Free retainage tracking spreadsheet for contractors

Download the retainage tracker

Download the retainage tracker (Excel, .xlsx). No sign-up and no email. It opens in Excel and in Google Sheets: in Google Drive choose New, then File upload, then open the file with Google Sheets.

One job per file, with seven tabs:

• Summary — what is still held from you and when it is due back, what you hold for your subs, what you owe them out of releases you have received, and how much of what is still held is your own money.
• Job Setup — contract value, the retainage rate, any cap, the completion date, and the release deadlines that apply to you.
• Held From You — one row per pay application you send, plus a row for each release you receive. Retainage and the running balance calculate.
• Subs — one row per subcontract you hold retainage on, with each sub’s balance, their share of releases you have received, and the date to pay it by.
• Sub Retainage Log — one row per pay application each sub sends you, and a row for each retainage payment you make to them.
• Release Checklist — what usually has to be in place before retainage is released to you, and before you release your subs’.
• Start Here — how to use it, and how to clear out the sample job.

Blue text is what you type. Black text is a formula. Yellow cells are settings to check against your contract before you start. The file comes with a sample job filled in, so you can see every number working before you clear it out.

How to track retainage

Retainage is money you have earned and billed that your client has not paid you yet. The number that matters is the running balance of what is still held, and it only stays right if every pay application and every release is logged. These are the habits the template is built around.

Log it by pay application, not as a percentage of the contract

Five percent of the contract is only the right answer if the rate never changed and the whole contract has been billed. Rates change partway through some jobs, and some contracts set retainage line by line: AIA’s instructions for the G703 continuation sheet say its retainage column is normally used only for contracts where variable retainage is permitted on a line-item basis. Logging what was actually withheld on each application, at the rate that applied, gives you a balance you can defend. The template uses the rate on Job Setup and lets you override it on any application. AIA Contract Documents

Log each release as its own entry, with the date

A release is money arriving on a date, not a correction to an old pay application. Logged as its own row, it brings the balance down on the day it happened, and the date is on record. That matters when a deadline to pay your subs runs from it.

Track both sides

If you hold retainage from subs, part of every release that reaches you is theirs. California shows how tight that can be: a direct contractor that has withheld retention from subcontractors must pay each one its share within 10 days after receiving all or part of a retention payment. Cal. Civ. Code § 8814

The template estimates each sub’s share pro rata: the retainage you withheld from them, over all the retainage withheld from you, times what has been released to you, less anything you have already paid them. It then shows the date to pay it by. It is an estimate for planning. If your contract or the release names an amount for a particular sub, use that.

Know how much of it is yours

Not everything your client is holding is your money. Part of it is your subs’ retainage, which you will pass on when it is released. The Summary tab splits what is still held into your subs’ share and your own, and on a job where most of the work was subcontracted, your own share can be much smaller than the headline balance.

Caps and release deadlines: California as an example

Every state sets these differently, and many leave them to the contract. California’s private-works rules are worth reading in full, because they cover the three numbers the template asks for on Job Setup: a cap, a deadline for your release, and a deadline to pass it on.

The cap. For a contract on a private work of improvement entered into on or after 1 January 2026, retention withheld from a payment may not exceed 5 percent of the payment, and total retention may not exceed 5 percent of the contract price. It applies at every tier: owner to direct contractor, direct contractor to subcontractor, and subcontractor to the subcontractors under it. And a subcontractor’s retention percentage may not exceed the percentage in the contract between the owner and the direct contractor. Cal. Civ. Code § 8811

There are exceptions. The cap does not apply where a subcontractor was told in writing, before or when the bid was requested, that a performance and payment bond would be required, and then does not furnish one. Nor does it apply to a residential project that is not mixed-use and does not exceed four stories. Cal. Civ. Code § 8811

The owner’s deadline. An owner that withholds retention from a direct contractor must pay it within 45 days after completion of the work of improvement. Cal. Civ. Code § 8812

The pass-through. A direct contractor must pay each subcontractor its share within 10 days after receiving all or part of a retention payment. Cal. Civ. Code § 8814

Federal work runs on different rules again, covered in why construction payments are late. Wherever the job is, put your own numbers on Job Setup: the rate and any cap from your contract, the event your release is tied to, and the number of days that applies.

Getting retainage released

A release that is late is usually waiting on a document. These are the things a release commonly waits on. The template’s Release Checklist tab carries the same list for you to edit, because your contract decides the real one.

1. Is completion documented the way your contract defines it?

   What done looks like: Your contract ties the release to an event: substantial completion, final completion or acceptance. Have the document that proves it, such as a certificate of substantial completion, a notice of completion or the owner’s written acceptance, because the deadline runs from that event, not from when the work felt finished.

2. Is the punch list signed off?

   What done looks like: Get the list closed and signed rather than agreed on site. An open punch item gives the other side a reason to hold the release.

3. Have you sent a lien waiver for the release amount?

   What done looks like: Expect to give a waiver in the amount of the release, of the type the contract asks for, and give a conditional one until the money has cleared. Which waiver ends your rights the moment you sign it is covered in what you’re actually signing on a lien waiver.

4. Do you have your subs’ and suppliers’ waivers, if the contract asks for them?

   What done looks like: Collect lower-tier waivers as part of closeout, before the owner asks for them, so they are not what the release waits on.

5. On a bonded job, has the surety consented?

   What done looks like: On AIA contracts the form is G707A, which AIA says is intended for use when the contractor requests a reduction or release of retainage from the owner. It assures the owner that the release does not relieve the surety of its obligations. AIA Contract Documents

6. Are the closeout documents in?

   What done looks like: Warranties, operation and maintenance manuals and as-built drawings, if the contract lists them. They are cheap to deliver and easy to forget.

7. Have you asked for the release in writing?

   What done looks like: Request it in writing, with every document attached, and keep the date you sent it. Log the release on the Held From You tab the day it arrives.

Reading the sample job

The sample is a general contractor on a $640,000 remodel with $18,500 of approved change orders, at 5% retainage under California’s rules. The figures are illustrative.

It has billed the full $658,500 over six pay applications, and $32,925 has been withheld. The owner released $12,000 early on the site work, so $20,925 is still held. Completion was 18 September, so the rest is due by 2 November, 45 days later.

The contractor has withheld $9,900 from three subs. Their pro rata share of the $12,000 release is $3,608.20, and it is due to them within 10 days of the release arriving on 29 September: by 9 October. Of the $20,925 the owner still holds, $6,291.80 is the subs’ share and $14,633.20 is the contractor’s own money.

When a spreadsheet stops being enough

A file per job works while there are a few jobs and one person keeps them up to date. These are the signs it has stopped working:

• Every pay application is typed in twice, once to send it and once here, and the tracker is always one behind.
• You cannot say how much retainage is held across all your jobs without opening a file for each one.
• A release arrived, nobody logged it, and a sub’s share sat in your account past the deadline.
• Your bank or bonding agent asks for retainage receivable across the business, and it takes a day to build.

At that point retainage belongs in the same system that produces your pay applications, so it is calculated rather than retyped. The applications themselves are covered in how to fill out an AIA G702 and G703 pay application.

Where WorkHoist helps, and where it does not

WorkHoist does the left half of this template from the pay applications you already send. Every line of a WorkHoist pay application carries its own retainage rate, starting from a project default, and the amount is calculated rather than typed. Retainage held adds up per project and across all your projects.

Releases are a step of their own. You raise a release for any amount up to the retainage held, partial releases included, and it is sent and paid like any invoice, with its own dates. It counts as money owed and then as cash on the day it is paid, not as new billing or revenue, so billed to date and revenue stay put while retainage held comes down.

Questions contractors ask

How do you track retainage in construction?

Log every pay application with the amount billed, the retainage rate and the retainage withheld, and keep a running balance of what is still held. Log each release as its own entry with the date it arrived, rather than editing old applications. If you hold retainage from subcontractors, track that side too, because part of every release you receive belongs to them and some states set a short deadline to pass it on. WorkHoist’s free retainage tracker does this for one job in Excel or Google Sheets.

Is there a free retainage tracking spreadsheet?

Yes. WorkHoist’s retainage tracker is a free Excel file, with no sign-up or email required, that also opens in Google Sheets. For one job it tracks the retainage withheld from each pay application you send, each release with its date, the retainage you hold from your subs, each sub’s share of releases you have received, and when each release is due.

When does retainage have to be released?

It depends on the contract and on state law. Contracts usually tie release to substantial completion, final completion or acceptance, and some states set a deadline after that. In California, for example, an owner on a private job must pay retention to the direct contractor within 45 days after completion, and the direct contractor must pay each subcontractor its share within 10 days after receiving it. Check your contract and the statute where the job is.

What is the retainage cap in California?

For private-works contracts entered into on or after 1 January 2026, California Civil Code section 8811 caps retention at 5 percent of each payment and 5 percent of the contract price in total, at every tier, and a subcontractor’s rate may not exceed the rate in the owner’s contract with the direct contractor. The cap does not apply to a residential project that is not mixed-use and does not exceed four stories, or where a subcontractor fails to furnish a performance and payment bond it was told in writing would be required.

How do I work out a subcontractor’s share of a retainage release?

If the contract or the release does not name an amount, one way, and the one WorkHoist’s retainage tracker uses, is pro rata: divide the retainage you withheld from that subcontractor by all the retainage withheld from you, multiply by the amount released to you, and subtract anything you have already paid them. Treat it as an estimate and use the contract’s figure where there is one.

Should retainage be tracked separately from accounts receivable?

Yes. Retainage held from you is money you are owed, but it is not due until it is released, so mixing it into ordinary receivables makes your collections look worse than they are and hides when a release falls due. Track it as its own balance per job, with the release date, and track retainage you hold from subcontractors as a separate amount you owe.