How to Build a WIP Schedule for Your Surety

Every bonded contractor hands a Work-in-Progress (WIP) schedule to their surety at least quarterly — and to their bank and CPA at year-end. It is the one report that shows whether your jobs are making money while they are still open. This guide covers the columns a surety expects, the formulas behind them, and the mistakes that get schedules kicked back. If you just want the numbers, use the free WIP schedule calculator.

What a WIP schedule is

A WIP schedule lists every open job with its contract value, costs, billings, and the percentage-of-completion math that converts them into earned revenue. Sureties read it to judge whether you are billing ahead of the work (borrowing from the job) or behind it (financing the job yourself), and whether estimated margins are holding. Underwriters weigh it more heavily than your income statement, because construction revenue only means something next to the cost of finishing the work.

The columns your surety expects

• Contract value — the current contract including approved change orders.
• Costs to date — actual job costs incurred so far (from your accounting system).
• Estimated total cost — costs to date plus your best estimate of cost to complete.
• Estimated gross profit — contract value minus estimated total cost.
• Percent complete — costs to date ÷ estimated total cost.
• Revenue earned — percent complete × contract value.
• Billed to date — what you have invoiced the owner so far.
• Over/(under) billing — billed to date minus revenue earned.

The three formulas

This is the cost-to-cost percentage-of-completion method — the one GAAP (ASC 606 input method) and virtually every surety underwriter expects. A positive over/under number means you are overbilled (you hold the owner's cash — fine, as long as margins hold); a negative number means you are underbilled and financing the job from working capital, which is the first thing an underwriter will ask about.

Worked example

A $1,000,000 contract with $400,000 of costs to date and an $800,000 estimated total cost is 50% complete. Revenue earned is $500,000. If you have billed $550,000, you are overbilled by $50,000. Run your own jobs through the calculator to see each job's position and the totals across the schedule.

Mistakes that get schedules kicked back

• Stale cost-to-complete estimates. Copying last quarter's estimate forward is the most common red flag. Estimates should come from the project manager running the job, not the bookkeeper closing the month.
• Missing change orders. Approved change orders belong in contract value; unapproved ones don't. Mixing them distorts both margin and percent complete.
• Profit fade with no explanation. If a job's estimated gross profit shrinks quarter over quarter, the surety will notice. Note the cause before they ask.
• Schedules that don't tie to the books. Costs and billings must match your accounting system. Hand-keyed spreadsheets drift; tie-outs catch it.
• Only sending it when asked. A contractor who produces a clean WIP schedule monthly, unprompted, gets better bonding capacity than one who scrambles quarterly.

Automate it

Everything above can run without a spreadsheet. WIPReports syncs costs and billings from QuickBooks Online daily, collects cost-to-complete estimates from your PMs by magic-link email, and delivers a finished WIP schedule PDF to your CPA, surety, or bank every month. Join the free beta or try the free calculator first.