WIP and over/under billing

Review 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.

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

In plain English

WIP compares how much of a job you’ve earned with how much you’ve billed, so profit isn’t reported too early or too late.

What this does

For each job, percent complete (typically cost-to-cost: actual cost ÷ estimated total cost) times contract value gives earned revenue. Earned minus billed is under-billing (asset) or over-billing (liability).

The schedule uses posted actual cost and revised budget, so commitments don’t inflate percent complete.

How to

Run WIP

1Open Projects → WIP and choose the as-of date.
2Review estimated cost to complete per job; update forecasts if needed.
3Review over/under amounts.
4Optionally create the adjusting entry (often reversed next period, per your accountant’s policy).

Corrections, voids, and reversals

Reverse the adjusting entry; never edit it.

Permissions

Accountants and owners.

What happens in your books

Viewing posts nothing. An optional adjusting entry is posted only on confirmation.

Over-billed $5,000 · illustrative

Account	Debit	Credit
Contract revenue	5,000.00
Billings in excess of costs		5,000.00

Common mistakes

Stale cost-to-complete estimates, which distort percent complete.

Troubleshooting

Percent complete over 100%

Actual cost exceeds the revised budget — update the estimate.

Terms used:Work in progress (WIP)

Contracts, schedule of values, and WIPProgress billing from a schedule of values, change orders, commitments, retainage, and work-in-progress reporting.Job budgets and revisionsBuild a job budget by cost code and type, approve it as the original budget, and track revisions and change orders without losing the original.Job billing, progress applications, and retainageBill 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.ReportsWhat the profit and loss, balance sheet, cash flow, and aging reports tell you — and how to drill into source records.

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Last reviewed October 6, 2026