Retainage tracking
Retainage tracking: what is held, on which job, and who is sitting on it.
Retainage is the most reliably forgotten money in a subcontractor’s business. Five or ten percent comes off every draw, accrues quietly for fourteen months, and then has to be chased on a job nobody in the office has thought about since the last crew left. SubMark records it where it is created — on the draw — and totals it across every job you have, so the number is read rather than reconstructed.
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- Held on each draw as a dollar figure, with the check amount shown as gross minus retainage.
- Totaled across every job, or filtered to one, for any month, quarter, year or all time.
- The final retainage billing is flagged as a release, so it never double-counts as new revenue.
How retainage goes missing.
It accrues in the gaps
Nobody decides to lose track of retainage. It comes off each draw as a percentage, never gets a line of its own in anybody’s tracker, and only becomes visible the day somebody asks what the company is actually owed.
The job is closed in your head
The last crew left in August, punch was signed in September, and the retainage is still out in February. By then the job is on nobody’s list, in nobody’s weekly meeting, and in nobody’s cash-flow forecast.
You cannot see it by GC
One general contractor holds ten percent and releases slowly. Another holds five and releases at substantial completion. Without a per-GC view you cannot tell which relationship is quietly financing itself with your money — which is exactly what you would want to know before bidding their next job.
The release gets billed as revenue
The final retainage billing goes out and lands in the same column as every other draw, so the month looks better than it was. You billed nothing new; you collected what you had already earned.
How retainage is tracked in SubMark.
It is recorded where it happens — on the draw — so there is never a second place that has to be kept in step.
- 01 The rate is written down once
The subcontract’s retainage rate and payment days can be recorded on the job’s contract terms, so whoever bills in month nine is not guessing at what was agreed in month one.
- 02 It comes off each draw
Every draw carries the amount drawn, the retainage held and the check amount you should expect, as one linked set. Whether retainage came off as a percentage or was entered as a dollar figure, the held amount is on the record.
- 03 Held-to-date is a running total
Because it sits on every draw, the total held is a sum rather than an end-of-job calculation. Billed to date and total paid sit side by side on the job, so a gap that is “just retainage” either is or is not.
- 04 Read it across the company
The draws report totals retainage across every job for any month, quarter, year or all time, or for a single job. That is the view that answers “how much of our money is being held”.
- 05 The release is marked as a release
The final retainage billing on a job is flagged as exactly that: it releases the retainage held on the earlier draws rather than billing new work, so it never inflates a month’s revenue.
- 06 Know what is gating it
Release is usually gated by closeout paperwork, waivers included. The waivers you have sent up the chain are tracked on the same job, so you know whose signature the money is waiting behind.
Everything above ships today and none of it is a tier you upgrade into. The core modules are on in every trade pack from setup; a few extras, like the invoices inbox, are a switch in Settings. The full list is on the product page.
In the app
Where the held money actually shows up.
Several places, each answering a different question, all reading the same figures:
- On the draw
- Amount drawn, retainage held, check amount. Enter what you billed and the triple stays consistent by construction.
- On the job
- Contract value, billed to date and total paid together — where a receivable that is “only retainage” gets checked.
- In the draws report
- A retainage column across every job, for any period, exportable.
- On the release
- The final billing flagged as a retainage release and labeled as such in the log, so the month’s billing total stays honest.
- Next to the waivers
- The waivers you sent up the chain, tracked on the same job, because they are usually what the release is actually waiting on.
Retainage outlives the crew. The design assumption here is that the job is quiet and the money is not — so nothing about reading the total depends on the job still being active.
Straight answer
What it does not do.
A product page that only lists wins is a product page you stop trusting in week two. These are the gaps, in our own words, before you find them yourself.
- It tracks retainage; it does not decide when retainage is released. That comes from your subcontract and your state’s law, and the clause is worth reading before you start the chase. Nothing here is legal advice.
- This is the retainage your GC holds from you — money the company is owed. Lien waiver tracking has the same scope: the paperwork going up the chain, not the paperwork coming up to you.
- It does not chase anybody. It tells you what is out, how long it has been out and who has it. The phone call is still yours.
Which trades feel this most.
Same problem, different shape. Each trade page leads with that trade's own phases, schedule of values and wording.
Concrete
First on, last paid: retainage on your early work sits out for the entire job and then some.
Glazing & Curtain Wall
Long lead times and late closeout mean your retainage is the last on the job to come loose.
Electrical
Fourteen months of draws is fourteen months of retainage accruing on one job, on top of every other job.
Questions
Retainage tracking: what a sub’s office actually asks.
Is retainage recorded on the SOV line or on the draw?
On the draw. Each draw carries the amount drawn, the retainage held and the check amount you should expect, which keeps the held figure tied to the billing that created it. Held-to-date is then a sum of the draws rather than a separate number somebody maintains.
Can we see total retainage across all our jobs?
Yes. The draws report carries a retainage column across every job, for any month, quarter, year or all time, and the same table filtered down to one job when you want to read it on its own.
Does SubMark tell us when retainage is due to be released?
No. Release is governed by your subcontract and your state’s statute, and we are not going to pretend software reads either one for you. What SubMark gives you is the operational half: what is held, on which job, and since when.
Does the final retainage billing count as new revenue?
No, and that is deliberate. A final or retainage billing is flagged as a release of retainage held on earlier draws, so it is not counted as new work billed. A month that collects $90,000 of held retainage should not look like a month that sold $90,000 of work.
Does it track retainage we hold from our own subs?
No. What is described here is the retainage held from you, which is money the company is owed.
Find out what is actually being held.
Start the trial, log the draws you have already submitted on one job, and read the retainage total — and it is the easiest thing in SubMark to check.
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The rest of the job
Change orders
From the day the field finds the change to the day it is in the schedule of values, with an audit trail at every step.
T&M tickets
Priced in the office off your own rate lists, signed on site, and several tickets roll into one change order.
Schedule of values
One SOV per job, built from your trade’s own breakdown, locked when the first draw goes out, and approved change orders added to it automatically.
Draw tracking
Fifteen jobs, nine GCs, nine cutoff dates and nine submission methods — in one calendar and one log, with drawn, certified and received as three different numbers.
Daily logs
The record that wins an argument nine months later, written in two minutes by a foreman who wants to go home.
Lien waiver tracking
Which waivers went up the chain, which the GC has received, and which draw is sitting still because one of them has not.
Job costing
The overrun you can still do something about, instead of the one you find in the end-of-job autopsy.
Crew scheduling
Who is on which job on Monday, across every job — and a flag the moment the same crew is promised to two of them.
QuickBooks
Bills and card purchases pull back as job costs. Draws and POs push across with a click. Your books stay your books.
Time tracking
Hours per worker, per job, per day — signed by the worker who worked them, approved by the office, and read straight into job costing.
Safety records
Toolbox talks signed off per person, scored site inspections, and certification and COI expiries you see 30 days out instead of on the day.