Construction WIP Schedule Template: Free Spreadsheet Download

In this post, we share a free construction Work in Progress (WIP) schedule template for tracking the progress of your construction projects. Below, we’ll provide a link to download the template to begin using in your construction business.  

With that said, there are certain limitations to using a spreadsheet template for work-in-progress schedules. For example:

• Repetitive data entry: If you’re using a spreadsheet for your WIP schedule, you must periodically go into other job costing or project-tracking spreadsheets and manually transfer the data from each project into your WIP spreadsheet.

• High likelihood of errors: Bouncing back and forth between project spreadsheets and your WIP schedule, there’s a high likelihood of errors from manual data entry. This can lead to inaccurate financial reporting and misinformed decision-making that affects your bottom line.

• Siloed financial data: When WIP schedules are managed in a spreadsheet, the data from the WIP schedule is siloed from the data that informs the WIP schedule, and the construction accounting software in which the data also needs to be reflected.

So, in addition to sharing the free WIP schedule spreadsheet below, we’ll walk through how our construction management software, ServiceTitan, solves these challenges and more, including:

• Completely automating WIP report generation

• Centralizing project and WIP report data to be managed in one platform

• Streamlining project management and other business workflows

View & Download Our Construction WIP Schedule Template

The template contains the following columns to fill in for each project or contract:

• Actual completion date

• Project number

• Project name

• Contract value

• Estimated cost total

• Total project cost

• Percent complete cost

• Earned revenue

• Revenue

• Retainage percent

• Retainage

In the template, you’ll find mock data. Simply replace this with your project data, and the calculations will be done automatically. You can also add or remove project rows as needed.

When filled out correctly, this form will help you track the work in progress across your operation and provide accurate financial reporting. However, be aware that spreadsheets have significant limitations in terms of efficiency (due to repetitive data entry), accuracy (susceptible to manual input errors), and data siloing.

Below, we’ll discuss how construction project management software, like ServiceTitan, can help contractors overcome these challenges.

How ServiceTitan Automates Work-In-Progress Reporting for Contractors

ServiceTitan’s construction software automates the generation of WIP reports for contractors, eliminating the need for repetitive and manual data entry into spreadsheets (and significantly reducing the potential for errors in WIP reports).

To run the report, which calculates the correct amount of recognized revenue for projects based on the percentage-of-completion method, users select from a short series of fields including a date range of transactions, project statuses, project completed date, etc. 

Once finished, a report is generated that allows contractors to view the following by project:

• Project or contract number

• Project or contract name

• Project business unit

• Contract sum

• Total budgeted expenses

• Budgeted margin

• Total actual expenses to date

• Forecasted cost to complete

• Forecasted total budgeted expenses

• Revised budgeted margin

• Variance from the original budgeted margin

• Percentage completed

• Actual revenue (billed)

• Recognized revenue

• Underbilling

• Overbilling

The data in the resulting report is pulled directly and automatically from each project’s financials in ServiceTitan, as we’ll discuss below. No bouncing back and forth between spreadsheets or copy and pasting required!

If the report table lacks the necessary columns for additional or unique calculations, users can easily export the data to a spreadsheet and manipulate it as needed.

Now, to understand how WIP reporting fits into the broader picture of ServiceTitan workflows, let’s look at other ways our platform helps contractors facilitate project management.

Other Ways ServiceTitan Facilitates Construction Project Management

Track & Manage Individual Projects From the Project Overview Dashboard

When a new project is created in ServiceTitan, a project overview page is automatically generated. From this dashboard, contractors and project managers can: 

1. View high-level project information (project name and description, contract dates and timelines, job site details, etc.).

2. View open tasks, and log and assign new tasks. 

3. Initiate key project actions such as generating estimates, purchase orders, applications for payment, invoices, and more.

In addition, users can access detailed project financials (discussed below), and a project audit trail including events, notes, and files relevant to the job (RFI docs, submittals, etc.).

Build Estimates with Accurate Pricing

Project estimates allow you to build detailed construction estimates by adding all of the specific tasks, equipment, and materials that will be needed to do the work. Users have the option to draw from pre-built job estimate templates or build estimates from scratch. 

Tasks, materials, and equipment can all be tagged with color-coded project labels to organize the project details and make everything easy to visualize. In addition, pricing and markups for each line item are automatically calculated based on the most up-to-date prices in your pricebook. 

Once an estimate is complete, it can be printed, emailed, or exported in PDF format and sent to the client. Additional estimates can be created as needed throughout the project.

Initiate Requisition & Purchase Orders

When an estimate is sold, all of the details you’ve set up in the estimate are automatically integrated into the rest of the project management workflow. You can initiate a requisition of equipment and materials from within your sold estimate.

For example, let’s say at the beginning of a project, you want to start the process of ordering your permits and materials for the job — you can select those items within your estimate, which will lead you through a workflow to create the purchase orders you’ll need. 

In the purchase order workflow, the line items are automatically populated from your estimate. You can simply select your vendors and shipping locations for each material to complete your order details. 

Then, you can save that order to create a transaction and send those purchase orders to your vendors — without ever leaving ServiceTitan. 

Automate Project Financials & Job Costing

As you progress through the job lifecycle — creating purchase orders, logging labor hours, processing change orders, receiving progress payments, and so on — ServiceTitan automatically provides up-to-date project financials and job costing.

Instead of constantly needing to update a series of spreadsheets every time labor costs and material costs are incurred, this is done automatically for you in real-time, based on work that’s completed and entered into the system. 

If we continue with our example from above, and you’ve made your initial purchase order of permits and materials, your project summary table is updated to reflect those expenses:

Furthermore, you can view a more detailed breakdown of your actual costs versus your budgeted costs.

This will automatically update as you accumulate expenses from materials, equipment, and labor hours. It will display your margins in dollar and percent form to help you track job costs and profitability throughout your project. 

You can also access a table breaking down your expenses in further detail:

You can click on any line item and see the exact source of where that expense came from (e.g., which technician logged those hours, or which purchase orders and vendors a given set of materials came from). This allows you to easily check your numbers and feel confident in your data sources.

When generating a WIP report, data in the report is automatically pulled from these project financials, saving you time and eliminating the possibility of errors during manual data entry.

When it comes time to send applications for payment and invoices at each stage of progress billing, this can also be easily accomplished from the project overview dashboard.

Automate Progress Billing and Invoicing

The initial estimate you created also informs and populates your continuation sheet in your application for payment:

Similar to how WIP reports are generated, you can easily generate a payment application by selecting the billing period and the percent of each line item you want to bill for.

Then, you can generate a PDF payment application with the details automatically filled out, and send it off to your client for review. The detail of the continuation sheet makes for a bill that’s much easier to defend in the event of pushback from construction companies or general contractors. As a result, contractors can get paid faster and avoid cash flow issues.

When applications are accepted, it’s just as easy to generate an invoice for that progress payment. And, when payments come in, you can update your accounts receivable through our Viewpoint, Sage, QuickBooks, and CSV accounting integrations. 

Get a Personalized Demo of ServiceTitan Construction Software

What we’ve covered above is just a sampling of the desktop features that ServiceTitan offers for facilitating construction work. We also offer broader construction business reporting, timesheets, inventory management, a mobile app, and more.