No matter how many slabs you pour or frames you stand each month, cash flow can still feel like a rollercoaster. The culprit is often an invisible line on your balance sheet called Work In Progress, or WIP. Understanding what is WIP—and tracking it accurately—can mean the difference between a profitable year and a scramble for emergency funding. At CountBricks, we help residential contractors move WIP from mystery to strategic advantage.
In accounting terms, Work In Progress represents the value of projects that are underway but not yet completed. For a framing contractor, it’s the portion of labor and materials already installed on site. For a custom home builder, it’s every stud, wire, and shingle that’s in the ground but not yet invoiced as finished work.
1. Contract Value – The total agreed price with the client
2. Cost-to-Date – All direct costs booked so far
3. Percentage Complete – Cost-to-Date ÷ Estimated Total Cost
4. Earned Revenue – Contract Value × Percentage Complete
5. WIP Position – Earned Revenue – Invoiced Amount
A positive WIP position shows revenue you’ve earned but haven’t yet invoiced. A negative position means you’ve billed ahead of progress—great for cash flow, but risky if costs overrun.
• WIP is not just an accounting exercise; it’s a real-time performance gauge.
• Over-billing feels safe but can mask looming budget overruns.
• Under-billing might look conservative yet starves your business of cash.
Residential projects extend over weeks or months. Without WIP visibility, you could fund a project out of pocket long before the first draw arrives. Consistent WIP reviews help you invoice at the right cadence and fund payroll without pricey short-term loans.
• Identify scope creep early when the WIP schedule shows costs rising faster than completion.
• Spot delayed client payments by comparing earned revenue to actual receipts.
• Detect profit fade as soon as the projected margin dips below bid margin.
With CountBricks’ mobile voice interface, your foreman simply narrates on-site progress. Our AI converts speech to quantifiable line items, updating the cost-to-date figure instantly.
• Live material pricing feeds keep estimated totals aligned with today’s lumber yard rates.
• Automated timecards push labor hours straight into Cost-to-Date.
• The WIP dashboard flags over- or under-billing in red so you never miss a variance.
Explore these tools at CountBricks.com/services for a deeper dive.
1. Import or create your project in CountBricks.
2. Approve the AI-generated budget lines.
3. Connect supplier feeds to lock in real-time material rates.
4. Sync your accounting platform so invoices post automatically.
5. Review the WIP dashboard weekly—green means billed correctly, amber signals review, red demands immediate action.
6. Export the WIP report to share with investors or lenders directly from CountBricks.com/portfolio.
• Update budgets whenever approved change orders hit the job site.
• Reconcile subcontractor invoices weekly to avoid sudden margin drops.
• Use consistent cost codes across estimating, field tracking, and accounting.
• Train site leads to capture percent complete in objective units—square feet framed, linear feet of conduit, etc.
• Schedule a monthly WIP meeting with operations, finance, and your CountBricks success coach.
Even a two-crew remodeler benefits by knowing how much revenue is earned but not yet billed. The principles scale up or down.
Think of WIP as the raw data that fuels better cash forecasts. CountBricks combines both views in one platform.
Yes, with spreadsheets—if you enjoy late nights and manual errors. CountBricks automates the math so you focus on building.
Understanding what is WIP is the first step; acting on it is where profits grow. Schedule a demo at CountBricks.com/consultation and see how effortless WIP management can be when estimates, job costing, and invoicing flow through one AI-driven system.
Last quarter, a regional framing firm migrated its estimating and invoicing workflows to CountBricks. Onboarding included activating the WIP dashboard for seven simultaneous townhome builds.
• The contractor invoiced only when the developer’s superintendent signed off—often two weeks behind field progress.
• Lumber prices spiked 11% mid-project, but budgets weren’t updated in spreadsheets.
• Margin erosion went unnoticed until the accountant closed the books—too late to recover.
1. Field leads spoke daily progress into the mobile app; AI translated percentages complete per cost code.
2. Live supplier feeds refreshed lumber costs at checkout, instantly flagging overruns.
3. The WIP dashboard alerted management that earned revenue exceeded invoicing by $184,000 across the portfolio.
• Immediate catch-up invoices closed the cash gap within five days.
• Change orders were issued before material delivery, preserving margin.
• Overall gross profit improved from 17% to 23%—a six-point gain—on the remaining project duration.
• Set WIP alerts at 10% variance thresholds so small issues never snowball.
• Encourage crews to describe completed work in measurable units—the AI performs best with quantifiable details.
• Pair WIP reviews with a weekly schedule of values update to keep draws aligned.
Ready to transform your own numbers? Visit CountBricks.com/consultation to book a personalized walk-through and see how quickly real-time WIP insight pays for itself.
