What Is a WIP Schedule? (The Version for Creative Businesses)
Updated: 3 hours ago
Someone said "WIP" in a meeting. You nodded. Then you googled it and found pages about construction contracts, surety bonds, and cost-to-cost percentages. Useful if you build buildings. Not useful if you build brands. If you run an agency, a design studio, an architecture practice, a production company, or a photography business, you have WIP whether you have ever called it that or not. Here is what a WIP schedule actually is, and how to build one in QuickBooks Online without buying anything.
What a WIP schedule actually is
One sentence: a WIP schedule is a list of your active projects showing the work completed, the revenue earned, and the amount billed so far.
Its whole purpose is to expose one number: work you have done but not yet billed. On project-based work, that gap is always there. You deliver the concepts on Tuesday and invoice at month end. You work the retainer hours in October and bill them in November. Between those moments, your income statement says nothing about the work in flight. The WIP schedule says it out loud.
In plain terms: a WIP schedule shows what you have earned but not yet invoiced, project by project.
WIP in construction vs. WIP in a creative studio
Construction owns the term, so let us borrow it properly. The idea is identical; the inputs are different.
Construction WIP | Creative business WIP | |
What counts as work in progress | Contract value earned on fixed-price jobs | Hours delivered, milestones hit, revisions completed |
The money that arrives early | Progress billings | Deposits and retainer balances |
What the schedule watches | Unbilled contract value | Unbilled time and unearned deposits |
Who reads it | Surety companies and lenders | You, before you decide anything |
Same concept, different world. Nothing below involves change orders or retainage.
The three numbers your creative WIP schedule tracks
Earned but not billed. Hours logged, drafts approved, work delivered that has not hit an invoice yet. This is the heart of WIP for a creative business. If you bill monthly in arrears, every mid-month project day lives here.
Billed but not earned. The mirror image. A 50% deposit in September is not September revenue; it is a liability until the work happens. A retainer balance is the same trap on a monthly loop: cash in the bank that is not income. (We untangled this in our post on tracking retainers and billing periods.)
Cost of work in progress. Freelancers, stock footage, font and software licenses, studio time, already spent on projects that are still open. Costs on finished projects are history. Costs on active projects are part of what the schedule should be able to see.
Track those three and you can answer the question the monthly P&L never asks: how much work is sitting in the room, finished or half-finished, that no one has paid for yet?
How to build a WIP schedule in QuickBooks Online
Good news first: you do not need new software. QuickBooks Online Projects covers everything this schedule needs. Here is the build:
Turn on Projects (Settings, then Projects) and create one project per active engagement.
Assign every deposit and retainer payment to the project, and record it as a liability (deferred revenue), not income. It converts to revenue as the work is delivered.
Track unbilled time: if you use time tracking in QBO, assign the hours to the project and leave them unbilled until invoiced. If you track time elsewhere (Harvest, Toggl, your project tool), enter the totals into the schedule manually each month.
Assign every project cost to the project: subcontractor invoices, licenses, stock, direct expenses. This is the habit step. The report is only as honest as the tagging.
Each month, pull the Project Profitability report, then fill in the schedule: earned to date, billed to date, unbilled balance, percent complete.
That is the mechanics. The judgment part is "earned to date": for milestone work it is milestones delivered; for hourly work it is hours times rate; for retainers it is the portion of the retainer the month's work has consumed. You will develop a consistent rule. The point is to apply the same rule every month, not to be perfect.
The free WIP schedule template
We built a one-tab schedule that does all of this without formulas beyond subtraction. Nine columns, one row per active project:
Column | What goes in it | Where it comes from |
Project | Project name | QuickBooks Projects |
Client | Client name | Project detail |
Contract or retainer value | Total agreed value, or the monthly retainer amount | Your proposal |
Deposits received | Money in, not yet earned | The deferred revenue balance |
Costs to date | Subcontractors, stock, licenses, direct costs | Project profitability report |
Earned to date | Work delivered, using your percent-complete rule | Time data plus judgment |
Billed to date | Invoiced so far | Project income |
Unbilled balance | Earned minus billed | Calculated |
Percent complete | Your estimate, updated monthly | You |
And one worked example, a hypothetical brand identity engagement: $12,000 contract, $4,000 deposit received, $9,000 earned, $4,000 billed. The unbilled balance is $5,000. That number is the whole reason the schedule exists. It is money you have earned and not asked for.
Want the schedule without building it? Download the free WIP schedule template (Excel). Includes the worked example and an automatic earned-minus-billed calculation. No email required.
Frequently asked questions
What is a WIP schedule in simple terms?
A WIP schedule is a list of active projects showing the revenue earned so far and the amount billed so far. The difference between the two is work you have done but not yet invoiced.
What is the difference between WIP and deferred revenue?
They are opposites that both hide money. WIP is earned but not yet billed (you did the work, the invoice has not gone out). Deferred revenue is billed but not yet earned (the deposit arrived, the work has not happened). A healthy schedule tracks both directions.
Can QuickBooks Online do a WIP schedule?
Yes, with Projects plus one monthly routine: assign deposits as deferred revenue, keep time and costs assigned to projects, and pull the Project Profitability report to fill in the schedule. Many studios keep the schedule itself in a simple spreadsheet like the one above.
Is WIP management only for construction and professional services firms?
No. Construction owns the vocabulary, but any business that delivers work before invoicing it has work in progress. Agencies, studios, architects, production companies, and photographers all carry unbilled work, and it is worth seeing on one page.
See the gap in your own books
If the unbilled number in the example made you sit up a little, take the free QuickBooks file health quiz first: about two minutes, seven questions, no email required.
And if you would rather have a bookkeeper who speaks creative-business fluently keep the schedule current for you, get a quote by email. Learn more about our bookkeeping for marketing agencies.
Keeping a WIP schedule current takes discipline, and it's easy for it to slip when client work gets busy. I maintain project cost tracking in QuickBooks Online for creative firms, so the numbers stay reliable month after month. See how project-based bookkeeping works.
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