Construction Balance Sheet Template

Next, work through the WIP Schedule using your job cost reports. List every open project with its contract value, total estimated costs, actual costs incurred to date, and billings to date. The sheet calculates percent complete and flags which projects are underbilled (you've earned more than you've invoiced) and which are overbilled (you've invoiced more than you've earned). These figures flow directly into the current assets and current liabilities sections of the main balance sheet — so getting this right is essential. Then fill in the Balance Sheet itself: pull cash from your bank statement, trade receivables and retainage from your AR aging report, and payables from your AP aging. Match equipment loan balances to the individual assets in your register.

The WIP schedule is what makes construction accounting genuinely complex. On a percentage-of-completion basis, the revenue you've earned on a project is not the same as what you've billed. If a project is 60% complete and you've only billed 40% of the contract value, you have an underbilling — a current asset representing earned revenue you haven't invoiced yet. If you've billed 70% of a project that's only 50% complete, you have an overbilling — a current liability representing cash you've collected for work not yet done. These positions are real and meaningful. Growing underbillings can signal that project managers are billing behind schedule, which strains cash flow. Growing overbillings can mask profitability problems that only surface at project closeout. Bonding companies look at these numbers closely because they reveal operational discipline.