What Is the Service (Jobs) WIP Dashboard?
The Service (Jobs) WIP Dashboard tracks the in-progress financial health of every open service job in your business. It answers two of the most important questions in service finance:
Which jobs have we earned revenue on but haven't billed yet?
Which jobs are drifting off budget before it's too late to do something about it?
If your finance team is currently rebuilding a WIP schedule in a spreadsheet every month — figuring out which jobs are underbilled, which are over budget, and what still needs to go out before the billing period closes — this dashboard does that automatically.
Where to find it:
Go to Dashboard → click the dropdown (top right) → Service WIP Dashboard
Start with the ReadMe:
The Service WIP Dashboard opens to a built-in ReadMe page by default — a 5-page guide covering how the dashboard works. It explains the job-type-specific revenue logic, walks through end-to-end job economics like gross margin and remaining cost, and covers the filters available for clean period-end WIP cuts. Click through all 5 pages before diving into the data — it's worth the minute, especially the first time you open the dashboard. If a number doesn't look right later, this is a good first stop.
Heads up on data freshness: This dashboard refreshes approximately every 40 minutes - it is not a live feed. Always check the Last Data Refresh timestamp in the top-right corner of the dashboard before acting on the numbers.
If you manage open service jobs, billing cycles, or financial performance — this dashboard is for you. Here's how you'll use it depending on your role:
Role | How You'll Use It |
Controller / Finance Manager | Review your over/under billing balances at month-end. Catch underbilled jobs before the billing cycle closes and reconcile WIP against your accounting system. |
Service Manager / VP of Operations | Monitor job health across your open portfolio. Spot jobs drifting off budget early — before cost overruns become a larger problem. |
Owner / Executive | Get a quick pulse on your total earned revenue, total cost, and billing exposure across all open service jobs without building reports from scratch. |
One Concept to Understand Before You Start
The Service (Jobs) WIP Dashboard calculates earned revenue two different ways — depending on the job type. Everything else in the dashboard builds on this.
Quoted jobs use a cost-based percentage of completion. You know what the job is supposed to cost and what revenue you're expecting. As costs come in, the dashboard calculates how far along the job is — and how much revenue you've earned — even if no invoice has gone out yet.
Time & Materials (T&M) jobs use a margin-based revenue estimate from actual cost. There's no fixed quote, so instead of a percentage complete, the dashboard estimates revenue based on what you've spent and what margin you expect to make.
Key Metrics You'll See
Here's a quick reference for the terms and formulas you'll come across:
Term | What It Means |
Work In Progress (WIP) | Jobs that have started but haven't been fully billed and closed yet. WIP is the gap between what you've earned and what you've billed. |
Earned Revenue | Revenue you've actually earned based on how far along a job is — not what you've invoiced yet. Earned revenue and billed revenue are not the same thing. |
% Completion | How far along a quoted job is, measured in cost: Actual Cost ÷ Estimated Cost at Completion. |
Over/Under Billings | Pre-Tax Billings − Earned Revenue.
|
Remaining Cost | Estimated Cost at Completion − Actual Cost to Date. How much budget is left on the job. When this hits $0, the job has used all its estimated cost. |
Revenue to Complete | Estimated Revenue − Actual Billings. Revenue still expected to come in before the job is fully billed. |
Amount Not to Exceed (NTE) | A T&M job billing ceiling — the maximum the customer agreed to be billed. |
T&M Margin Input | A margin percentage you enter manually (e.g., 0.2 for 20%) that drives the estimated revenue calculation for all T&M jobs in the current view. This is an assumption you set, not a value the system measures. |
How to Use the Dashboard
Getting Started
When you open the dashboard, you'll land on the ReadMe page. It covers what's in scope, what's excluded, and key usage notes.
Click the Service WIP tab at the bottom of the screen to get to the main working page. You'll see two buttons at the top — Quoted Jobs and T&M Jobs — that switch the entire view. The KPI tiles and job table both update when you switch, and any filters you've set carry over automatically.
Step 1 — Set Your Filters First
Before reading any numbers, set your four global filters. These apply to both the Quoted and T&M views simultaneously — you never need to re-filter when switching between them.
Filter | Recommended Starting Point |
Job Status | Exclude Closed and Canceled — you want open WIP only. |
Date Range | Defaults to year-to-date. If you have jobs with costs or invoices from prior years, expand this range to capture all activity. |
Department | Leave blank to see everything, then narrow as needed. |
Billing Customer | Leave blank to see all customers, or filter to specific accounts. |
⚠️ Important — how the date filter works: The date range controls which invoice, cost, and adjustment records are pulled into the dashboard — not just which jobs appear.
A job that spans multiple years will only show activity within your selected date window.
For a complete WIP picture on long-running jobs, set the range wide enough to capture all activity on those jobs.
Step 2 — Reading the Quoted Jobs View
Click the Quoted Jobs button if it's not already selected.
The idea before the math: If a plumbing contractor quoted $75,000 for a chiller replacement and the job is 60% complete based on costs incurred, they've earned 60% of that $75,000 — or $45,000 — even if they've only invoiced $20,000. That $25,000 gap is their underbilled exposure. The dashboard surfaces that automatically for every open quoted job.
The four KPI tiles show your headline numbers for the entire filtered view:
KPI | What It Shows |
Total Cost | All actual costs incurred on open quoted jobs — labor, materials, equipment. |
Total Billings (Pre Tax) | Pre-tax invoice amount billed to date across all open quoted jobs. |
Total Earned Revenue | Revenue earned based on how far along your jobs are — not what's been invoiced. |
Total Over/Under Billings | The headline WIP number. Negative = underbilled. Positive = overbilled. |
The WIP Report for Quoted Jobs table below shows one row per job. The key financial columns to focus on:
Column | What It Shows | Formula |
% Completion | How far along the job is, measured in cost. | Actual Cost ÷ Estimated Cost at Completion |
Earned Revenue | Revenue earned based on % complete. | % Completion × Pre-Tax Quoted Amount |
Over/Under Billings | Your primary WIP signal per job. | Pre-Tax Billings − Earned Revenue |
Remaining Cost | Budget left on the job. | Estimated Cost at Completion − Actual Cost to Date |
Rev to Complete | Revenue still expected before fully billed. | Estimated Revenue − Actual Billings |
Estimated Gross Margin % | Your budgeted margin on this job. | (Estimated Revenue − Estimated Cost) ÷ Estimated Revenue |
Actual Gross Margin % | How the job is actually performing vs. budget. | Based on actual billings and actual cost. |
📝 Job over budget? If actual costs exceed the estimated cost at completion, % completion is capped at 100% and earned revenue won't go above the full estimated revenue. The signal that a job has gone over budget is that Remaining Cost shows $0 — that's the column to watch.
💡 Tip: Sort the job table by the Over/Under Billings column to surface your largest underbilled jobs first. Those are the highest-priority billing conversations heading into month-end close.
Step 3 — Reading the T&M Jobs View
Click the T&M Jobs button to switch the view.
The idea before the math: If an electrical contractor is on a T&M emergency panel repair and has spent $8,000 so far, and they typically make 20% margin on T&M work, the report estimates their revenue at $10,000 — because $8,000 in cost at 20% margin implies $10,000 in revenue. It's a working estimate, not a guarantee. But it gives your finance team a real-time picture of where that job stands.
Setting the T&M Margin Input: At the top of the T&M view, you'll see the Estimated Margin for T&M Job input field. Enter your expected margin as a decimal — for example, 0.2 for 20% or 0.3 for 30%. This single input applies to all T&M jobs in your current filtered view.
⚠️ This is an assumption you're setting, not a value the system measures. Changing the input updates all estimated revenue figures immediately. The actual realized margin — based on what's been billed vs. what the job cost — is shown in the Margin % column, and that number will likely differ from your input until the job is fully billed.
Formula: Estimated Revenue = Actual Cost ÷ (1 − Margin Input)
💡 Example: Actual cost = $8,000, Margin Input = 0.2 → $8,000 ÷ 0.8 = $10,000 estimated revenue
The four KPI tiles for the T&M view:
KPI | What It Shows |
Total Cost | All actual costs incurred on open T&M jobs. |
Total Actual Billings Pre Tax | Pre-tax invoice amount billed to date across all open T&M jobs. |
Remaining Revenue Budget | Revenue still expected based on cost and your margin assumption. |
Over/Under Billings | Same as the Quoted view — billings minus estimated earned revenue. |
T&M-specific columns in the job table:
Column | What It Shows |
Amount Not to Exceed | The billing cap for this job. If $0.00, no ceiling is in place. |
Estimated Revenue | Actual cost grossed up by your margin input — the working revenue estimate. |
Margin % | Actual realized margin based on what's been billed and what the job cost. |
Rev to Complete | Revenue still expected before the job is fully billed. |
💡 Watch the NTE column closely. If a job's estimated revenue is approaching the Amount Not to Exceed, that's the conversation to have with the customer before you hit the ceiling — not after.
💡 On T&M jobs, an underbilled balance usually means invoices haven't gone out yet — not that the work isn't done. The T&M view helps your billing team see that gap before it compounds across multiple open jobs.
Understanding Over/Under Billings
This is the headline concept in WIP reporting.
In service work, billing and earning don't always happen at the same time. A contractor might complete 60% of a rooftop unit replacement in one month but not send an invoice until the following month. Or they might invoice a milestone upfront before the work is done. The gap between what you've earned and what you've billed is your over/under billing balance.
Formula: Over/Under Billings = Pre-Tax Billings − Earned Revenue
Result | What It Means | Example | What to Do |
Negative (e.g., −$25,000) | Underbilled. You've earned more revenue than you've invoiced. | HVAC contractor is 60% done on a $75K job but has only billed $20K — they've earned $45K. Gap = −$25K. | Send invoices. This is revenue sitting uncollected. At month-end, it understates your revenue. |
Positive (e.g., +$15,000) | Overbilled. You've invoiced more than you've earned. | Plumbing contractor billed a $30K milestone upfront but is only 20% complete — they've only earned $15K. Gap = +$15K. | Be aware this creates a liability. It's not necessarily a problem, but it needs to be tracked. |
Zero | Billings and earned revenue are perfectly in sync. | — | No action needed. |
In service work, underbilling is the more common risk — especially on T&M jobs where invoicing tends to lag behind costs. Overbilling is more common on quoted jobs with upfront milestone payments.
Exporting and Scheduling
Any view can be exported to Excel or PDF, or set up for automated recurring delivery.
Click the folder icon in the bottom-left corner of the screen.
Click Export... to download the current view immediately.
Click Schedule export... to set up a recurring automated export — daily, weekly, or monthly — delivered to any email inbox.
💡 A weekly WIP export scheduled before your billing team's Monday standup means the underbilled job list is already in front of them before the week starts — no manual pulling needed.
📝 If you've applied department or customer filters, the export will reflect those filters. For a full portfolio view, clear filters before exporting.
What Data Is Included (and What Isn't)
What's Included | Why |
Quoted and T&M service jobs only — no Projects, Service Agreements, maintenance jobs, or pull-through jobs. | Project WIP is handled in a separate dashboard. SA and maintenance billing follow different structures. |
Open jobs with at least some financial activity — jobs with $0 cost AND $0 billings are excluded. | No dollars at risk means no WIP to track. These jobs would just add noise to a dashboard designed to surface real financial exposure. |
Closed, Exported, and Posted invoices only — draft invoices are not included in billings figures. | Only finalized invoice activity counts toward your billed totals. |
Applied adjustments only — unapplied adjustments are excluded. | Only formally applied adjustments count toward billed figures. |
All figures are pre-tax | WIP accounting aligns with pre-tax figures. When reconciling, always compare against pre-tax invoice totals — not tax-inclusive amounts. |
⚠️ Because Projects and Service Agreements are excluded, the totals in this report will be lower than your total company revenue. That's expected — this report reflects standalone service job revenue only.
Frequently Asked Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: A job I know is open isn't showing up. Why?
A: Two most common reasons: (1) the job has $0 in actual cost and $0 in billings — jobs with no financial activity are excluded by design, or (2) your date range is set to year-to-date and the job's activity is from a prior year. Try expanding the date range first. If it still doesn't appear, check whether any costs or invoices have been recorded on that job in BuildOps.
Q: My T&M estimated revenue looks off. What should I check?
A: T&M estimated revenue is driven entirely by the Estimated Margin input at the top of the T&M view. If that input doesn't reflect your actual expected margin, the estimated revenue figures will be off. Also confirm actual costs are flowing in — a $0 cost produces $0 estimated revenue regardless of the margin setting.
Q: An invoice I know exists isn't showing up in the billings figures. Why?
A: The dashboard only counts invoices that are Closed, Exported, or Posted. If an invoice has been created in BuildOps but is still in Draft status, it won't appear in the billings figures. Check the invoice status in BuildOps.
Q: Why is % Completion capped at 100% even though the job went over budget?
A: That's by design. When actual costs exceed the estimated cost at completion, the report caps % completion at 100% so earned revenue doesn't exceed the full quoted amount. The signal that a job has gone over budget is that Remaining Cost shows $0 — that's the column to watch when you suspect a job has blown its budget.
Q: Can I see Service Agreement jobs or maintenance visits in this dashboard?
A: No — this dashboard is scoped to standalone Quoted and T&M service jobs only. Service Agreement-linked jobs and maintenance visits are excluded by design.
Q: Why don't the numbers here match my accounting system?
A: This is expected. The Service (Jobs) WIP Dashboard is an operational management tool — not an accounting export. Earned revenue is formula-based and may differ from how revenue is recognized in your general ledger. Your accounting system remains your system of record. Use this dashboard for real-time WIP management, and reconcile formally in your accounting system at period close.