How to build a schedule of values (free schedule of values template)

Download the schedule of values template

Download the schedule of values template (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 file per job, with these tabs:

• Schedule of Values — one line per section of the work or subcontractor. Enter your estimated cost; the scheduled values calculate so they add up to your contract sum, and each line is checked against its share of overhead and profit.
• Contract — the job, the original contract sum, the retainage rates, and any limits your contract puts on bonds and insurance, mobilization and closeout.
• Change Orders — approved change orders, each billed on its own line at the end of the schedule from the first pay application after it was signed.
• Billing — each month, the share of each line installed to date, and the materials stored on site but not yet installed.
• Pay App Log — the period, the date sent, what you asked for, what was certified, what was paid, and how long it took.
• Continuation Sheet — any pay application laid out line by line, with the totals that carry to the summary, ready to print or save as a PDF.
• Summary, Checklist and Start Here — the checks to clear before you submit, and how to use the file.

Blue text is what you type. Black text is a formula. Yellow cells are settings to fill in from your contract. The file comes with a sample job, dated relative to the day you open it, so every check and every status shows.

What a schedule of values is, and when you need one

A schedule of values is the breakdown of your contract sum that every pay application is measured against. AIA Contract Documents describes it as allocating the entire contract sum to various portions of the contractor’s work, typically as a table with a row for each portion, such as demolition, drywall, doors or electrical, and its scheduled value. AIA Contract Documents

Under AIA’s general conditions, A201-2017 §9.2, the contractor submits one where the contract is a stipulated sum or a guaranteed maximum price, before the first application for payment. It is prepared in the form, and supported by the data to substantiate its accuracy, that the architect requires, and unless the architect objects it becomes the basis for reviewing the contractor’s applications for payment. CSI AIA Contract Documents

Other contracts say much the same. EJCDC’s general conditions, as quoted by the Construction Specifications Institute, ask for a preliminary schedule of values within 10 days after the contract’s effective date, with prices that add up to the contract price, and say no progress payment will be made until acceptable schedules are submitted. On federal fixed-price construction contracts, every progress payment request has to itemize the amounts requested by the elements of work, and list each subcontractor’s work, subcontract amount and payments to date. CSI Acquisition.gov

A schedule of values matters most on lump sum work and on cost-plus work with a guaranteed maximum price. Unit price work is paid by the units completed instead, so it typically does not need one. CSI

AIA does not publish a standard schedule of values form; the schedule is yours to prepare. Its G703 continuation sheet is often used to record it, and the G703’s scheduled values are filled in to match the schedule you submitted, so the schedule is worth getting right before the first pay application. AIA Contract Documents AIA Contract Documents AIA Contract Documents

How to build a schedule of values from your estimate

Pick the lines

Break the work down by section of the work or by subcontractor, and keep the same lines for the whole job: AIA’s continuation sheet instructions say the breakdown should remain consistent throughout the project. Specifications often go further. CSI describes breakdowns by area of the project, then specification section, then type of work, sometimes split again into materials, delivery, equipment and installation, and notes that a Division 01 section, 01 29 73, may require a particular breakdown. AIA Contract Documents CSI CSI

More lines usually means fewer arguments. CSI’s advice to reviewers is that greater detail tends to mean fewer disagreements about what is eligible for payment. A large line that runs for months is a monthly argument about one percentage; smaller lines get finished and billed. CSI

Spread overhead and profit across the lines

Start from your estimate’s cost for each line. Your overhead and profit then have to go somewhere, and the even-handed answer is across every line in proportion to its cost. EJCDC’s general conditions say the prices in a schedule of values include an appropriate amount of overhead and profit applicable to each item of work. CSI

The template does this for you. Each line’s calculated value is its cost times your contract sum divided by your total cost, rounded to the dollar, and the few dollars of rounding go on the largest line so the total lands exactly on the contract sum. In the sample job, the estimate is $1,033,000 against a $1,186,000 contract, so every line carries 14.8% on its cost:

Make it add up to the contract sum, exactly

The schedule allocates the entire contract sum, so the lines must total it to the dollar; checking that they add up to the contract price is the first arithmetic check CSI lists for a reviewer. Approved change orders are not worked into the original lines. AIA’s instructions say they are usually listed separately, at the end of the schedule or on a continuation sheet of their own. AIA Contract Documents CSI AIA Contract Documents

Give the early items their own lines, inside your contract’s limits

General conditions, bonds and insurance, and mobilization are worth separate lines, because the money is spent on a different curve from the work. They are also where contracts set limits. Among the things CSI tells a reviewer to check are provisions capping bonds and insurance at a set share of the contract price, or requiring a minimum share for demobilization, and it lists limits on bonds, insurance, mobilization and demobilization as ways a Division 01 section can reduce front-end loading. Put your contract’s limits on the template’s Contract tab and its Summary checks them. CSI CSI

Keep the backup

Every number should trace back to your estimate, a subcontract or a quote. CSI’s advice is that the amounts should be supported by documentation that is well organized and ready to send, because a reviewer who sees a figure that looks unreasonable will ask for it. And if your contract pays progress from a cost-loaded construction schedule, the lines and their values should be identical in both. CSI

Roll your subcontractors’ schedules into yours

Your subs bill you against schedules of values of their own; on AIA’s subcontract pay application, the G702S and G703S, the subcontractor prepares it. Ask for each sub’s schedule to add up to its subcontract amount and to break down along the same lines you bill, so you can see whether a sub is billing ahead of the work you are billing the owner for. AIA Contract Documents

Front-loading, and why reviewers look for it

Front-end loading is putting inflated values on lines that start early, such as mobilization, bonds or demolition, so that more of the contract is paid sooner. CSI describes it as something a contractor may do to improve its cash flow, and notes that owners and the contractor’s surety both have a strong interest in the contractor not being paid more than the work performed merits. CSI

Reviewers look for it. CSI’s advice to architects and construction managers is to check whether each line’s amount looks reasonable for its work and to ask for the documentation behind any obviously high or low line, because a line set too low may mean the rest of its value has gone onto another line. It also explains why sureties care: on a bonded job, paying the contractor ahead of the work raises the risk that, if the contract is terminated, the unpaid balance is not enough to finish the work and the surety walks away from its obligations. And the first progress payment should not be certified until the schedule is accepted, so a schedule sent back costs you the first payment’s timing. CSI

The money also has to come from somewhere. Every dollar loaded onto an early line is a dollar taken off a later one, so the last lines are underfunded when you reach them. The total does not show it, because it still adds up. The template compares each line’s value with its share, its cost plus the job’s overhead and profit rate, and flags any line more than 10% above or below; you can change the 10% on the Contract tab.

Billing against the schedule

Each month, every line gets the work completed on earlier applications, the work completed this period and the materials presently stored. The two mistakes that cost money both carry from one month to the next. Stored materials stay out of the previous column until they are installed. And the next application’s previous certificates are what was certified, not what you billed: the architect can certify a different amount from the one applied for, and the owner pays on the certified amount. Our pay application walkthrough covers every column. AIA Contract Documents AIA Contract Documents

The template’s Billing tab asks for one figure per line each month: the share of the line installed to date. Stored materials go in separately and are entered again every period until they are installed, the way AIA’s instructions ask for that column to be recalculated each period. The Pay App Log takes the certified amount when it comes back, and the next application’s previous certificates use it. AIA Contract Documents

Whether stored materials can be billed at all is set by your contract. On federal fixed-price construction contracts, materials delivered to the site may be taken into account, and materials stored anywhere else only if the contract specifically allows it and the contractor shows it has title to them. Acquisition.gov

Changing the schedule mid-job

Once it is in use, the schedule should not move without agreement. Under A201, changes to it are submitted to the architect with the data to support them. CSI’s advice is that amounts should not be revised unless the reviewer, contractor and owner agree, with documentation behind any money moved between lines, and that when a change order changes the contract price, the schedule is updated before the next pay application. AIA Contract Documents CSI

In practice that update is a new line: each approved change order is billed on its own line at the end of the schedule. Our free change order template keeps the log those lines come from.

Reading the sample

The sample job is made up: a $1,186,000 office fit-out with 17 lines, two approved change orders and four pay applications, dated relative to the day you open the file.

• Mobilization is front-loaded on purpose. Its share is $10,333, but its agreed value is $24,000: 2.3 times its share, and 2.0% of the contract against the sample’s 1.5% limit, so it is flagged twice. The $13,667 came out of painting, which is flagged as 31% below its share. The total still lands on the contract sum, which is why the total alone never catches front-loading.
• Pay application 2 was cut by $8,500 when the architect certified drywall at a lower percentage than was billed. Pay application 3’s previous certificates use the certified figure, so the $8,500 comes back on pay application 3.
• $46,000 of HVAC equipment was stored on site at the end of pay application 3 and installed during pay application 4. On pay application 4 it is in this period’s work and out of stored materials, and it never reaches the previous column as stored material.
• Change order 1, $18,400, was signed after pay application 2 closed, so it first appears on pay application 3. Change order 2, $9,750, appears on pay application 4 with nothing billed yet.
• Pay application 3 is certified and not yet paid. Pay application 4 has been sent and is waiting for its certified amount.

The limits and retainage rates in the sample are placeholders, not a recommendation. Set your own on the Contract tab before you enter your job.

When a spreadsheet stops being enough

One file per job works while one person bills it. These are the signs it has stopped working:

• The percentages on the pay application are argued from memory, because nobody on site wrote down what was installed.
• Your subs’ schedules and yours live in different files, and nobody can say whether a sub has billed ahead of you.
• Change orders reach the schedule a month late, or not at all.
• You run several jobs and cannot see what is billed, certified and unpaid across all of them.

At that point the schedule of values belongs in the same system as the budget, the change orders and the invoices, so the budget and every approved change order reach the pay application without being typed in twice.

Where WorkHoist helps, and where it does not

WorkHoist builds the first pay application’s schedule of values from the job budget. Each budget line becomes a line on the schedule, weighted by its cost and markup, and the whole schedule is scaled so it totals the contract sum to the cent, with any rounding put on the largest line. Every line is scaled by the same factor, so the starting schedule spreads the contract across the lines in proportion to their cost and markup rather than loading it onto early lines. Every pay application after that carries the schedule forward from the one before, with the values you agreed and any lines you added, and adds change orders approved since, each on its own line at the end at the price to the owner.

Every scheduled value can be edited on the pay application, and the screen says whether the schedule totals the contract plus approved change orders or is over or short, and by how much. Percent complete, balance to finish and retainage are calculated for each line, and the project’s billing view keeps a running schedule of values across every pay application you have sent: scheduled value, billed to date, retainage held and balance.

Questions contractors ask

What is a schedule of values in construction?

A schedule of values is a breakdown of the contract sum into lines, by section of the work or by subcontractor, each with a scheduled value, that together add up to the whole contract sum. Each pay application bills against those lines: work completed to date, materials stored, percent complete and balance to finish. Under AIA’s A201-2017 general conditions, the contractor submits it to the architect before the first application for payment, and it becomes the basis for reviewing every application.

Is there a free schedule of values template?

Yes. WorkHoist’s schedule of values template is a free Excel file, with no sign-up or email, that also opens in Google Sheets. It builds the schedule from your estimated costs so the lines add up to your contract sum, flags any line carrying more or less than its share of overhead and profit, and includes a billing tab, a continuation sheet for each pay application and a log of what was requested, certified and paid.

How do you create a schedule of values?

List the lines, by section of the work or by subcontractor, and put your estimated cost against each. Spread your overhead and profit across the lines in proportion to their cost, so each line carries its share and the lines add up exactly to the contract sum. Give general conditions, bonds and insurance, and mobilization their own lines and keep them within any limits in your contract. Keep the backup for every line, and submit the schedule in the form your contract or architect requires before your first pay application.

What is front-loading a schedule of values?

Front-loading, or front-end loading, is putting inflated values on lines that are done early in the job, such as mobilization or bonds, so more of the contract is paid sooner. The money comes off later lines, which are then underfunded. Owners and sureties both have an interest in the contractor not being paid ahead of the work, and reviewers can ask for the documentation behind any line that looks too high or too low.

When is a schedule of values due?

Under AIA A201-2017, before the first application for payment. EJCDC’s general conditions ask for a preliminary schedule of values within 10 days after the contract’s effective date, and say no progress payment will be made until acceptable schedules are submitted. Your own contract may set a different deadline, so check it.

Does AIA have a schedule of values form?

No. AIA does not publish a standard schedule of values form. Its G703 continuation sheet is often used to record the schedule of values, with its scheduled values matching the schedule the contractor submitted. AIA’s documents are copyrighted and licensed for use, so a spreadsheet laid out like them is not the AIA document itself.

Can you change a schedule of values after it is approved?

Yes, but not on your own. Under AIA A201-2017, changes to the schedule of values are submitted to the architect with data to support them, and money moved between lines should be agreed with the reviewer and the owner and documented. Approved change orders are usually added as lines of their own at the end of the schedule rather than worked into the original lines.