Run the G702-style application math: enter total completed work, materials presently stored, the retainage rate on each, and previous certificates — get total retainage held, earned less retainage, and the current payment due.
This is the arithmetic on the face of a G702-style application for payment. Total completed and stored to date is your cumulative earned amount — completed work plus materials presently stored. Retainage applies to each piece at its own contract rate (many contracts retain differently on stored materials than on completed work, and some retain nothing on materials). Subtracting total retainage gives total earned less retainage; subtracting what was already certified on previous applications gives the current payment due.
Because retainage is computed on the cumulative amount rather than per invoice, a mid-job change in the retainage rate — a reduction at 50% complete, for example — automatically trues up on the next application. For what retainage is, when it is released, and how to track it, read retainage in construction explained.
Billing the release: at substantial completion, the held balance comes back to you as a pay application with a negative retainage adjustment — the release is billed, not automatic. If your held balance lives in a side spreadsheet, that application is easy to forget.
SitewideOps builds the whole G702/G703-style application from your schedule of values — retainage on work and stored materials included — and tracks held and released balances per project.
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