Issue a retainage claim

Release withheld retention on the receivables side by creating a Retainage Invoice — the transaction that moves the retained balance back into accounts receivable for customer settlement.

When to use this

Use this when the contract milestone that releases retention has been reached — typically practical completion, defects liability period start, or final handover — and you need to invoice the customer for the retained amount. The claim suitelet lets you release retention selectively, line by line, against the project's outstanding withholdings.

Prerequisites

• The project has at least one Retainage Withheld journal (i.e. retention has previously been captured on a customer invoice for this project)
• Permission to create the AR Retainage Invoice transaction type — see Permissions
• The contract milestone for releasing this retention has been reached (the SuiteApp doesn't enforce this — it's a process discipline)

Walkthrough

1. Open the project (Job) record where the retention was withheld.
2. Click the Create Retainage Claim button at the top of the record. (If your administrator has renamed the button, it may appear under a different label.)
3. The Retainage Claim suitelet opens, with one row per outstanding AR withholding on the project. Each row shows the source invoice, its date, the original invoice amount, the amount retained on that invoice, and how much of that retention has already been claimed.
4. Enter the Amount Claimed for each line you want to release. As an alternative, enter a Percent Claimed and the amount back-calculates from the remaining retained balance. If your administrator has enabled Autofill Max Percentage for Receivables on the Configuration record, the form opens with every line pre-filled at the maximum claimable.
5. (Optional) Review the running totals at the bottom of the sublist — Total Amount Retained, Total Already Claimed, Total Claimed This Run.
6. Click Submit to create the Retainage Invoice.
7. The new AR Retainage Invoice opens in view mode. Its accounting effect is to debit the Retention Claim Debit account (typically your main accounts receivable) and credit the Retention Debit account (the balance-sheet holding account), releasing the retention back to AR.

What success looks like

• A new FC AR Retainage Invoice transaction exists, linked to the project, with one line per withholding you claimed against.
• The project's Invoice Amount Retained rollup on the Retainage subtab has decreased by the total amount claimed.
• The customer's accounts receivable balance increases by the amount claimed — they now owe the retention amount as a normal AR balance.
• The original Retainage Withheld journals still exist but now show an Amount Claimed that matches what was released. Subsequent claims against the same withholdings can only release up to the remaining balance.

Gotchas

• The claim form shows only outstanding withholdings. Once a withholding has been fully claimed, it drops off the list. If you can't find a particular invoice on the claim form, check whether it has been claimed previously by opening the project's Retainage subtab.
• Tax retention claims separately. If your Configuration has Tax Retention enabled, the Tax Amount Claimed column appears alongside the principal amount and the released tax journal posts to the dedicated Tax Retention Account. Don't claim the principal without claiming the tax if both were originally withheld.
• AIA-style print template. The AR Retainage Invoice ships with an Advanced PDF template that renders an AIA-style summary showing claim-to-date, this claim, and original invoice amount. The "Print AIA" button is available on the invoice view. If the button doesn't appear, your administrator may need to set the default PDF template on the Script Parameters.
• Approval status. The AR Retainage Invoice has Unapproved and Approved statuses — only Approved invoices post to the general ledger. If your accounts team requires approval before claims hit AR, leave new invoices Unapproved and have the approver flip the status.
• AP retention is a separate flow. This how-to covers the AR side only. To release withholdings from a vendor's bills, use the Payable Retainage Claim from the vendor record — see Release retainage at handover for both sides.

Related

• Release retainage at handover — the AR final-release and AP-release flows
• Set up retainage on a contract
• Permissions