Construction WIP Reporting
Know which jobs are really making money — every month, not at the end
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- Works with the accounting, job and CRM systems you already use
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Your Bank Balance Isn't Your Profit
In a construction business, cash in the bank says more about how you've been claiming than how jobs are going. A work-in-progress (WIP) report is what tells you the truth: which jobs are over-billed, which are under-billed, and what each one is really going to make.
Most accounting systems don't produce one, so most builders keep a WIP spreadsheet that someone rebuilds each month — when they get to it. We automate it, so the report is ready at month end and your accountant gets the same reconciled numbers every time.
If your WIP never quite matches what the jobs are doing, read Your WIP is lying to you for the usual causes.
What Is a WIP Report?
A WIP (work-in-progress) report is a monthly list of every open job showing what the job is worth, what it has cost so far, how far through it you are, what you have earned, and what you have billed. The gap between earned and billed tells you whether each job is over-billed or under-billed. It is the report your accountant needs to get profit right at month end, and the one you need to spot a losing job while there is still time to fix it.
How WIP is calculated
- Estimated total cost = cost to date + estimated cost to complete.
- Percentage complete = cost to date ÷ estimated total cost (the cost-to-cost method).
- Earned revenue = contract value (including approved variations) × percentage complete.
- Over / under billing = billed to date − earned revenue. Positive means over-billed, negative means under-billed.
A worked example
An example job (round numbers for illustration only):
| Contract value incl. variations | $500,000 |
| Cost to date | $240,000 |
| Estimated cost to complete | $160,000 |
| Estimated total cost | $400,000 |
| Percentage complete | $240,000 ÷ $400,000 = 60% |
| Earned revenue | $500,000 × 60% = $300,000 |
| Billed to date | $340,000 |
| Over / under billing | $340,000 − $300,000 = $40,000 over-billed |
| Projected margin | $500,000 − $400,000 = $100,000 |
The $40,000 has been claimed but not yet earned, so it is a liability, not profit. If the project manager's cost to complete is stale, every line below it is wrong too. That is why keeping cost to complete current matters more than the formulas.
Why WIP Reports Go Wrong
The maths is simple. Keeping the inputs current, across every job, every month, is not.
The spreadsheet gets rebuilt every month
Someone exports job costs, copies in claims, updates budgets and variations, and fixes the formulas that broke since last month. It takes days, and only one person knows how it works.
Cost to complete is a guess — or last month’s guess
Percentage complete is only as good as the cost-to-complete estimate. When project managers don’t update it, the WIP report quietly reports the margin you hoped for, not the one you’re getting.
Over-billing hides problems
Claiming ahead of the work looks great for cash flow, until the job runs out of money to finish. Without a WIP report, an over-billed losing job looks like a winner right up until the end.
Variations sit outside the budget
Approved variations change both the contract value and the budget. If they live in emails and a separate list, the WIP report is wrong on exactly the jobs that changed most.
How an Automated WIP Report Works
Pull costs and claims automatically
Costs to date and progress claims by job come straight from your accounting system (job tracking, tracking categories or a job module) — no exports, no copying.
Bring in budgets and variations
Contract values, budgets and approved variations come from your estimating or job management system, or a structured sheet if that’s where they live today.
Project managers update cost to complete
Each PM gets a short monthly form for their jobs: estimated cost to complete and a note on anything changing. Late updates are flagged, not silently carried forward.
The WIP report builds itself
Percentage complete, earned revenue, over/under billing and projected margin for every job — plus the month-end adjustment your accountant needs, reconciled back to the ledger.
What's in the Report
| Column | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Contract value (incl. variations) | What the job is now worth, not what it was quoted at |
| Cost to date | Straight from the ledger, by job |
| Estimated cost to complete | From the PM, dated, with notes |
| Percentage complete | Cost to date ÷ estimated total cost |
| Earned revenue | Contract value × percentage complete |
| Billed to date | Progress claims issued, from the ledger |
| Over / under billing | Billed minus earned — the adjustment your accountant posts |
| Projected margin | Where the job will finish if the estimate holds — compared with last month |
WIP Reporting FAQs
Still Rebuilding the WIP Spreadsheet?
Send us last month's version — however messy — and tell us where your budgets and claims live. We'll show you what an automated version would look like.
Part of our guide: Construction Finance Systems Guide
See also
Articles on this topic
- Why Your Construction Cash Flow Forecast Is a Month Behind (and How to Build One From WIP and Your Claim Schedule)
- QBCC MFR Annual Reporting: The Figures Builders Need and When They're Due
- Project Trust Accounts in Queensland (2026): Who's In and How to Keep Them Reconciled
- Construction WIP Reports: What They Are and How to Calculate One