Construction retainage calculator
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.
The formulas: retainage held = (completed work × work rate) + (stored materials × stored rate); earned less retainage = completed and stored − retainage held; current payment due = earned less retainage − previous certificates.
How the calculation works
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.
Not accounting advice. This describes common practice. How these rules apply to your contracts, your revenue recognition policy, and your financial statements is a determination for your CPA.
Frequently asked questions
Multiply total completed work to date by the contract’s retainage rate, add stored materials times their own rate if different, and subtract the total from your cumulative earned amount to get total earned less retainage. Subtracting previous certificates for payment yields the current payment due.
Because the G702 format recomputes the whole application from totals each period: total completed and stored, total retainage held, earned less retainage, then minus previous certificates. Computing on cumulative totals means rate changes mid-job — like a reduction at 50% complete — true up automatically on the next application.
Not always. The G702 carries separate retainage lines for completed work and materials presently stored precisely because contracts often set different rates — full rate, reduced rate, or none on stored materials. Apply each rate to its own base.
At substantial completion, submit a pay application that reduces the retainage held — effectively a negative retainage entry that moves the balance into current payment due. The remainder is released at final completion with the punch list, closeout documents, and lien waivers done.
Yes — free, no signup, and the math runs entirely in your browser. It is built by SitewideOps, whose pay applications compute retainage held and released on every application automatically.
Never hand-compute a retainage line again
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.
Anyone interested gets a free 21-day demo account: the full product, every feature, no credit card.