Progress billing means invoicing for a percentage of the contract price as the work is completed, instead of one bill at the end. Construction progress billing goes further than a simple percentage invoice: each billing period you report, line by line, how much of every work item is complete, what you billed previously, materials stored on site, and the retainage your customer withholds until completion.
This free generator produces the full progress billing package — a payment application cover sheet plus an itemized continuation sheet — with every total computed automatically. When the next billing period starts, one click rolls this period's amounts into the previous-billings column and increments the application number.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is progress billing?
- Progress billing is invoicing in increments as work is completed on a fixed-price contract, rather than in a single invoice at the end. Each progress bill states the value of work completed to date, subtracts what was previously billed, and requests payment for the difference — commonly minus retainage held until completion.
- How is a progress billing invoice different from a regular invoice?
- A regular invoice lists goods or services and a total. A construction progress billing invoice is tied to a schedule of values: it must show, per line item, the scheduled value, percent complete, amounts billed in previous periods, materials stored, retainage withheld, and the balance remaining — so the customer can verify the amount due against project progress.
- I just need to bill a 50% deposit — is this the right tool?
- If you only need a one-off percentage or milestone invoice with no schedule of values or retainage, a simple invoice generator is enough. This tool is built for recurring progress billing against a contract sum, where each period builds on the last and retainage is tracked.
- Does this work like QuickBooks progress invoicing?
- The concept is the same — billing a portion of an estimate as work progresses — but this tool produces the standardized construction payment-application document (cover sheet plus continuation sheet) that general contractors and construction lenders expect, including retainage math that generic progress invoicing lacks.
- What is retainage in progress billing?
- Retainage (also called retention or holdback) is a percentage of each progress bill — commonly 5–10% — withheld by the customer until the work is complete, as security for performance. The generator applies your retainage rate automatically and shows the amount withheld and the balance including retainage on every application.