Features
Pay Application Software for Subcontractors
Bill your GC each period with AIA-style pay applications: a schedule of values that prefills from your accepted bid and approved change orders, retainage tracked on every pay app, and an approval workflow from draft through paid. Email the PDF without leaving BuildWorkPro.
Bill every period without the end-of-month scramble
If you bill a GC monthly, you know the drill: dig out last month's pay app, reconcile what you already billed, chase down approved change orders, rebuild the spreadsheet, and hope the math holds. In BuildWorkPro, a pay app is created against the project — set the period start and end, and the original contract sum prefills from your accepted bid while the change orders total pulls from your approved change orders. Retainage defaults to 10% and adjusts to whatever your contract says.
The schedule of values does the bookkeeping between periods. The first pay app on a project seeds its lines from pending approved change orders; every pay app after that carries forward the lines and previous-period totals from the one before it. Each period you enter what was completed and any materials stored, and BuildWorkPro rolls it up into the amount due. Numbering is automatic too — pay apps are assigned per-project numbers like P-1024-PA001. The docs cover the details: creating a pay app and the schedule of values.
New to progress billing? Our guide to AIA pay applications explains the format, the math, and what GCs look for before they approve.
Key capabilities
Schedule of values
Every line tracks scheduled value, previous apps, this period, materials stored, and total to date, with a grand total row summing the contract. Previous billings carry forward from the prior pay app and lock once an earlier pay app exists.
Prefilled contract sums
The original contract sum prefills from the project's accepted bid and the change orders total from approved change orders — the contract value on your pay app matches the job, not a stale spreadsheet.
Retainage on every pay app
Set Retainage % when you create the pay app — it defaults to 10 and adjusts per pay app to match your contract terms, so the holdback is part of the math instead of an afterthought.
Approval workflow
Draft, Submitted, Approved, Rejected, Paid. Submitting locks the pay app for editing, rejections carry a written reason, and a workflow stepper on the detail page shows who acted at each step.
AIA-style PDF
Preview the pay app PDF in a dialog or download it directly — files are named after the document, like PayApp-P-1024-PA001.pdf. Progress billing with the schedule of values your GC expects.
Email from the app
Send to Customer emails the pay app with the PDF attached automatically. Pick an email template with merge fields for the document number, project name, and amount, set To, Cc, and Bcc, and send.
How it works
Create the pay app
Pick the project and set the period start and end. The original contract sum and change orders total prefill, retainage defaults to 10%, and the pay app number is assigned automatically — or set your own.
Enter this period's progress
Work down the schedule of values: enter This Period and any Materials Stored for each line. Previous billings are already carried forward from the prior pay app, so you only touch what changed.
Submit for approval
Submitting locks the pay app for editing. A company admin or manager reviews the schedule of values, then approves it for payment or rejects it back to draft with a reason.
Send it and record payment
Email the PDF to your customer straight from the detail page. When the money lands, Mark as Paid closes the loop — or click Create Invoice to bill from the approved pay app directly.
Full walkthrough in the docs: Creating a pay app · Schedule of values · Approval workflow
Frequently asked questions
What is a pay application?
A pay application (or pay app) is the document a subcontractor submits to a general contractor to bill for work completed during a billing period. It breaks the contract into a schedule of values, shows what was billed in prior periods, what was completed this period, and any materials stored on site, then accounts for retainage to arrive at the current amount due. In BuildWorkPro, each pay app is tied to one project and moves through an approval workflow from Draft to Paid.
How does the schedule of values work in BuildWorkPro?
When you create a pay app, the Original Contract Sum prefills from the project's accepted bid and the Change Orders Total prefills from approved change orders. The first pay app on a project seeds its schedule of values from any pending approved change orders, and every later pay app carries forward the lines and previous-period totals from the one before it. Each period you enter This Period and Materials Stored for each line, and BuildWorkPro rolls it all up into the amount due.
How does retainage work?
Every pay app has a Retainage % field, set when you create it. It defaults to 10 and is adjustable per pay app to match whatever your contract specifies. BuildWorkPro tracks retainage on each pay app so the amount you bill reflects what the customer is holding back.
What does the approval workflow look like?
A pay app moves through five statuses: Draft, Submitted, Approved, Rejected, and Paid. Submitting locks the pay app for editing; a company admin or manager then approves it for payment, or rejects it back to Draft with a written rejection reason. Once approved, Mark as Paid records the payment, and a workflow stepper on the detail page shows where the pay app stands and who acted at each step.
Does BuildWorkPro produce AIA-style PDFs I can send to my GC?
Yes. Every pay app renders to a PDF you can preview in a dialog, download, or email straight from the detail page — files are named after the document, like PayApp-P-1024-PA001.pdf. The Send to Customer dialog attaches the PDF automatically and supports email templates with merge fields for the document number, project name, and amount. BuildWorkPro produces AIA-style progress billing documents with a schedule of values and retainage — not the copyrighted AIA G702/G703 forms themselves.
How much does it cost?
Pay applications are included in the single BuildWorkPro plan: $79/month (or $790/year) with unlimited users and every feature included. There is a 14-day free trial with no credit card required.
Get the pay app out the door on time
Pay applications are included in the $79/month flat plan — unlimited users, every feature. 14-day free trial, no credit card required.
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