Retainage calculator for construction progress payments
Shows how much retainage comes off this progress payment, how much is held in total against the contract ceiling, and the date the balance falls due.
Retainage on this progress payment
The form opens on a contract that is 60 % complete with half of it already billed. Overwrite any figure to match your own job and the result follows.
Formula: the balance held is the lower of the ceiling and the retainage rate applied to the work completed to date, with the part above the completion threshold carried at the reduced rate. What comes off today is that balance minus the retainage already held.
Retainage balance and release date
Withheld from this progress payment$4,250.00
- Completion reached
- 60.0%
- Work completed on the chosen basis
- $510,000.00
- Rate applied to the work completed
- $46,750.00
- Ceiling on total retainage
- $85,000.00
- Balance held after this payment
- $46,750.00
- Retainage already held
- $42,500.00
- This payment before retainage
- $85,000.00
- Payment due now
- $80,750.00
- Same rate on the other tax basis
- $4,250.00
- Retainage falls due
- December 30, 2026
The ceiling is not reached yet: $38,250.00 of headroom is left before it binds.
With no tax rate entered, both bases give the same amount.
The contract clause decides the base, the ceiling and the release date. This is arithmetic on the figures entered above, not legal advice.
Questions about Retainage calculator for construction progress payments
How much retainage can be withheld on a construction contract?
Ten percent of each progress payment is the traditional figure and still common on private work. Public work is often five. More than thirty-five states now regulate the ceiling, several of them requiring a reduction once the job is half complete, so the contract clause and the state statute both have to be read.
When is retainage released?
Usually at final completion, once punch list work is signed off and lien waivers are in. Prompt-payment statutes commonly set thirty to sixty days from that point. A contract that holds part of the money through the warranty period pushes the balance out by a year or more.
Is retainage calculated before or after sales tax?
That is a contract question rather than an arithmetic one. Applying the rate to the tax-inclusive figure withholds more money, by exactly the tax rate. The calculator carries both bases and prints the difference, because a clause that says only ten percent leaves the base open to argument.
Can a bond replace retainage?
Many contracts allow a retainage bond or a letter of credit in place of cash. The owner keeps the security, the contractor keeps the working capital, and the premium is the price of the swap. Substitution has to be agreed in the contract, ideally before the first application for payment.
Use the calculation with your own project data
Request a trial period and tell us which workflow you want to test. We prepare Home Builder Software around that part of your work without fixing a term before we know the scope.