Retainage

Retainage is a percentage of each progress payment — typically 5-10% — withheld by the owner (or by a GC from a subcontractor) until the job reaches substantial completion or closeout. It exists to give the paying party leverage to make sure the work actually gets finished and any punch-list items get closed out, rather than a contractor walking away once most of the job is billed.

Why retainage is easy to lose track of

Retainage isn't a one-time deduction — it accrues, payment by payment, across the entire life of the job, and it has to eventually be released, often in stages tied to specific contract milestones or a formal closeout. A contractor running several jobs at once, each withholding a different percentage under different terms, can lose track of exactly how much is sitting in retainage across the whole business — money that's real and owed, but not yet collectible.

What real retainage tracking requires

Retainage has to be calculated correctly on every progress bill as it's withheld, tracked as its own running balance separate from the invoice history, and released correctly when the contract terms say it should be — not treated as a note buried in an old invoice that someone has to go searching for months later.

How PoPs Suite handles it

Retainage tracks through its full lifecycle inside PoPs Ledger — withheld correctly as part of native AIA progress billing (G702/G703) in PoPs Project Tracker, and tracked as a real running balance rather than a line item that has to be manually reconciled later. Because it's part of the same connected system as the job's billing and budget, retainage owed doesn't require cross-referencing old invoices to figure out what's still outstanding.