AIA G702 / G703 Progress Billing Explained (Schedule of Values, Retainage, % Complete)

What the G702 and G703 actually are

AIA Document G702, "Application and Certificate for Payment," is the one-page cover sheet of a pay application. It summarizes the contract sum, the work completed to date, retainage withheld, prior payments, and the current amount due — and it carries the contractor's and architect's signatures certifying the request.

AIA Document G703, "Continuation Sheet," is the line-item detail behind that cover. It is your Schedule of Values laid out row by row: each cost item, its scheduled value, how much was completed in prior periods, how much this period, stored materials, the total complete, the percentage, the balance to finish, and retainage on that line.

Together they are the de facto standard for progress billing on commercial work. Owners, GCs, architects, and lenders all expect to see work-in-progress billed this way, which is why understanding the format is worth the effort even if you build your own equivalent.

How to do AIA billing, step by step

The process is the same every period once your Schedule of Values is set. Here is the full sequence from contract sum to a certified pay application:

• •1. Build the Schedule of Values (SOV). Break the contract sum into billable line items on the G703 — enough detail to bill accurately, front-loaded within reason for early cash flow. Do this once, before the first pay app.
• •2. Mark percent complete per line. Each period, update column G on the G703 for every SOV line: how much of that item is done now, based on field progress.
• •3. Add stored materials. If the contract allows it, list materials delivered to site (or a bonded warehouse) but not yet installed in their own G703 column — they count toward "total completed and stored" even before installation.
• •4. Apply retainage. Withhold the contract retainage percentage (commonly 5–10%) from the value of work completed and stored on each line, then total it.
• •5. Roll up to the G702 totals. Summarize the G703 into the G702 cover: total completed and stored, less retainage, less previous certificates for payment, equals the current payment due.
• •6. Submit for certification. Send the G702/G703 package to the architect (and owner/GC as required), who reviews and signs to certify the amount before payment is released.

The Schedule of Values is the foundation

Everything starts with the Schedule of Values (SOV) — the breakdown of your contract sum into billable line items that, added together, equal the total contract. A good SOV balances two competing pressures: enough granularity that you can bill accurately as work progresses, and enough front-loading (within reason and within what the owner will accept) to keep cash flow healthy early.

The SOV becomes the rows of your G703. Once it is set, each billing period you are only answering one question per line: what percentage of this item is now complete?

How the percent-complete math works

For each SOV line, the core calculation is straightforward:

• •Work Completed This Period = (Total % Complete × Scheduled Value) − Work Completed in Prior Periods.
• •Total Completed and Stored = work completed to date + materials stored on site but not yet installed.
• •% Complete (column G on the G703) = Total Completed and Stored ÷ Scheduled Value.
• •Balance to Finish = Scheduled Value − Total Completed and Stored.

Retainage: the money held back

Retainage (or "retention") is a percentage — commonly 5% or 10% — that the owner withholds from each payment as security that you will finish and close out the job. It is calculated on the work completed, accumulates across every pay app, and is released at substantial completion (and final completion for the last portion).

On the G702, retainage reduces what you are paid now: Total Earned Less Retainage = work completed and stored, minus retainage held. Then Current Payment Due = Total Earned Less Retainage − prior certificates (what you have already been paid). Some contracts also allow retainage reduction partway through — for example dropping from 10% to 5% once the job is 50% complete — which your billing needs to handle without re-opening prior periods.

A line-by-line example

Take an SOV line for "Underground conduit" with a scheduled value of $80,000. Last period you billed it at 40% complete ($32,000). This period the work reached 70%.

Total Completed = 70% × $80,000 = $56,000. Work This Period = $56,000 − $32,000 = $24,000. Balance to Finish = $80,000 − $56,000 = $24,000. At 10% retainage, $5,600 is held against this line's $56,000 to date, so the line contributes $50,400 to "earned less retainage." Repeat for every line, total the columns, and the G702 cover writes itself.

Why teams move off spreadsheets

The math is simple; the bookkeeping is not. Carrying prior-period values forward, handling stored materials, applying a retainage change at 50%, keeping change orders in sync with the SOV, and producing a clean PDF the architect will certify — doing all of that by hand in Excel every month is where errors and late billings creep in.

Software that tracks the SOV as a living object solves this: enter this period's percentages (or pull them from field progress), and the G702/G703 PDF, retainage, and balances generate automatically with prior periods already carried. That is how Field PM's AIA progress billing works — your Schedule of Values, change orders, and percent-complete in one place, producing a certified-ready pay application without re-keying.