Mastery
Fractional CFO Services
WIP Reporting for Construction and Trades Companies
Work-in-progress (WIP) reporting helps you understand active projects while management still has decisions to make. Mastery CFO works with construction and trades businesses across Canada to connect project information, accounting, and company forecasts through useful WIP reporting.
Build a reliable view of active projects
We help bring together contract values, approved changes, costs incurred, accrued or unposted costs, estimated costs to complete, and billings to date. Working with your project and accounting teams, we review the assumptions and reconcile the schedule with the financial records.
A useful WIP schedule needs realistic completion estimates. We help investigate whether remaining labour, subcontractor work, materials, and other commitments are reflected, rather than accepting a budget that has simply been carried forward.
Read the billing position alongside the margin
Under an appropriate percentage-of-completion method, a WIP schedule compares calculated revenue earned with billings to date. The resulting overbilling or underbilling position helps management investigate timing differences, billing gaps, and project assumptions. The accounting method should fit the contracts and reporting framework used by the business.
Billing is also different from collecting cash. We connect the WIP schedule with receivables and cash forecasts so owners can see both project performance and upcoming funding requirements.
Turn the findings into business decisions
Illustrative example: a $1 million contract originally has expected total costs of $750,000 and gross profit of $250,000. If a current completion review raises expected costs to $850,000, projected gross profit falls to $150,000. Reviewing that change before the job finishes gives management an opportunity to investigate causes and evaluate its remaining options.
We help owners consider project priorities, crew allocation, change orders, billing follow-up, and future estimating. Your CFO works with the Mastery team and your operational people to translate the schedule into decisions.
Discuss your WIP reporting
Book a free introductory consultation to discuss your current reporting and whether ongoing CFO leadership fits your business.
This service is part of our CFO services for construction and trades companies.
Related reading: How to read construction financial reports for better decisions