FloQast vs. AuditBoard for Commercial General Contractors

Each active job's percentage of completion, billed to date, and cost to date needs to tie to the general ledger every month, not just when the surety asks for financials. Set the WIP tie-out up as a recurring reconciliation with a named preparer and reviewer, require sign-off before that job's over or under billing balance rolls forward, and flag any job where the estimate to complete moved more than your team's own threshold since last month. FloQast's checklist model fits this step well: it's a repeating reconciliation with the same structure every month, which is exactly the kind of work it's designed to carry forward instead of rebuild.

A change order in progress means cost is already hitting the job while revenue hasn't been authorized to follow it yet. Left alone, that gap sits quietly until year end, when it surfaces as a surprise adjustment nobody can fully explain. Track pending change orders as their own line, separate from approved contract value, require documented client sign-off before recognizing the related revenue, and reconcile that gap every month so it never grows past what one review can explain. This is a policy decision first and a tooling decision second; either platform can hold the reconciliation once the policy exists.

Retainage that ages against a generic aging bucket instead of the job and release terms it's tied to tends to sit uncollected long after it should have converted to cash. Reconcile retainage receivable by job, note the contractual release trigger for each one, and review any balance that's aged past its expected release date. Treated this way, retainage stops being a mystery balance at year end and becomes a schedule someone actively manages, which is the difference between a clean review and a finding. Say a $2 million contract holds back 10 percent retainage until final punch list sign-off: that's $200,000 sitting on the books that shouldn't be forecast as ordinary cash flow, and a schedule that ages it by job keeps that distinction visible to whoever is planning draws against the line of credit.

Bonding companies and banks financing larger jobs frequently require reviewed or audited financial statements, and an auditor testing those statements wants evidence that someone independent reviewed the estimate to complete on each job, not just that the WIP schedule reconciles. That's where AuditBoard earns its place: it documents who reviewed the estimate assumptions, when, and against what evidence, as testable controls rather than a number that happens to tie out. FloQast documents that the schedule is correct; AuditBoard documents that the correctness was actually checked.

Match the tool to whichever step above is genuinely broken for your business right now.

• If your WIP schedule takes days to assemble and nobody trusts the over or under billing number, start with FloQast.
• If your surety or lender has started asking who reviewed the estimate to complete, not just what it says, AuditBoard is the tool built for that ask.
• If retainage aging is the recurring surprise at year end, fix the reconciliation discipline first; the platform matters less than the policy behind it. None of this replaces a project manager's judgment about the estimate itself, both platforms only make the review of that judgment visible.

A joint venture formed for a single large project adds a layer most reconciliation checklists don't anticipate: two or more partner companies each need their proportionate share of the JV's revenue, cost, and WIP position reflected correctly in their own books, on top of the JV's own separate set of financials. Getting that allocation wrong doesn't just misstate one job, it misstates every partner's consolidated financials at once. Reconcile the JV's standalone WIP schedule first, then reconcile each partner's proportionate share on its own, with documentation for the allocation method used. A surety or lender reviewing a JV job tends to ask about that allocation specifically, since it's one of the more common places a contractor's numbers stop holding up under questions.