Free Tool
Are you overbilled or underbilled?
Enter a job and see your percent complete, earned revenue, and over or under billing, the number that tells you whether you are financing the customer or spending money you have not yet earned.
What this measures
A work-in-progress (WIP) schedule uses the percentage-of-completion method: percent complete equals cost incurred to date divided by total estimated cost, and earned revenue equals that percentage times the contract value. Compare earned revenue to what you have billed and you get your over or under billing, the number that tells you whether you are financing the customer or borrowing against unearned work. Cost-to-cost is one input method for measuring progress on contracts recognized over time under ASC 606. Confirm the contract, method and treatment of uninstalled materials with your accountant.
Enter one job
Run each open job separately, then total overbillings and underbillings separately. Aggregating job inputs or netting the positions can hide different margins and billing gaps.
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What this means for you
Over and under billing is where project contractors quietly lose control of cash. Underbilling means you are the bank, funding work you have not invoiced. Overbilling feels good until the remaining project costs arrive and the expected profit falls. A WIP schedule helps identify overbilling and underbilling before a cash squeeze, alongside the cash forecast and contract billing records.
Quick win this week
Run your three largest open jobs through this. For a materially underbilled job, check cost overruns, the schedule of values, milestones, approvals, retainage and pay-application timing before deciding what can be invoiced. Any job overbilled well past its percent complete is a profit-fade risk to watch.
Strategic fix
Build a monthly WIP schedule across every open job. Track billed vs earned, watch estimated cost at completion for creep, and reconcile the WIP total to your P&L. This is what surety bonders and lenders read first, and it is the single report that separates contractors who scale from those who stall.
Want a monthly WIP schedule you can trust?
We build and maintain your WIP across every open job, so you always know billed vs earned, cash position, and profit fade before it bites.
No commitment. Real numbers, not generic advice.
Frequently asked questions
How do you calculate a WIP schedule?
Percent complete equals cost incurred to date divided by total estimated cost (the cost-to-cost method). Earned revenue equals percent complete times the contract value. Over or under billing equals the amount billed to date minus earned revenue: a positive number means you are overbilled (billed ahead of the work), and a negative number means you are underbilled (you have done work you have not yet invoiced).
What is the difference between overbilling and underbilling?
Overbilling means you have invoiced more than the work you have completed, which is cash-positive now but a balance-sheet liability, it is customer money for work you still owe, and spending it as profit risks running out of cash before the job ends. Underbilling means you have completed more work than you have billed, so you are financing the customer with your own cash, the most common hidden cash drain in project work.
What is profit fade?
Profit fade is when a job's estimated profit shrinks as it progresses, usually because the estimated cost to complete was too low. A WIP schedule catches it early by tracking estimated cost at completion each month, so you see margin erosion while you can still act on it rather than discovering it at job close.
Want a monthly WIP schedule across every open job?
We build and maintain your WIP each month, billed vs earned, cash position, and estimated cost at completion, so you catch underbilling and profit fade before they turn into a cash crisis, and so your surety and lender see a clean schedule.
Operating review
Questions before treating profit as cash
The margin, cash, and operating questions we check first when reviewing your numbers.
What completed work has not yet become an invoice?
Completion, billing and collection are separate events. A profitable job can still be waiting for a billing handoff.
Which invoices explain the next cash shortfall?
Total receivables can conceal a few large balances that matter more than many small invoices.
Does the cash forecast include the next payroll funding event?
A completed or approved payroll run does not establish the date and net amount that will leave the bank.
Simple pricing
Three tiers, one ladder.
$500+/mo
Bookkeeping
The clean data layer: monthly books, reconciliations, and organized financials AI can work with.
$1,500-$5,000/mo
Scale
The full AI operating layer: custom agents, weekly actions, and benchmarks to grow margin per hour.
Custom
Platform / Multi-Office
Multi-branch benchmarking and scorecards for PE-backed and multi-location groups.
Get a WIP schedule you can actually trust
Drop your info and the Level team will build your monthly WIP across every open job.
No commitment. Real numbers, not generic advice.