Advances on a construction contract: deducted on every invoice, no manual math
Every act raises the same question: how much of the advance gets deducted right here? Until now, the answer meant going back to the contract, a calculator, and a recheck of what's already been deducted - a few minutes in which a single cent is easy to miss.
In Construction Team, the answer appears on its own.
The amount is suggested automatically
Take a percentage advance - an invoice from an act worth 50,000.00 BGN, under a contract with a 20% advance - and the deduction field already shows 10,000.00 BGN: the same percentage, applied to the value of this act, capped only by what's actually still left of the advance. No digging up the old contract, no recalculating from scratch. If the specific case calls for a different amount, the field is edited right there, before the invoice goes out.
Projects / Contracts / Shell construction, Via Park residential complex
Financial Terms
Advance Payment
Issue advance documentType
Percent (20%)
Expected advance
120,000.00 BGN
Base Amount
100,000.00 BGN
VAT (20%)
20,000.00 BGN
Total with VAT
120,000.00 BGN
Utilized
0.00 BGN / 0.00 BGN (0%)
Retainage
No retainage configured for this contract
Every contract carries an advance condition - here 20% of the value. The expected 120,000.00 BGN is waiting to be issued.
The remaining balance shows without counting
The contract card shows received, deducted and remaining at any moment - without paging back through documents to check what's already been used. For a contract with a 120,000.00 BGN advance received, after the first deduction the card immediately shows 12,000.00 BGN deducted and 108,000.00 BGN remaining for the next acts.
Both directions, two different types
Advances don't only come from clients. For a subcontractor under a rebar supply contract, the company paid an advance of 20,000.00 BGN - not a percentage, but a fixed amount agreed in advance. Here the deduction doesn't follow a percentage of each act, but the share the act represents of the contract's total value: a 30,000.00 BGN delivery under a 150,000.00 BGN contract is 20% completion, so the suggested deduction is 20% of the fixed 20,000.00 BGN - 4,000.00 BGN. A larger delivery would suggest a larger deduction, a smaller one a smaller deduction, always against the same base.
The advances list shows both types in one place - received from clients and paid to subcontractors - with a clear direction marker on every row, instead of searching contract by contract.
Where it stops
There's no separate register of deductions. The total is visible on the contract card, and the deduction itself shows up as a line on the specific invoice it was made from.
When it pays off
When checking one advance takes less time than the deduction itself - a glance at the suggested amount, a confirmation, done.
Frequently asked questions
How do I know how much of the advance to deduct on a specific invoice?
You don't have to calculate it. When you issue an invoice from an act, the system suggests the amount on its own - based on the contract percentage and on what's actually still left undeducted. The field stays editable if the specific case calls for it.
Do I have to keep track of how much of the advance is left manually?
No. The contract card shows received, deducted and remaining at any moment, and the advances list brings all contracts together in one place.
Can I change the suggested deduction amount?
Yes. The suggestion is a starting point, not an obligation - the field is editable before the invoice goes out.
Does the same logic apply to advances we pay to subcontractors?
Yes, the direction doesn't change the math - an advance received from a client and an advance paid to a subcontractor are tracked the same way. What differs is the type of the advance itself, percentage or fixed amount, not the direction of the money.
What's the difference between deducting a percentage and deducting a fixed amount?
With a percentage advance, every act deducts the same percentage of its own value, limited only by what's actually still left. With a fixed amount, the deduction follows the share of the contract's total value that this particular act covers - a larger act carries a larger deduction, a smaller one a smaller deduction, against the same fixed base.