makes a surety underwrite conservatively. Where capacity is being held down by an unclear picture rather than by real financial weakness, that is often addressable.
The rest of the engagement
This does not work on its own
Subcontractor and payroll compliance
Certified payroll, prevailing wage, lien waivers, insurance certificates, 1099s, and worker classification review for commercial construction contractors.
CFO advisory for contractors
Cash forecasting on draws and retainage, contract margin against estimate, and decision modelling for commercial construction contractors. Advisory that comes out of running the function.
Construction tax strategy
Revenue recognition method election, look-back, equipment timing, entity structure, and multi-state exposure for commercial construction contractors.
Find out what your position actually looks like
Bring your current schedule and your last two years of statements. We will tell you what a surety sees, what is holding your capacity down, and what the work to fix it looks like.
Talk through your position