Subcontractor progress billing: what goes in it and where money leaks
A progress bill (in Colombia, the acta de corte) is how a builder pays a subcontractor for the work done in a period. It is usually built in Excel, crossing quantities, prices, advance and retention. That is where the money leaks.
01Contents
What it must include
When the contract ends, a close-out certificate settles the quantities and releases the retention.
- The contract items with unit and price.
- This bill's quantity, the running total and what is left.
- AIU or VAT, as the contract says.
- Advance, retention and deductions.
- The net amount and the signatures.
02Mistakes
The usual mistakes
- Paying for more than was contracted without anyone signing off.
- Billing work the site engineer has not reported yet.
- Repaying the advance too much on one bill and too little on the next.
- Copying the AIU formula from another project.
03In BIW
How BIW does it
The contract is set up once and every bill comes from it. Differences with what the site reported show up before approval, advance and retention are tracked on their own, and every signature carries a name and a date.
It works the same for the bills you send the client.