Retainage

Retainage is the FullClarity SuiteApp that handles construction retention — the amounts you withhold on customer invoices and supplier bills, hold on the balance sheet, and then release back to settlement once project milestones are met.

What retainage is

In construction accounting, retention (or retainage) is a percentage of every progress claim held back as security until practical completion or another agreed milestone. It applies on both sides of a project: the head contractor withholds retention from their subcontractors' bills, and the customer withholds retention from the head contractor's invoices. The withheld amount sits on the balance sheet rather than in accounts receivable or accounts payable, and is released via a separate retention claim transaction when the milestone is reached.

Manually maintaining retention journals is error-prone — the rate varies by contract, by line, sometimes by stage of the project, and the released amount has to reconcile against the original withholdings invoice by invoice.

What the SuiteApp does

Retainage automates the full cycle on both the receivables and payables sides:

  • Capture retention per line on any Invoice, Credit Memo, Vendor Bill or Vendor Credit, using percentage or amount column fields
  • Post the withholding journal automatically on save — moving the retained amount from accounts receivable (or accounts payable) to a dedicated balance-sheet retention account
  • Drive retention claims through dedicated suitelets that let you release withheld balances line by line, with running totals and claim-to-date tracking
  • Handle tax retention as a separate sub-flow when the tax component on the underlying invoice is also held back
  • Support OneWorld with a separate configuration record per subsidiary, so the right general ledger accounts are used in each
  • Cap retention by percentage or dollar amount at the project level, and apply tiered/sliding rates that change as the project progresses

A combined Retainage subtab on each project record shows accumulated withholdings on both sides, plus the retention tier sublist where used.

Capture vs claim

It helps to think of retainage as two related but separate flows:

Capture happens automatically every time an invoice or bill is saved. The retention rate is sourced from the project (or, if not set there, the customer or vendor), applied to each line, and posted to a withholding journal in the background. You don't have to do anything beyond making sure the rate is set correctly.

Claim happens when you're ready to release retention — typically at practical completion or final handover. You open the claim suitelet from the project or vendor record, choose which withholdings to release, and the system generates the retention invoice (or retention bill on the payables side) that moves the balance back to accounts receivable or accounts payable for settlement.

Where this fits in the ecosystem

Retainage works alongside the other Construction SuiteApps:

  • Project Financials is where the project is created and where retention rates are set at the project level. The Retainage subtab appears inside the same project record.
  • Subcontracts uses the AP side of Retainage when a head contractor withholds retention from subcontractor claims. See the Subcontracts section for how subcontract claims interact with retention.

Next steps

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