Your open job value,
against your own limit.

In NSW, a builder needs a certificate of eligibility from the Home Building Compensation Fund before buying certificates of insurance for residential jobs. The certificate records the builder's Open Job Limits, which come in two parts:

• Open Job Value (OJV). The maximum total contract value of incomplete jobs the builder may have at any one time.
• Open Job Number (OJN). The maximum number of incomplete jobs. Builders cannot exceed their approved number.

The calculator applies that definition and nothing more:

• Open job value is the sum of the contract values of every job that is not complete. A job counts at its full contract value, however far along it is.
• Headroom is your limit less the open job value. When the open job value is above the limit, the calculator shows how far over it you are instead.
• More contract value you could take on is the headroom, never less than zero. It holds until a job on the list completes and drops out.

Progress is used for one thing: telling whether a job is still open. Enter it as a percentage complete or as the value of work remaining, whichever you track. A job at 100%, or with $0 remaining, drops out of the total. A job with no progress entered counts as open. The work still to build is shown as a separate line for reference, because it is the figure builders most often mistake for their open job value.

Two things the method leaves to you. When a job stops counting as incomplete for your certificate is not something this page can settle, so you decide when to mark it complete, and your insurer can confirm the point. And whether contract value should include GST and approved variations is not settled in our sources either, so enter every job on the same basis and check it with your insurer. Why the limit exists and what sets it are covered in the Open Job Value guide, and how the NSW assessment works in the NSW HBCF eligibility guide.

An example only. The figures are made-up round numbers chosen to show the arithmetic, not a typical limit or a typical job. Say the limit on the certificate is $2,000,000 and the builder has four jobs:

• Job A: contract value $600,000, 40% complete. Open, counts $600,000.
• Job B: contract value $500,000, 100% complete. Drops out, counts $0.
• Job C: contract value $400,000, $300,000 of work remaining. Open, counts $400,000.
• Job D: contract value $700,000, not started, no progress entered. Open, counts $700,000.

Open job value is $600,000 + $400,000 + $700,000 = $1,700,000. Headroom against the $2,000,000 limit is $300,000, so the builder could take on $300,000 more contract value before a job completes.

Now the mistake. Adding up the work still to build instead gives $360,000 + $300,000 + $700,000 = $1,360,000, which looks like $640,000 of headroom. A builder who tendered on that number would be $340,000 over the limit if they won. That gap is why the calculator keeps the two figures apart.

• Check both limits. Value headroom does not help if the number of incomplete jobs is already at your Open Job Number. Enter it in the optional field.
• Headroom comes back when a job completes, not as it progresses. Under the definition above, a job keeps its full contract value on the list until it is complete, so the date a job finishes matters more than how fast it moves.
• Watch jobs that grow. A contract variation of more than 20% of the original price, up or down, has to be notified and triggers an additional premium or a refund.
• The limit follows the financial position. The NSW assessment tests financial capacity using Adjusted Net Tangible Assets (ANTA), measured against a turnover worked out as if your Open Job Limits were fully used over a year, and each OJV band needs a minimum eligibility score. The eligibility manual provides for a Builder Profile Change to meet the minimum ANTA for a higher OJV. How the financial position is built and presented is the subject of the Open Job Value guide.
• Check what you can fund, not only what you are allowed. Working capital is often the lower ceiling, and it binds first. The funding the work you win guide covers it.
• Eligibility is not permanent. icare may revise, suspend or cancel a builder's eligibility at any time, so confirm the current figure with your insurer before you rely on it.

This calculator gives an estimate from the figures you enter. It is general information, not insurance, legal or financial advice, and it does not tell you whether you are eligible for cover or can take on a particular job. It follows the NSW HBCF definition as recorded from the Eligibility Manual (version 12, effective 2 March 2026); the scheme's rules and figures change between versions, and other states' schemes work differently. Your certificate of eligibility and your insurer are the authority on your limit and on what counts toward it. Nothing you type leaves the page.

To reference this page, use the wording below and link the page rather than copying it, so readers reach the current version. Corrections to hello@viabuild.au.