RA bills
Bill the client for work done — measure against the contract BOQ, submit it, record the certification, and let retention and advance recovery calculate themselves.
A running-account (RA) bill claims the work done to date against the contract BOQ. The Billing tab holds a project's bills, tax invoices, ageing and retention. Its strip reads in the order money travels: Billed, not certified, Certified, not invoiced, Outstanding, Received.
📷 Screenshot spot — the Billing tab with the four-figure strip, the RA bills list, and one certified bill open showing gross, retention and net payable
Save as static/img/screenshots/finance-ra-bills.png and replace this box with 
Draft an RA bill
The project needs a contract BOQ, which arrives when the contract is awarded. Without one there are no lines to measure.
- Open the project and go to the Billing tab.
- Click New RA bill.
- Choose the Bill type and set the Bill date, Period from and Period to.
- Under Measure to date, type the Qty to date for each line you are claiming — the cumulative quantity from the start of the job, not this month's. Leave other lines blank.
- Check This bill (your quantity to date less Prev. certified) and add a Measurement ref if you keep an MB.
- Enter any Liquidated damages and Other deductions, with Deduction notes, and the Client reference.
- Click Draft bill. The bill opens with its gross, deductions and net payable worked out.
Rates, descriptions and units come from the contract BOQ — you supply only the measurement. Because you measure cumulatively, an over-measurement on RA 3 is corrected by measuring right on RA 4, where This bill goes negative for that line.
| Bill type | Use it for |
|---|---|
| ra | The ordinary running bill. |
| final | The last bill. It recovers any advance still outstanding. |
| supplementary | Work billed outside the sequence, such as a resolved dispute. Allowed while another bill is open. |
| advance | Still needs at least one measured line — an advance claim with nothing measured cannot be raised in the app yet. |
You cannot draft a new bill while another is in Draft, Submitted or Under certification; the form says so and Draft bill stays disabled. Each bill's "previous" figure is what the client has certified, and while a bill is with the client there is no honest value for it. Certify, reject or cancel the open bill first, or raise a supplementary bill if the work cannot wait.
When a line is over the contract quantity
A Qty to date above the contract quantity turns red, and drafting is refused with a message naming each item, its contract quantity, your claim and the excess. Over-executing on site is normal; billing it without an approved variation is what gets a bill rejected. Raise a change order for the excess — once it is approved, the contract quantity moves up and the work becomes billable. New items from an approved variation appear as ordinary lines tagged variation.
How an RA bill moves
| Status | What it means | What moves it on |
|---|---|---|
| Draft | Measured, not sent. | Submit to client — Project Manager, QS / Estimator, Company Admin. |
| Submitted | With the client. | Mark under certification, or certify directly. |
| Under certification | The client's QS is checking it. | Certify… or Record rejection (reason required). |
| Certified | Allowed. Revenue is recognised and retention is held. | Raise tax invoice… — Accountant, Company Admin. |
| Invoiced | A tax invoice has been raised. | Becomes Paid when the invoice is fully paid. |
| Rejected | Sent back by the client. Final — claim the work again on a new bill. | — |
| Cancelled | Raised in error. | Cancel bill, from any of the first three statuses. |
Certify a bill
You record what the client's engineer allowed.
- Open the bill and click Certify….
- In Certify — the client QS's figures, leave a line blank to allow it in full. Where the client cut a line, enter the cumulative Allowed to date — never more than was claimed.
- Add Certification notes and the Client reference.
- Click Certify in full, or Certify with reductions. The certified amount is worked out from the lines.
Disallowed work is not lost: the next bill measures from the certified quantity, so you claim it again once the dispute is settled.
A Project Manager can certify only where they are ticked Certifies on the project's Team tab; the project's named manager has it automatically. The Company Admin can certify on any project.
Retention
Retention is the contract's percentage of each bill's gross, held back from payment.
- Cap — if the contract has one, it limits the total held across all bills, measured against the revised contract value, so approved variations raise the ceiling. Once reached, later bills hold nothing more.
- When — the retention entry is created when the bill is certified, not when it is submitted.
- Release — in Retention entries, click Release, enter the Amount (up to what is outstanding), a Release reference and a Reason, and click Release. Part releases are allowed. Project Manager or Company Admin.
The register also lists retention you hold back from subcontractors, with direction payable.
Advance recovery
Mobilisation and material advances are recovered from each bill at the contract's recovery percentage of the gross. Each recovery is capped twice: never more than the advance still outstanding, and never more than is left of the bill after retention. A final bill takes the whole remaining balance, within the same limit.
Deductions come off in this order: retention, mobilisation advance, material advance, liquidated damages, other deductions. Heavy damages can take Net payable below zero.
The award and contract forms record only Retention % and Advance %. The advance amount, recovery percentage and retention cap cannot be entered in the app yet, so until they are set, recovery shows ₹0 and retention is uncapped.
Retention and recoveries come off the payment, not off the work you supplied. On a bill of ₹16,25,000 gross with 5% retention (₹81,250) and 10% advance recovery (₹1,62,500), the client pays ₹13,81,250 — but GST at 18% is ₹2,92,500, on the full ₹16,25,000. Taxing the net under-reports output tax, which surfaces months later in GSTR reconciliation as amended returns and interest. That is why Gross and Net payable are separate columns.
Send or share a bill
Once a bill is submitted, Send offers This device, Email and WhatsApp; only roles that can submit bills can send them. Share copies a link that opens the bill for a teammate on the project. There is no printable or PDF copy of a bill yet.
The RA Bill Drafting Assistant proposes the next bill's quantities from what was executed and certified, stops at the contract quantity, and drafts the bill for you to confirm.
Related
- Tax invoices — raise the invoice once the bill is certified.
- Change orders — approved variations change what you can bill.
- Contracts — where the retention terms are set.
- Team — who may certify bills on this project.