Job billing, progress applications, and retainage

Bill jobs by progress against the schedule of values or by time-and-materials from billable costs, with retainage held per line and billed-to-date always derived.

Plans: Advanced and above
Availability: Available
For: Owners, Bookkeepers, Accountants
In KontoCore: Projects → Billing

What this does

Progress billing: a sales invoice links Customer → Job → Contract, and each line bills a schedule-of-values line by percent complete or amount. Full workflow and accounting example: Progress billing and retainage from a contract.

Time-and-materials billing: select unbilled, job-coded billable costs; billing rules apply markup. Each cost can be billed only once — billed amounts are derived from posted invoices.

How to

Bill billable costs (T&M)

1Open Projects → Billing and choose the job.
2Select unbilled costs; review markup.
3Create the invoice, review, and post.

Statuses and lifecycle

Status	Meaning
Unbilled	Cost available to bill.
Billed	Included in a posted invoice.
Non-billable	Excluded by rule or choice.

Corrections, voids, and reversals

Void or credit the invoice to make its costs billable again.

Permissions

Owners, administrators, and users with bookkeeping permission can create and post. View-only users can read but not change records.

What happens in your books

Invoices post AR (and retainage receivable for progress bills) and revenue. Costs are unaffected.

Common mistakes

Billing the same cost manually on a separate invoice — it can’t then be tracked as billed.

Troubleshooting

Cost isn’t offered

It’s already billed, non-billable, or still on a draft bill.

Terms used:Retainage Schedule of values (SOV)

Progress billing and retainage from a contractBill a customer against a contract’s schedule of values: invoice → customer → job → contract line, with percent complete, billed-to-date, and retainage held on each line.Contracts and schedule of valuesCreate a customer contract on a job, break it into a schedule of values, set retainage terms, and keep the contract value current through change orders.WIP and over/under billingReview work-in-progress by job — percent complete, earned revenue, billings to date — to see which jobs are over- or under-billed and post an adjusting entry when appropriate.Estimates and invoicesSend estimates, convert them to invoices, set terms and tax, and understand what an invoice does in your books.

Was this helpful?

Last reviewed October 6, 2026