Why contractors choose LaraKeyProgress billing means invoicing for the work completed so far, instead of a few fixed milestones. It keeps cash coming in on longer jobs and makes every invoice easy for the client to check. The backbone is a schedule of values.
What a schedule of values is
A schedule of values (SOV) breaks the contract into lines that add up to the contract total, for example demo and rough-in, cabinets, counters and tile, and finish and punch. Each line has a value. On every invoice, you say what percent of each line is complete.
How each invoice is worked out
For each line: value × percent complete to date − amount billed before = this invoice. If cabinets are worth $21,800, were 50% billed last time and are 80% complete now, this invoice bills 30%: $6,540.
Crediting the deposit
If you took a deposit, it should come back off your progress invoices, usually in proportion to the work billed, with whatever is left applied on the final invoice. That way the client never pays for the same dollar twice.
Change orders
Approved change orders become their own lines on the SOV, so they’re billed by percent complete like everything else and the contract total stays accurate.
The mistakes that cost money
- Billing a line past 100%, or past the contract
- Forgetting to credit the deposit (or crediting it twice)
- Billing a change order before it’s approved
- Recording a payment twice and showing a client as paid when they’re not
How LaraKey handles it
When a proposal is approved, LaraKey creates the job’s schedule of values from it. Progress invoices bill each line by percent complete and only charge the increase. Deposits are credited automatically and the final invoice applies the rest. Approved change orders appear as their own lines. LaraKey blocks billing the same work twice, billing past the contract, and overpaying an invoice.