Retention is one of the messiest accounting problems in construction — and almost every contractor tracks it in a spreadsheet.
What retention actually is
Retention is typically 5–10% of each progress invoice, held back until practical completion and/or the defects liability period ends. On a $10M project that is $500k–$1M of your revenue sitting in the client’s account. The release triggers vary by contract: milestone sign-off, certificate of completion, or a specific date.
The spreadsheet status quo
The typical flow: PM raises a progress claim, finance posts the invoice net of retention, someone manually updates a retention ledger in Excel, and the finance team chases the release date in a calendar reminder. This works until it doesn’t — missed release dates, disputes over amounts, and AR balances that don’t reconcile.
What a proper engine does differently
In Eduba, retention is modelled as a contract-level parameter. Each progress claim automatically splits into billable and retained portions. The retained amount sits in a dedicated AR sub-ledger. Release is triggered by signing a Completion Certificate document — the workflow then auto-generates a retention release invoice.