Schedule of Values

A free schedule of values template that tells you whether it balances

Break your contract sum into the lines you will bill against, and this shows each line's share of the contract and whether the total actually reconciles. It runs in your browser — no signup, no email. Already have a budget or a proposal? Import it and BuildProof's AI drafts the lines for you to check.

Why the schedule of values is the most important document you will write

It is written once, at the start, and then governs every payment for the rest of the job. Every application for payment is measured against it; every percentage complete is a percentage of one of these lines. Get it wrong and you spend the project arguing about a breakdown you agreed to in week one.

What a good breakdown looks like

• It totals the contract sum exactly. Not approximately. This is the check this tool performs, because a schedule that is out by a few thousand gets rejected and costs a billing cycle.
• It has enough lines to show progress honestly, and not so many that every application is an audit. A line you cannot assess to a percentage at a glance is a line you will argue about.
• It bills mobilisation and closeout separately. Real costs land at both ends of a job, and a schedule that ignores them forces you to hide those costs in other lines.
• It gives each approved change order its own line as the job goes on. Folding a change into an existing line breaks the tie between the schedule and the contract sum.

Front-loading, and why the reviewer is looking for it

Front-loading means weighting early lines so that cash arrives sooner than the work is actually done. Everyone knows it happens, which is why an experienced reviewer reads a new schedule of values with exactly that in mind. This tool flags any single line worth more than a quarter of the contract — not because that is always wrong, but because it is the line that will be asked about.

The genuine version of the same problem: a line that is too big is also a line that is hard to assess. "Framing — $860,000" invites an argument every month about whether it is 40% or 55% complete. Three lines of framing by area do not.

What it does not do

This produces one schedule. It does not carry it into monthly applications, track what has been billed against each line, reconcile it against a takeoff, or notice when a change order has left it out of balance. That is the paid product — and the free application for payment tool will at least take this schedule forward by hand.

Frequently asked

What is a schedule of values?

The breakdown of a contract sum into the billable line items you invoice against each month on a pay application.

Why must it balance to the contract sum?

Because the continuation sheet's totals are checked against the contract sum; a mismatch is the most common cause of a rejected pay application.

What is front-loading?

Overstating early-period values so you collect cash ahead of work performed. Reviewers screen for it and it invites line-by-line scrutiny.

How detailed should the lines be?

Detailed enough that each line can be verified against actual work, coarse enough to manage, and every approved change order gets its own line.