Retentions

In industries like construction, retentions are final amounts of payments held back by a customer or contractor to ensue the satisfactory completion of a project. The retention is generally a percentage of the gross value of work done over a period. Once a contract has been completed in the period mandated by the contract, the subcontractor can submit an invoice to recoup the amount of the retention.

A retention can be — for example, 10% of the contract amount of a job. You can break this down further — for example, pay out 5% of the retention amount after two months, and pay out the remaining 5% two months after that.

You can use Job Costing to:

Create, edit, and track retentions.
Invoice retentions following the completion of work.

How Greentree Desktop Calculates Retentions

Greentree calculates and tracks retentions as part of the job invoicing process by tracking the amount a contractor invoices and applying a percentage to each retention break using this formula:

Gross value of invoice x Retention percentage

For example, ...

Retention Workflow

To set up retentions, you must:

Enable retentions for a company on the Job Cost Module Control form.
Specify whether retentions should be deducted for job cost sales codes.
Set up job templates to use retentions (if you plan to use templates to create jobs).
Create a job that uses, and tracks, retentions. This involves:
- Setting due dates
- Setting up retention breaks
Calculate the retention. Greentree Desktop does this automatically when you create a job cost AR invoice for the job.
As you add new lines to the invoice, the values on the Retentions tab update. Then, create a pro-forma invoice (which doesn't generate a transaction).
Claim the retention.
On the Retentions tab of the Job Maintenance form, click the Claim Retentions button.