Guide · WIP reporting
WIP reporting,
without the headache.
Work-in-progress reporting tells you whether you’ve billed ahead of the work or behind it, across every job at once. Get it right and you can see your real position. Get it wrong and your “profit” is a mirage.
01 / The basics
In plain English
Work-in-progress (WIP) reporting is how a builder sees the true financial position of jobs that aren’t finished yet. Because a build runs over months, the money you’ve invoiced and the work you’ve actually completed rarely line up at any given moment. WIP reporting reconciles the two.
The core idea is comparing how much of a job is complete against how much you’ve billed. If you’ve billed more than you’ve built, you’re over-billed: you’re holding cash for work you still have to do. If you’ve built more than you’ve billed, you’re under-billed: you’ve done work you haven’t been paid for yet.
Why it matters
- Over-billing can make a job look profitable when it isn’t. The cash is really a liability.
- Under-billing hides revenue you’ve earned and starves the job of cash flow.
- Across a portfolio, WIP is how owners and accountants see the real position, not a flattering snapshot.
02 / The reality
Where builders get stuck
Stale cost data
WIP is only as good as the cost data behind it. If invoices are weeks behind, the completion figure is wrong.
Guessed completion
Percentage complete estimated by gut feel rather than tied to the schedule produces a WIP report nobody trusts.
Spreadsheet sprawl
A WIP workbook stitched together by hand each month is slow to produce and easy to get wrong.
Over-billing mistaken for profit
Cash from claiming ahead of the work looks like a healthy job, until the work still has to be done.
Under-billing missed
Work completed but not yet claimed is revenue you’ve earned and cash you’re not collecting.
Only done at month-end
A WIP report you see weeks after the fact can’t inform a decision you needed to make today.
03 / The fix
A workflow that holds up
- 01
Keep costs current
Process supplier invoices as they arrive so actual cost reflects reality, not last month.
- 02
Tie completion to the schedule
Base percentage complete on real progress and stage milestones, not a guess.
- 03
Track claims against stages
Know exactly what you’ve billed by stage so it can be compared to completion.
- 04
Compare billed vs complete
For each job, line up what you’ve claimed against the work actually done.
- 05
Flag over/under-billing
Identify jobs that are billed ahead of or behind the work, and by how much.
- 06
Review the portfolio
Roll it up across all jobs to see your true position, not a per-job snapshot.
04 / The tooling
How software helps
WIP reporting is really a data problem. The report itself is simple arithmetic. What makes it hard is keeping the inputs accurate and current. Software helps by keeping cost, claims and progress in one place and up to date, so the numbers that feed WIP aren’t weeks stale.
When supplier invoices are processed as they arrive, claims are tracked against stages, and completion is tied to the schedule, a WIP view can be live rather than a month-end reconstruction. That turns WIP from a backward-looking report into something you can actually steer by.
05 / In practice
Where VIABUILD fits
VIABUILD keeps the inputs to WIP honest.
VIABUILD keeps the data WIP depends on current: AI accounts payable processes supplier invoices as they arrive so actual cost is live; progress claims track what you’ve billed by stage; and scheduling ties progress to milestones. Real-time cost tracking shows budget vs committed vs actual across every job.
Because those inputs stay accurate in one platform, your portfolio WIP and margin picture reflects where you really are, not a flattering month-end snapshot.
- Live actual cost via AI AP
- Claims tracked by stage
- Progress tied to the schedule
- Budget vs committed vs actual
- Portfolio WIP and margin view
- One platform, current data
06 / FAQ
Common questions.
Work-in-progress reporting reconciles how much of a job is complete against how much you’ve billed, for jobs that aren’t finished yet. It tells you whether you’re over-billed (billed ahead of the work) or under-billed (done work you haven’t billed), which is how you see your true financial position.
Over-billing means you’ve invoiced more than the work you’ve completed; the extra cash is really a liability because you still owe the work. Under-billing means you’ve completed more than you’ve invoiced, earning revenue you haven’t collected yet.
Usually because the inputs are stale or guessed: costs that are weeks behind, percentage complete estimated by feel, and a spreadsheet rebuilt by hand each month. The maths is simple; keeping the data accurate and current is the hard part.
VIABUILD keeps the data WIP relies on current (processing supplier invoices as they arrive, tracking claims by stage, and tying progress to the schedule) and shows budget vs committed vs actual across every job, so your WIP and margin picture reflects reality.
07 / Keep reading
Related guides & features
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