Offshore Bookkeepers guide

Work-in-progress schedule review

Connect contract activity, costs, billings, and completion evidence.

Connect contract activity, costs, billings, and completion evidence.

The short answer

  • Connect contract activity, costs, billings, and completion evidence.
  • Keep source evidence, reconciliation detail, and unresolved questions together.
  • Leave approval, policy, and accounting judgment with the named finance owner.

Define the review boundary

Start with the reporting date, accounts or projects included, and the person who approves exceptions. This work-in-progress schedule review should explain its scope before anyone changes a record.

Build the evidence packet

Collect project, contract, cost, billing, change order, milestone, and completion evidence. Preserve the original source and give each unresolved item a named owner and due date. A bookkeeper can prepare the detail and document questions without making a policy or accounting judgment.

Reconcile before presenting

Tie the work-in-progress schedule to approved job, matter, or project records and the related ledger accounts. Investigate duplicated costs, closed projects with balances, missing billing status, and source records posted to the wrong project before proposing a change.

Keep approval independent

The bookkeeper can maintain source links and perform approved calculations. Project status, percentage-of-completion judgments, billing decisions, write-offs, and accounting treatment stay with the named project and finance reviewers.

Close with a useful handoff

The final packet should show the period, source reports, reconciled totals, open exceptions, reviewer decision, and next review date. That structure makes work-in-progress schedule review useful for owners and finance managers who need dependable books without losing control.

Keep planning

Sources

  1. Internal Revenue Service, Recordkeeping