Progress bill calculator: advance, retention and VAT.
Enter the contract, the advance, the retention and the work done to date. Get the bill the way a UAE tax invoice should show it, with the VAT on the right figure, deductions before or after VAT. Free, no sign-up, and nothing you type is saved.
Still doing retention and progress bills in Excel? Most small contractors are. This is the arithmetic Mizarah does on every bill, so you can check yours.
The advance and the retention come off first, and VAT is charged on what is left. Use one method for the whole bill. Never mix them.
WhatsApp messages only. I reply myself, and we can move to a Google Meet to look at your jobs.
Why the figures come out the way they do.
- Deductions before VAT
- The advance and the retention come off the work first. VAT is 5% of what is left. The retention is held without VAT, so its VAT is charged on the release invoice.
- Deductions after VAT
- VAT is 5% of the whole work first. The advance and the retention come off with their VAT. The retention's VAT is already on each bill, so the release carries none.
- The advance's VAT is declared once
- Receiving the advance is a tax point: its tax invoice declares the VAT the day the money lands. A later bill never declares that VAT again.
- One method per bill, never mixed
- Taking the advance off before VAT and the retention after it is wrong. Pick one method and every deduction follows it.
- A contract bills exactly 100%
- Across the advance, the bills and the retention release, never more and never less. A bill that would pass 100% is refused.
The small version: work 100, advance 30%, retention 10%. Before VAT: 100 − 30 − 10 = 60, plus VAT 3, payable 63. After VAT: 100 plus VAT 5 = 105, less 31.50 and 10.50, payable 63.
The same maths, as a spreadsheet.
Ten bills on one sheet: enter the contract, the advance, the retention and the work done to date, and choose the method. It works out each bill, the VAT, the retention held so far, the advance tax invoice and the retention release, and refuses a bill that would pass 100%.
Opens in Excel or Google Sheets. Checked against the same reference contract as the calculator.
Retention, the advance and VAT, answered.
- Is VAT on the retention charged now, or when it is released?
- It depends on the method the bill uses. With deductions before VAT the retention is held without VAT, and its 5% VAT is charged on the invoice that releases it, whenever that is. With deductions after VAT the retention's VAT is already on each bill, so the release carries no VAT. Either way it is declared once.
- Is VAT worked out on the gross amount or the net amount?
- Before VAT: on the net, after the advance and the retention come off. After VAT: on the gross work, and the advance and the retention are then taken off including their VAT, with the advance's VAT already declared shown as a deduction from the VAT on this invoice. With percentage deductions both give the same payable.
- How is the advance taken back on each progress bill?
- In proportion to the work billed. With a 30% advance, every bill takes back 30% of the work on that bill, so the advance is fully recovered when the contract reaches 100%.
- Do I declare the advance's VAT again on the progress bill?
- No. The advance tax invoice declared it when the advance was received. On a bill with deductions after VAT, that VAT is shown and taken off the VAT on the work, so the VAT payable on the bill is only the new VAT.
- Is this the same as an IPC, an interim payment certificate or a running bill?
- Yes, these are different names for the same thing: a bill for the work done so far on a contract, less the advance recovered, the retention and what was billed before, with VAT. The calculator works for any of them.
- Can the two methods give different payables?
- With percentage deductions, as here, they give the same payable. With fixed amounts they can differ, and that is correct: the two methods are different, and neither should be forced to match the other.
- Is this tax advice?
- No. It is a calculator that follows the UAE VAT treatment we build into Mizarah. Confirm anything that matters with your accountant or the Federal Tax Authority.
Stop doing retention and progress bills in Excel.
Mizarah takes the advance back, holds the retention per job until you release it, and declares the VAT once, on tax invoices in Arabic and English. Built by the accountant of a UAE joinery of 13 years. WhatsApp messages only; we can move to a Google Meet to look at your own jobs.