Using WIP to reconcile over and under billing and avoid cashflow problems Hourly Workforce Tracking

Finally, we can define theOver/Under Billingsby taking the Total Billings to Date and subtracting the Earned Revenue to Date as defined above. This will give us the difference between recognized revenue and actual billings. She works with clients across industries, but her main focus is in Construction. For example, https://www.newsbreak.com/@cnn-edits-1668599/3002242453910-cash-flow-management-rules-in-the-construction-industry-best-practices-to-keep-your-business-afloat suppose XYZ Roofing Company provides its residential clients’ bids for roof repair or replacement. Each roof is a different size and will require specific roofing equipment and a varying number of labor hours. There are three primary contributors to contractors being caught off guard by cost overruns.

The WIP figure reflects only the value of those products in some intermediate production stages. This excludes the value of raw materials not yet incorporated into an item for sale. The WIP figure also excludes the value of finished products being held as inventory in anticipation of future sales.

A. Contract Income

Sure, you still have the same amount of profit at the end of the year, but it may harm your standing with a surety company and undermine their expectations about your business’s profitability. If you base your percent complete solely on the cost of the work completed versus the cost of work left to complete you won’t get an early warning when the job is slipping and in danger of going over budget. The WIP report needs to show you where your costs are likely to end up at the completion of the project long before that future is locked in.

Capturing, processing and sharing construction data in real time is the game changer that leads to stronger, more accurate WIP reporting. Construction accounting departments use spreadsheets for 59% of their processes, and project managers use spreadsheets for 45% of their work. This can involve tracking tens of thousands of inventory resources, and thousands of vendors and resources — which can change every day.

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Please reach out if we can help and we’ll connect you with one of our experts in construction for additional information. The temptation is to simply keep managing the job to make everything work out in the end — no need to tell accounting! But if the estimated cost-to-complete isn’t true-to-life, the percent complete won’t be accurate and neither will billing expectations. Unreported change orders will make a job look underbilled, resulting in overreported income, higher taxes and lower profit (possibly evenlower bonuses!). Everyone will also be looking at a very different project on paper than the field sees in real life, holding PMs to expectations that just aren’t realistic.

Work-in-progress, as mentioned above, is sometimes used to refer toassetsthat require a considerable amount of time to complete, such as consulting or construction projects. This differentiation may not necessarily be the norm, so either term can be used to refer to unfinished products in most situations. This account of inventory, like the work-in-progress, may include direct labor, material, and manufacturing overhead. Thus, it is important for investors to discern how a company is measuring its WIP and other inventory accounts.

Using WIP For Over And Under Billing – Avoid Construction Cashflow Problems!

Since the job is underbilled, it looks on paper like it holds the promise of future revenue — revenue that won’t show up on the profit and loss statement (P&L) unless accounting makes an adjusting entry. This is why the example is debiting $76,841.91 to an adjusting liability account and crediting the same amount to an adjusting income account. If the number is negative, there are zero underbillings, which in most cases construction financial managers regard as a positive sign for projects. A more complex report could possibly include an additional column for projected income, which would include pending or estimate change orders in order to calculate projected over/underbillings.

Allocations of overhead can be based on labor hours or machine hours, for example. It is standard practice to minimize the amount of WIP inventory before reporting is necessary since it is difficult and time-consuming to estimate the percentage of completion for an inventory asset. To accurately estimate the cost to complete a contract, both operations and accounting should be involved. Project managers, engineers, estimators and project controllers generally will have the best knowledge of a project’s actual progress in terms of overall completion.

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Underbilling occurs when contractors bill for less money than what was earned for the work completed to date. This can be problematic for negative cash flow and can leave you in charge of financing the rest of the project. Work-in-progress reporting should include any details of expenditure you’ve spent. That’s why it’s so important to ensure you’re using the right technology to support your WIP reporting and construction accounting processes. This could mean that you’ve overestimated costs and the project is under budget. Keeping on top of your WIP report using multiple calculation methods is therefore crucial for accurately scoping projects.

• Bonding agents, banks and underwriters use WIP reports to determine a contractor’s profitability.
• In the past, contractors relied on paper and a variety of methods to manage their accounting needs.
• There’s also the issue that someone needs to constantly be updating the system, manually entering financials and orders, and so on.
• A well-compiled WIP schedule will deliver accurate data upon which solid decisions can be made, and can help a company better support project managers to get their jobs done on time and on-budget.
• Construction-in-progress, or work-in-progress reports, are a type of regular accounting that construction firms use to understand whether ongoing projects are on budget.
• Stakeholders should be prepared to compare and analyze jobs, as well as explain why a project is over budget.
• What is a cost-plus contract and how is it used in the construction industry?

AGC of California is excited to announce that we has partnered with Procore.org to provide our members with FREE access to Procore’s library of continuing education courses. The courses are designed for construction professionals that must complete units to fulfill the learning requirements for license renewals, certification renewals, and organizational memberships. Build California is your one-stop-shop for info on careers, training, & jobs across the state. Once the four inputs above are updated, it is essential to evaluate and scrutinize your WIP schedule before using it to make decisions for the future.