Job Costing & WIP
What Is a WIP Schedule? A Plain-English Guide for Contractors
What a work-in-progress schedule is, how to read every column, how over and under billings work, and why your surety and bank care. With a worked example.
· 3 min read
WIP Reporting & Bonding Support
WIP schedules your surety, your bank, and you can trust.
The work-in-progress schedule is the single most important report in a construction company. Done right, it shows margin fade before it hits the bottom line and supports the bonding capacity you need to grow.
The problem
What we usually find.
Margin fade you cannot see
Estimated costs to complete are never updated, so jobs look profitable right up until they are not.
Over and under billings
Billing ahead of or behind the work distorts cash and profit, and it is the first thing a surety looks at.
Scrambling at bonding time
Your surety asks for a WIP schedule and you rebuild it from scratch every time.
What you get
What is included.
Every engagement is scoped to your company. These are the pieces most clients start with.
- Monthly or quarterly WIP schedule built from your job cost data
- Percentage of completion revenue recognition
- Over and under billing analysis with adjusting entries
- Estimated cost to complete reviews with your project managers
- Backlog and gross profit fade reporting
- Financial packages prepared for sureties, banks, and CPAs
The result
What changes for you.
Early warning
Spot jobs that are fading while you can still act.
Stronger bonding
Consistent, credible WIP supports your surety relationship.
Smoother year-end
Your CPA gets numbers that already tie out.
FAQ
WIP Reporting & Bonding Support: common questions.
What is a WIP schedule?
A work-in-progress schedule lists every open job with its contract amount, estimated total cost, costs to date, billings to date, and percent complete. It shows earned revenue, gross profit, and whether each job is over or under billed.
Why does my surety care about WIP?
Sureties use the WIP schedule to judge whether you can finish the work you have and take on more. Consistent schedules that tie to your financial statements build confidence, which supports your bonding capacity.
How often should WIP be prepared?
Monthly is ideal for growing contractors because it catches problems while they are fixable. Quarterly works for some smaller companies. At minimum you need one at year-end for your financial statements.
Resources
Related reading.
Related services
Often paired with.
Construction Accounting & Job Costing
Accurate financials and job-level visibility, so you know which jobs make money and which ones are quietly losing it.
Learn moreFractional CFO
Executive-level financial leadership for a fraction of the cost of a full-time hire: cash flow, forecasting, KPIs, and strategy.
Learn moreReady to get clear on your numbers?
Book a free 30-minute call. We will talk about where your numbers are now, where you want them to be, and whether TAB Services is the right fit.