01
Setup
Schedule of values
Build the SOV once per job. Every pay application draws from it, so line items, contract totals and percentages never drift apart.
Construction billing · Syncs to Xero
Pay applications that already know how the job works.
Forge is the construction layer on top of your books. Schedule of values, change orders, retainage and approvals live here — the finished invoice lands in Xero.
G702 / G703
Pay app format
Per line
Retainage held
One click
Invoice into Xero
Any browser
Office or truck
§01 · The problem
The billing lives in four places.
Nobody planned it that way. The accounting package handles the ledger, so the schedule of values ends up in a spreadsheet, the change orders end up in email, and the pay application gets retyped every month from all three.
It works right up until the month it doesn't — and then someone spends a Saturday finding a $4,000 difference.
Today
In Forge
Schedule of values in a spreadsheet
One SOV per job, and every pay app draws from it
Change orders approved over email
Logged, approved, and folded into the contract sum
Retainage worked out by hand at closeout
Held per line, tracked cumulatively, released in one action
Pay application retyped every month
Enter this period. Everything else is already known
WIP report assembled the week the bank asks
Over/under billing across open jobs, on demand
§02 · What it does
Six things, done properly.
Every part of a billing cycle a general ledger has no opinion about — held here, in the shape the jobsite already uses.
02
Billing
AIA pay applications
G702 and G703 in the format the GC expects — previous billed, this period, stored materials, balance to finish, all calculated as you type.
03
Scope
Change orders
Log a CO, approve it, and the contract sum and the schedule of values update together. No parallel spreadsheet tracking what was signed.
04
Billing
Retainage
Held per line at whatever the contract says, tracked cumulatively, and released when the job gets there — without hand math on the last invoice.
05
Costs
Job costing
Costs land against the job, not just the account. See what a project earned rather than what the month did.
06
Reporting
WIP report
Over/under billing across open jobs, on demand — the number your bonding agent and your banker keep asking for.
§03 · Anatomy of a pay application
One screen, one true number.
This is a G703 continuation sheet as Forge draws it. The only column anyone types into is this period.
Riverside Medical Office Build-Out
App. No. 07
Period to 31 Aug
Retainage 10%
| Item | Description of work | Scheduled | Prev. billed | This period | % | Balance | Retainage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | General conditions | 48,000 | 36,000 | 6,000 | 87.5% | 6,000 | 4,200 |
| 02 | Demolition | 22,500 | 22,500 | — | 100% | — | 2,250 |
| 03 | Framing & drywall | 164,000 | 98,400 | 32,800 | 80.0% | 32,800 | 13,120 |
| 04 | Mechanical | 210,000 | 84,000 | 42,000 | 60.0% | 84,000 | 12,600 |
| 05 | Electrical | 178,500 | 71,400 | 35,700 | 60.0% | 71,400 | 10,710 |
| CO-01 | Added exam room — approved 12 Aug | 34,750 | — | 17,375 | 50.0% | 17,375 | 1,738 |
| Total | 657,750 | 312,300 | 133,875 | 67.8% | 211,575 | 44,618 |
Due this application, less retainage held: $120,487.50
Note A — Change orders
CO-01 became its own line the moment it was approved. The contract sum moved with it; nobody retyped the schedule of values.
Note B — One input
This period is the only column anyone types into. Percentages, balance to finish and retainage all fall out of it.
Note C — Closeout
Retainage accrues per line at the contract rate, so the release at the end of the job is an action, not an afternoon of arithmetic.
§04 · Xero integration
Your books stay where they are.
Xero remains the system of record for the general ledger. Forge doesn't replace it, mirror it, or ask your bookkeeper to learn a second set of accounts.
It handles the part Xero was never built for — then pushes the approved pay application across as a clean invoice, coded to the job.
01
Bill in Forge
SOV, change orders, retainage, stored materials.
02
Approve
PM signs off before anything leaves the office.
03
Push to Xero
Approved pay app becomes an invoice, coded to the job.
04
Books stay clean
Your bookkeeper reconciles in Xero exactly as before.
§05 · Who it's for
General contractors
Thirty jobs, one WIP
Bill owners on AIA forms, track what each sub has billed against their contract, and see the whole portfolio over- and under-billed in one view.
The bank question, answered in a minute
Subcontractors
Get paid on time
Submit in the format the GC will actually accept, first time, with retainage and stored materials already right.
Fewer rejected pay apps
Office & finance
Nothing retyped
The bookkeeper stays in Xero. The office manager stops rebuilding last month’s spreadsheet. The CFO gets job-level margin instead of a monthly total.
One number, one place
§06 · Your data
Short answers only.
Contract values and payment history are sensitive. Forge is built so that the answer to "who can see this" is always short.
Per-user access
Field staff see their jobs. Contract values and margins stay with the people who need them.
Encrypted in transit
TLS on every request, no exceptions, including the Xero sync.
Scoped Xero connection
Forge asks Xero for only the permissions it uses, and you can revoke the connection from Xero at any time.
Your records, exportable
Pay applications and job history export to PDF and CSV. Nothing is held hostage if you leave.
§07 · Getting started
Pricing is scoped to the shop.
A two-person sub billing four jobs a month and a GC running thirty aren't the same product, so they aren't the same price. Tell us the size and scope and you'll get a number, not a tier chart.
01
A short call about how you bill today and how many jobs are open.
02
A walkthrough on one of your real jobs, not a demo dataset.
03
Setup: your schedule of values loaded and the Xero connection made.
Or write directly: Pricing@backburnerlabs.net