Construction project billing software: the progress claim, the retention and the residential construction draw schedule template behind it

Work order total

$863.16

Labour

$510

Parts, marked up

$288

Every figure on this page is computed from the inputs entered, by the method stated below it. Jobcardo publishes no tax rate, no wage figure and no trade standard: the rate, the markup and the tax on the parts line are yours, and the defaults are a worked example to replace with your own figures.

Construction project billing is not invoicing with a longer name. A job is billed against progress: the work completed to date on each line, less what has already been claimed, less the retention held back until the punch list is closed, and all of it timed to the draw schedule the owner or the lender agreed before the first shovel. Construction project billing software has to hold those four figures on the same record the daily log, the change orders and the quote already sit on, because a claim assembled from three spreadsheets is a claim nobody can reconcile when the payment is short.

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Bill against progress, not against the calendar

Each line carries a contract value and a percentage complete, and the claim is the difference between the value earned to date and the value already claimed. A monthly invoice typed from memory bills the same work twice as often as it misses work, and both arguments cost more to settle than the billing run saves.

Hold retention on the record, not in your head

Retention is a percentage withheld from each claim and released on an agreed event, usually practical completion and then the end of the defects period. It belongs on the order as a dated line with a release condition, so the balance owed to you at the end of the job is a number you can read rather than one you reconstruct.

The draw schedule decides when, the daily log proves what

A residential construction draw schedule template sets the payment points: permit, foundation, framing, dry-in, mechanicals, drywall, completion. The draw is due when the stage is done, and the daily log, the photographs and the inspection dates on the same record are what you send when the owner asks you to prove it.

Construction project billing software: common questions

Is construction project billing the same as invoicing? No. An invoice asks for a fixed amount for a finished piece of work. A construction claim asks for the value earned on a contract to date, less prior claims and less retention, and it is checked against a schedule of values before it is paid. Software that only writes invoices makes you do the schedule of values somewhere else.

What does a residential construction draw schedule template give me? A named list of stages, the percentage or amount payable at each, and the evidence each draw needs. It is worth having as a template because the stages repeat from house to house, and worth keeping on the job record because the dates do not: the draw is due on the day the stage passes inspection, not on the first of the month.

How do change orders affect the claim? A change order raises the contract value of a line or adds a new one, and it has to be signed before it is billed. Kept on the same record as the original quote, the schedule of values updates itself and the claim is right. Kept on a separate sheet, the change is billed late, disputed, or forgotten.

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