PayApplicationGenerator.com

Free Progress Billing Invoice Generator for Construction

Create professional progress billing invoices in one click!

Bill a fixed-price contract as the work progresses. Enter your schedule of values, record what was completed this period, and download a complete payment application — retainage and the amount due are calculated for you.

First time filling one of these out? Our step-by-step guide walks through every field — or let the guided version ask you one question at a time.Read the guideTry the guided version

Progress billing means invoicing for a percentage of the contract price as the work is completed, instead of one bill at the end. Each of those bills requests a progress payment — a partial payment covering the work finished in that period. 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.

How it works

  1. 1Enter your schedule of valuesBreak the contract sum into line items — or import them from a spreadsheet — with your retainage rates. Every progress bill on the project reports against this schedule.
  2. 2Bill the work completed this periodEnter a dollar amount or percent complete per line, plus stored materials and approved change orders. Previous billings carry forward automatically.
  3. 3Download the progress billing packageA payment application cover sheet plus an itemized continuation sheet, ready to sign and send to your customer.

Prefer to fill it in by hand? Download a blank pay application template (PDF & Excel) with the same layout and up to 20 line items.

What's calculated for you

  • ✓Retainage on completed work and stored materials
  • ✓Total completed and stored to date, per line and overall
  • ✓Percent complete and balance to finish on every line
  • ✓Net change orders and the current contract sum
  • ✓Previous billings, deducted automatically
  • ✓The amount due this period

What the finished document looks like

Example of a completed construction pay application: cover sheet with application summary, retainage, change orders, and certificationsPage two of a sample pay application: the schedule of values table listing each line item with scheduled value, work completed previously and this period, stored materials, percentage complete, balance remaining and retainage

The cover application and the itemized continuation sheet with your full schedule of values. View the full sample PDF.

Start with the guides

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) 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.