How Acumatica Handles Retainage and Progress Billing in Construction
Retainage and AIA-style progress billing aren't optional. Here's how Acumatica handles both natively, and what to configure on day one.
Retainage and progress billing are two of the most common reasons construction companies outgrow generic accounting software. They're not optional. They're not a 'nice to have.' And done wrong, they're a quick way to leak revenue or pick a fight with an owner.
Retainage in Acumatica
Acumatica natively tracks retainage at the customer, project, or contract level. You can set a default retainage percentage on the contract, override it on individual line items, and release retainage incrementally or at substantial completion. Subcontractor retainage works the same way on the AP side, mirroring the AR setup.
AIA-style progress billing
Acumatica's Project Billing module supports AIA G-702 / G-703 style applications for payment out of the box. Schedules of values are managed at the project level. Each draw pulls forward prior amounts, captures stored materials separately, and exports a clean PDF that owners and architects expect to see.
What to configure on day one
Three configuration choices set you up for life: define your retainage release rules, decide on stored materials handling, and set up your G-702 PDF template with your branding. Get these right at go-live and you save yourself months of pain later.
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