A WIP schedule is the one monthly document that tells your surety, your bank, and your CPA the true financial status of every job you are running right now. It lists every active project on one page, shows how much you have earned versus how much you have billed, and projects the gross margin you will land at completion. About 80% of what it needs already lives in your project system. The other 20% (each project manager's estimate to complete) is the part that turns a one-page report into a multi-day close.
If you are a Controller or CFO at a general contractor, you already know the rhythm. Every month the project managers give you a forecasted cost to complete, and you use that to build the WIP report that produces your earned income (r/FPandA). Then you export Procore, drop it into Excel, chase the stragglers, and reconcile until it ties out. This guide breaks down what a WIP schedule is, the exact columns and formulas that go on it, who requires it and how often, and how general contractors actually produce one from Procore data.
What Is a WIP Schedule in Construction?
A WIP schedule — short for work-in-progress schedule, and also called a "status of contracts" report or a "work-on-hand" report — is a financial document that lists every active construction project and shows the financial position of each one. It "tells your surety company, your bank, and your CPA the true financial status of every job you are currently working on" (BMS Books). It is built on the percentage-of-completion method under ASC 606 (the FASB revenue standard, converged with IFRS 15), and it is "a must have for any bonded construction company" (Integrity Surety).
The WIP schedule exists because of how contractors recognize revenue. Construction work usually transfers control to the owner over time, so revenue is earned as the work is performed, not when the contract is signed and not when the building is finished. Under ASC 606, recognizing revenue "over time" is "very similar to using the percentage-of-completion method," and the WIP schedule is the data engine that drives it (Foundation Software). The percentage complete, the costs incurred, and the billings on the WIP are what produce the revenue figure on your income statement (Grit Insurance).
Four parties read your WIP schedule, and each reads it for a different reason:
- The surety / bonding agent: to decide how much bonded work you can carry.
- The lender / bank: to release draws on credit lines and check covenant compliance.
- The CPA / auditor: to prepare financial statements and confirm ASC 606 conformance.
- Company leadership: to catch margin problems before they compound.
Work-in-progress accounting covers the same positions your accountant carries on the balance sheet: jobs where you have earned more than you have billed (an asset: "costs and estimated earnings in excess of billings") or billed more than you have earned (a liability: "billings in excess of costs and estimated earnings"). The WIP schedule is where both positions surface, project by project.
What Goes on a WIP Schedule? (The Columns)
A WIP schedule has one row per active project and a fixed set of columns. The standard construction WIP report carries 11 columns: project name, contract value, costs to date, estimated cost at completion (EAC), estimate to complete (ETC), percent complete, earned revenue, billed to date, over/(under) billing, projected gross margin, and backlog. Each project row "typically includes project name and owner, original contract amount plus approved change orders, total costs incurred to date, total billings to date, estimated cost to complete, percentage of completion, and projected gross profit or loss" (Grit Insurance).
Here is the full column set, with the definition your surety and CPA expect:
| # | Column | Definition |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Job name / number | The project and owner. Every active project appears, bonded or not. |
| 2 | Contract value | Original contract amount plus approved change orders. |
| 3 | Costs to date | Total project costs posted to date (from the project system). |
| 4 | Estimated Cost at Completion (EAC) | Costs to date + ETC. The denominator for percent complete. |
| 5 | Estimate to Complete (ETC) | The PM's estimate of the cost to finish the remaining work. |
| 6 | Percent complete (cost-to-cost) | Costs to date ÷ EAC. |
| 7 | Earned revenue | Contract value × percent complete. Revenue recognized to date. |
| 8 | Billed to date | Total amount invoiced to the owner. |
| 9 | Over / (under) billing | Billed to date − earned revenue. Positive = overbilled; negative = underbilled. |
| 10 | Projected gross margin | (Contract value − EAC) ÷ contract value. Where profit fade shows up. |
| 11 | Backlog | Contract value − earned revenue. Remaining revenue to recognize. |
The over/(under) billing column is the one auditors and CPAs translate into balance-sheet language. A positive number is overbilling: "billings in excess of costs and estimated earnings," a current liability. A negative number is underbilling: "costs and estimated earnings in excess of billings," a current asset (Foundation Software). The schedule also totals each column across all projects, so a reader sees the company's aggregate billing position and backlog at a glance. (For a deeper read on the two positions, see our guide on over and under billing.)
The Two Kinds of Data a WIP Schedule Needs: Objective vs. the PM's ETC
A WIP schedule is built from two distinct kinds of data, and the split is the key to why the monthly close is hard. The objective data (contract value, costs to date, billed to date, and change orders) is roughly 80% of the schedule and already lives in your project system. The subjective data is a single number per job: the project manager's estimate to complete (ETC). That one number is the part that does not already exist in any system of record.
The ETC matters far more than its size suggests. It sets the estimated cost at completion (EAC = costs to date + ETC), and the EAC is the denominator that drives percent complete, earned revenue, over/under billing, and projected margin on that job. Change the ETC by $100,000 and every downstream number on the row moves. Collecting and reconciling that one figure across every active project (and getting each PM to return it on time) is where the monthly WIP close turns into a multi-day exercise.
For general contractors, the objective data lives in Procore. Procore holds "budgets, contracts, change orders, costs, and invoices": the exact contract, cost, and billing fields a WIP needs (Procore). But Procore has no structured, tracked place for a PM to enter an ETC. So finance emails or messages every PM for a cost-to-complete number, gets back arbitrary figures often without backup, exports Procore to Excel, and rebuilds the WIP by hand. That is the operational gap the rest of this guide returns to. (For the difference between EAC and ETC in depth, see our guide on EAC vs. ETC.)
Who Requires a WIP Schedule — and How Often?
Four parties require a WIP schedule, and the surety is the most demanding of them. For a bonded contractor, the WIP schedule "is a required part of the underwriting file and one of the first documents the underwriter reviews after your financial statements" (Grit Insurance). The other three (the bank, the CPA, and leadership) each read it for their own decision. Beyond these four, GC primes, private owners, and public agencies also require your WIP to prequalify you before you can bid.
- Surety / bonding agent. Underwriters read the WIP to answer four questions: are your jobs profitable, are you billing accurately, are you overextended, and are your cost estimates reliable (Projul)? Available bonding capacity is read straight off the schedule. They scrutinize the ETC hardest of all: "Challenge the 'estimated costs to complete' number on each project because this is where problems hide. Project managers tend to be optimistic, and that optimism can mask cost overruns until it is too late" (Projul). A clean, current WIP grows bonding limits; a stale one shrinks them. (See our guide on tracking and increasing bonding capacity.)
- Lender / bank. To release draws on credit lines and assess covenant compliance. The WIP and the financial statements "should tell the same story" (BMS Books).
- CPA / auditor. For financial-statement preparation and ASC 606 revenue-recognition compliance. Your CPA should review the WIP so the numbers reconcile with the balance sheet and income statement (Grit Insurance).
- Company leadership. To understand financial health and catch margin problems before they compound across jobs.
On cadence: sureties want a WIP "at a minimum… quarterly," but monthly updates are significantly more valuable for contractors pursuing capacity increases or carrying heavy backlog (Grit Insurance). A year-end-only WIP "means the surety is making decisions for 12 months based on a single snapshot. Projects come and go, margins shift, and capacity changes throughout the year" (Grit Insurance). Most mid-market general contractors (the $10M–$500M revenue band) run a monthly financial close that includes the WIP for exactly this reason. The Construction Financial Management Association (CFMA) and the AICPA both treat the WIP schedule as core construction-accounting practice; the AICPA-CIMA calls it a "blueprint for solid construction accounting" (AICPA-CIMA).
How Is a WIP Schedule Calculated? (Cost-to-Cost / Percentage-of-Completion)
A WIP schedule is calculated with the cost-to-cost method, the most common form of the percentage-of-completion method. Percent complete equals costs to date divided by the estimated cost at completion; earned revenue equals percent complete times contract value; and over/(under) billing equals billed to date minus earned revenue. The rule of thumb: "if you have incurred 40% of a project's expected costs, you recognize 40% of the contract value as revenue" (SaltMarsh Advisors).
These are the three core formulas, rendered for quick reference:
| Formula name | Expression | Plain-English meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Percent complete (cost-to-cost) | Costs to Date ÷ EAC | How far along the job is, measured by money spent against the full expected cost. |
| Earned revenue | Percent Complete × Contract Value | The revenue you have earned to date, regardless of what you have billed. |
| Over / (under) billing | Billed to Date − Earned Revenue | Positive = overbilled (a liability). Negative = underbilled (an asset). |
Cost-to-cost is an input method: it measures progress by cost incurred, which is objective. The alternative, a PM's subjective judgment of "percent done," is "less precise and more prone to error" (Foundation Software). But cost-to-cost is only accurate "if estimates are kept current," and that estimate is the ETC entered each cycle (Foundation Software). This is the dependency hiding inside an industry-wide habit: "well over 90% of companies in construction have been using the percentage-of-completion method" (Foundation Software), and every one of them relies on the PM's ETC to run the math.
A worked example: Riverside Medical Center
Here is a single ASC 606-correct row for Meridian Construction Group's Riverside Medical Center project. The PM submits an ETC of $4,950,000 against $7,900,000 in costs to date; everything else follows from the formulas above.
| Input / calculation | Value |
|---|---|
| Contract value | $14,250,000 |
| Costs to date | $7,900,000 |
| ETC (PM-entered) | $4,950,000 |
| EAC = costs to date + ETC | $12,850,000 |
| Percent complete = $7,900,000 ÷ $12,850,000 | 61.5% |
| Earned revenue = 61.5% × $14,250,000 | $8,764,000 |
| Billed to date | $9,100,000 |
| Over / (under) billing = $9,100,000 − $8,764,000 | $336,000 overbilled |
| Projected gross margin = ($14,250,000 − $12,850,000) ÷ $14,250,000 | 9.8% |
Riverside Medical Center is overbilled by $336,000. Meridian has invoiced the owner ahead of the revenue it has earned, which is a liability ("billings in excess of costs") on the balance sheet, not free margin. That is the kind of position the WIP exists to surface.
One credibility note that trips up a lot of WIP content: the commonly repeated line that "$10M-plus contractors must use percentage-of-completion" is outdated for the tax rule. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act raised the small-contractor exception under IRC §460 from $10 million to $25 million in average annual gross receipts (IRC §460, Cornell Law; Foundation Software). For most mid-market GCs the binding drivers of POC are surety, lender, and GAAP expectations, not the IRS threshold.
What Is Profit Fade, and Why Does the WIP Surface It?
Profit fade is the gap between the gross margin you bid a job at and the latest projected margin on that same job. The WIP surfaces it because it recalculates earned revenue and projected margin from the current ETC every cycle, so the moment a PM's estimate to complete climbs, the gross margin column drops. "Profit fade is when your estimated job margin shrinks over the life of a job. You bid a job at 22% GP. By month three the estimated total costs rise and the projected margin falls" (Civil CFO).
Some fade is normal. A pattern of fade across multiple jobs is what destroys surety confidence, because it signals an estimating or project-management problem (NASBP). In Meridian Construction Group's schedule, the Lincoln HS Renovation row carries a projected gross margin of 1.0%, flagged as a fade. The job was bid to make money; the latest EAC says it will barely break even. A monthly WIP catches that in time to act with the bonding agent; a year-end WIP catches it at closeout, when it is too late. (For how to read, quantify, and respond to fade, see our dedicated guide on profit fade.)
How Do You Produce a WIP Schedule from Procore Data?
Procore does not generate a bonding-ready WIP schedule natively. The objective data is all there. Contracts, costs, billings, and change orders update in Procore "instantly instead of at the end of the week or month" (Procore). But Procore has no structured place for a PM to enter an ETC and no native bonding-format WIP export. So the schedule has to be assembled by hand outside of it.
The manual workflow most general contractors run today looks like this:
- Export contract, cost, billing, and change-order reports from Procore.
- Email or message every project manager for a cost-to-complete number on each of their jobs.
- Wait, chase the stragglers, and field replies that often arrive without context or backup.
- Drop the exports into Excel and rebuild the WIP schedule row by row.
- Reconcile until earned revenue, billings, and the over/under position tie out.
- Reformat the result into the exact template your bonding agent or bank expects.
For a multi-project GC, "this process takes 2–3 full business days every single month," despite roughly 80% of the data already living in Procore. The bottleneck is not the math; it is collecting the structured ETC and assembling the schedule. We cover the full Procore-to-WIP workflow, and exactly where it breaks, in a dedicated guide: can Procore generate a WIP report?
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a WIP schedule in construction? A WIP (work-in-progress) schedule is a monthly financial document that lists every active construction project and shows its true financial status, covering contract value, costs to date, percent complete, earned revenue, billings, over/under billing position, and projected margin. It "tells your surety company, your bank, and your CPA the true financial status of every job you are currently working on" (BMS Books), and it is built on the percentage-of-completion method under ASC 606.
What columns go on a WIP schedule? A standard construction WIP schedule has 11 columns: job name/number, contract value, costs to date, estimated cost at completion (EAC), estimate to complete (ETC), percent complete, earned revenue, billed to date, over/(under) billing, projected gross margin, and backlog (Grit Insurance). See the full column table above for the definition of each.
How do you calculate percent complete using the cost-to-cost method? Percent complete equals costs to date divided by the estimated cost at completion (EAC), where EAC is costs to date plus the PM's estimate to complete. If you have incurred 40% of a job's expected total cost, you are 40% complete and recognize 40% of the contract value as earned revenue (SaltMarsh Advisors; Foundation Software).
How long should a monthly WIP close take? Manually, a multi-project general contractor typically spends 2–3 full business days each month assembling the WIP by exporting Procore, collecting PM ETCs by email, and rebuilding the schedule in Excel. Pulling the objective data directly from Procore and collecting structured ETCs through a form cuts the active work to about 45 minutes.
What WIP schedule format does my bonding company or bank expect? Your bonding agent expects all the standard columns (including ETC, earned revenue, percent complete, and the over/(under) billing position) in their own template, signed and dated. Different agents use different column orders, so the schedule usually has to be reformatted to match each one. Monthly cadence is significantly more valuable to the surety than quarterly, because a single annual snapshot forces 12 months of decisions from one data point (Grit Insurance).
How WIP Ready Helps
WIP Ready is a Procore-embedded app that produces the monthly WIP schedule without re-platforming your finances. It reads the objective data (contracts, costs, billings, and change orders) directly from Procore (read-only, no write-back), and collects each PM's estimate to complete through a one-screen mobile form that needs no login. The PM owns the ETC; the app never calculates it, which is the point. An auditor or surety has to trust that a human who knows the job entered the number. Every figure on the schedule traces to a Procore field or a timestamped PM submission, and the export maps to your bonding agent's own template. The result is a bonding-ready WIP in about 45 minutes of active work instead of 2–3 days. If your monthly close still means rebuilding the WIP in Excel from scratch, see how the workflow changes at wipready.com.
