What is wip schedule?
A work in progress schedule is a report showing every open job with its contract value, costs to date, estimated cost to complete, percentage complete, revenue earned, and the resulting over or under billing position. It is the central financial document of a construction business.
What it contains
A usable WIP schedule carries one row per open job and at least these columns:
| Column | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Contract value | Original contract plus approved change orders |
| Cost to date | What the job has consumed so far |
| Estimated cost to complete | What finishing it will still take |
| Total estimated cost | The two above, added |
| Percent complete | Cost to date divided by total estimated cost |
| Revenue earned | Contract value multiplied by percent complete |
| Billed to date | What you have actually invoiced |
| Over or under billing | The difference between earned and billed |
Percentage of completion, briefly
Most contractors recognize revenue using the cost-to-cost method. If a job is budgeted at $800,000 and you have spent $200,000, you are 25% complete, so you have earned 25% of the contract value regardless of what you have invoiced.
That single calculation is what produces the over or under billing figure, and it is why the estimated cost to complete is the most consequential number on the page. Get it wrong and every other figure on the row is wrong with it.
The error that does the most damage
Failing to update cost to complete. A schedule still carrying original bid estimates for a job six months into execution shows a profitability that is not real, hides trouble until close, and produces the margin collapse that damages a surety relationship.
Reviewing WIP monthly, with project managers rather than only accounting in the room, is the single habit that separates contractors whose schedules can be trusted from those whose cannot.
Who reads it
Your bonding agent, your surety underwriter and your bank, all of whom use it to decide how much work you are allowed to take on. It is a business development document as much as an accounting one, which is not how most contractors treat it.
Going deeper: How unapproved change orders quietly cap your bonding capacity