Application for Payment & Continuation Sheet

A free application for payment generator that does the arithmetic

Fill in your schedule of values and this builds the payment application and its continuation sheet in front of you — retainage split between completed work and stored materials, previous payments carried forward, current payment due, balance to finish. It runs in your browser. There is no signup and no email wall.

What each line on an application for payment means

The standard application is nine lines, and every one of them is derived from the two things you actually control: your contract sum and your schedule of values. When a GC's accounting department sends an application back, it is almost always one of these.

1 — Original contract sum

What the contract was signed at. Not what you think it is worth now.

2 — Net change by approved change orders

Additions minus deductions, and only approved ones. A change order you have priced but nobody has signed is not part of the contract sum, and billing it is the fastest way to have the whole application rejected.

3 — Contract sum to date

Lines 1 and 2. This should equal the total of your schedule of values. When it does not, this tool tells you by how much.

4 — Total completed and stored to date

Everything earned on the job so far, including material delivered but not yet installed. It is the total of the continuation sheet, not a number you type.

5 — Retainage

What is held back until the end. Usually a flat percentage of everything earned, but completed work and stored materials can be held at different rates, so they are separate here.

6 — Total earned less retainage

Line 4 minus line 5. The running total of what you are owed to date.

7 — Less previous applications for payment

Line 6 from your last application. This is the single most common place an application goes wrong, which is why this tool carries the exact figure forward when you start the next one.

8 — Current payment due

Line 6 minus line 7. The number the whole document exists to produce.

9 — Balance to finish

Contract sum to date minus what you have earned, retainage included. What is left on the job.

What the continuation sheet is for

The continuation sheet is your schedule of values with three columns of progress attached, and it is where the argument actually happens. Each line carries its scheduled value, what you completed on earlier applications, what you completed this period, and any material on site that has not gone in yet. Add those three and you have what the line has earned; subtract that from the scheduled value and you have what is left.

Two rules keep a continuation sheet out of trouble:

• Stored material is not completed work. It stays in its own column until it is installed, then it moves. Moving it early bills it twice.
• No line exceeds its scheduled value. If a line needs more money it needs a change order, not a bigger percentage. This tool flags the line and names the figures.

Setting up a schedule of values

A schedule of values breaks the contract sum into the pieces you will bill against, and the breakdown you choose in month one is the one you live with for the whole job. Two things are worth ten minutes up front:

• Front-load nothing, but do bill mobilization. A schedule where every line is suspiciously round invites line-by-line scrutiny for the rest of the project.
• Give each approved change order its own line. Folding one into an existing line breaks the tie between your schedule of values and your contract sum, and then nothing reconciles.

About AIA G702 and G703

The industry-standard forms for this are AIA Document G702®, Application and Certificate for Payment, and G703®, Continuation Sheet. They are copyrighted documents licensed by The American Institute of Architects, and this tool is not a copy of them. It is an original document that produces the same figures in the same order, which is what most people are looking for when they search for a free G702 template. If your contract requires the AIA forms specifically, license them from AIA — a generated substitute will not satisfy a contract that names the form.

Frequently asked

Is it really free, and do I have to give you an email address?

Yes, and no. There is no account and no email gate, and nothing you type leaves your browser. The tool saves your work on your own device, and Save to a file gives you a copy you can keep or move to another computer.

Can I use it for next month's application?

Start the next application rolls this period into the previous column, keeps your contract, change orders and schedule of values, advances the application number and period, and carries the exact figure this application earned into the next one's previous-payments line. You are not retyping a schedule of values every month.

Does it handle retainage that steps down?

Partly. It holds one rate for completed work and one for stored materials, and you change them when your contract releases. It does not model a step-down schedule automatically — for that, and for retainage tracked across a whole project's worth of subcontractors, you want the paid product.

Can a construction manager use this?

To fill out one application, yes. But a CM's problem is not filling one in, it is reconciling twenty of them against waivers, insurance and photographs before a draw closes. That is a different tool entirely.