Help & guides
How to get from a list of jobs to a bonding-ready WIP schedule — and the math behind every number.
Getting started
- Add a client. Each client is one contractor whose books you report on. Your firm starts with a default client — rename it or add more from the Clients page.
- Add jobs. For each job, Footing needs the original contract value, the original cost budget (total estimated cost), and costs and billings to date. Approved change orders are entered separately so original and revised figures stay distinct.
- Open a worksheet. A worksheet is a point-in-time WIP schedule over your jobs. The schedule calculates percent complete, earned revenue, and over/under billings as you type.
- Pick the audience view and columns. Internal, Surety, and Lender are column presets over the same data — switch tabs above the table, then fine-tune with the Columns menu. Custom columns (and formula columns on Premium) slot in alongside the built-ins.
- Export, then file. Download PDF or Excel, or email the schedule directly. At month-end, file the worksheet — filing freezes a snapshot so the numbers you delivered never shift underneath you, even as jobs keep moving.
WIP math reference
Footing uses the cost-to-cost method (the GAAP standard for percentage-of-completion). Signed change orders count toward the contract you'll actually deliver, so every ratio uses revised figures:
revised contract = original contract + approved change orders
revised estimate = original budget + approved commitment COs
percent complete = costs to date ÷ revised estimate
earned revenue = min(percent complete, 100%) × revised contract
over/under billing = billings to date − earned revenue
est. cost to complete = max(revised estimate − costs to date, 0)
est. gross profit = revised contract − revised estimate
gain/fade = est. gross profit − original gross profit
backlog = max(revised contract − earned revenue, 0)
- Overbilled (positive over/under) is a liability — billings in excess of costs and estimated earnings. Underbilled (negative) is a contract asset. A job with no billings yet is fully underbilled — normal early in a project.
- A job with no cost estimate shows “—” for percent complete and is excluded from schedule totals until the estimate is entered.
- When costs exceed the revised estimate, percent complete caps at 100% and the row is flagged over budget. Fade (negative gain/fade) is the number your surety reads first.
- Retention is tracked and shown (billings net of retention) but never changes percent complete or earned revenue.
Excel & PDF exports
Exports reproduce exactly what's on screen: the audience view you have selected and the columns you have visible, in their current order — including custom columns. Numbers render in accounting format (negatives in parentheses), with the totals row ruled the way a reviewer expects.
- PDF for the deliverable you hand a surety or lender; Excel when the recipient wants to work the numbers.
- Exporting a filed worksheet always reproduces the frozen snapshot — the filed numbers, regardless of job edits made since.
- Each plan includes a monthly export allowance; the usage page under Billing shows where you stand. See pricing for allowances by plan.
QuickBooks Online
Direct QuickBooks Online sync is built and in Intuit's production review. Today you import QuickBooks' own report exports (or our template) and export the over/under billing journal entry as a file QuickBooks imports in one step.