A project can look healthy for months and still finish below target.

That is why WIP reporting matters.

Strong WIP reports give controllers, project managers, and principals a current view of active project performance before the final margin shows up at closeout. It connects all important project information so the firm can see which projects need attention while there is still time to act.

For firms using Deltek Vantagepoint, the WIP report should become part of the monthly project review rhythm. The goal is to catch margin risk earlier, tighten the forecast conversation, and give project managers a clearer way to explain what is happening on the work.

In this blog, we’ll look at why A&E firms miss margin fade, what a WIP report needs to show, which warning signals to watch, how to build the report in Vantagepoint, how to run the monthly review, and where BCS ProSoft helps firms strengthen the process.

Why Firms Miss Margin Fade

Most firms miss margin fade because the warning signs are split across different places.

The project manager sees the extra meetings, consultant delays, design revisions, staffing pressure, and client requests. Finance sees posted labor, billing position, revenue movement, and margin changes during close. Principals hear whether the client is happy, whether the milestone is moving, and whether the team thinks the project is under control.

All of those views may be accurate. None of them is enough on its own.

Before a WIP report can help, it is worth naming where the warning signs usually get missed:

Reporting Lags Behind the Work

Many A&E firms see the full project financial picture after time, costs, billing, and revenue have been updated at month-end. By then, the project team may already be moving into the next phase.

That lag creates real risk. Margin fade usually starts while the work is still active. A phase runs longer than planned. Senior staff step in. A consultant needs more coordination. A client asks for one more round of revisions. If those changes do not reach the forecast until later, the project can look stable long after the budget has started to weaken.

The WIP report helps when it is reviewed early enough to show that movement while the team can still respond.

Small Scope Additions Stay Informal

Architects and engineers often over-deliver in small, reasonable-sounding ways. A quick sketch. Another client meeting. A few extra design revisions. Additional QA time before a submittal. A coordination call that should have been tied to a change request.

One item may not move the project. A steady pattern of those items can.

The problem is that this work often lives in email threads, in a manager’s memory, or informal client conversations before it reaches the forecast. The first financial clue may be labor rising faster than percent complete.

Change Orders Trail the Extra Effort

A&E teams often keep work moving while change order details are still being discussed. The client requests additional work, the team does it to protect the schedule or relationship, and the commercial side catches up later.

Sometimes the change gets approved. Sometimes it stalls. Sometimes the firm writes off part of the effort because the work was never documented cleanly enough to bill.

The WIP review should bring those projects forward. If approved changes, revised contract value, billing status, and ETC do not line up, the project needs attention before the unapproved effort becomes a permanent margin hit.

Staffing Changes Burn Budget Quietly

A project plan may assume one staffing mix, while reality requires another. A principal gets pulled in. A senior engineer spends time fixing issues that should have been handled earlier. Unbudgeted overtime appears near a deadline. A phase stays open because the team is still waiting on comments or consultant input.

Those staffing changes can eat margin quickly because labor is usually the largest cost driver in an A&E project.

A stale ETC is often the first sign that the report is comparing current cost against old optimism. If labor keeps climbing while the forecast stays flat, the project may already be moving away from its original margin plan.

Disconnected Systems Split the View

Margin fade is easier to miss when project planning, time entry, billing, forecasting, and financial reporting live in separate places. Project managers may be working from one version of the project, finance from another, and leadership from a third.

Manual updates make the delay worse. A project can look fine in a planning tool while the financial system is starting to show pressure, or it can look fine in finance because the manager’s forecast has not been updated yet.

That is why the WIP report matters. It gives the firm one place to review progress, billing, cost, ETC, and projected margin together before the project becomes a surprise.

What the WIP Report Needs to Show

Once you know where margin fade hides, the next question is what the report needs to pull into view.

For A&E firms, the WIP report has to connect the project’s contract, billing, cost, forecast, and margin position in one place. The report should help a controller, project manager, or principal answer a practical question quickly: is this project still tracking the way we think it is?

At minimum, an A&E WIP report should include:

• Contract value: Original contract amount, approved changes, and revised contract value.
• Earned revenue: Revenue earned based on project progress.
• Billed revenue: Amount already invoiced to the client.
• Overbilling or underbilling: The difference between earned revenue and billed revenue.
• Job-to-date cost: Labor, consultant, reimbursable, and total cost posted to the project.
• Estimated cost to complete: The project manager’s current view of the cost still needed to finish the work.
• Estimated cost at completion: Total expected project cost after combining job-to-date cost and remaining cost.
• Percent complete: How far along the project is compared with the work and budget remaining.
• Projected margin: Expected finishing margin based on current revenue, cost, and forecast data.
• Prior-month margin: Last month’s projected margin so the team can see whether profitability is holding or fading.
• Forecast update date: The last time the project manager updated percent complete, ETC, or project assumptions.

The field list matters, but the relationship between the fields matters more.

Underbilling may be normal if the timing is clear. Underbilling with rising labor, stale ETC, and falling projected margin needs a different conversation. Overbilling may be acceptable if the remaining work is well understood. Overbilling with a weak ETC can hide a problem until the project has less room to recover.

The report should not be read as isolated columns. The value comes from reading how the numbers move together.

What Warning Signals to Look For

Once the report has the right fields, the next job is knowing what deserves attention. Margin fade usually gives warning signs before the project officially misses target. The WIP report helps controllers and project managers spot those signs in the order they tend to appear.

1. Earned Revenue is Separate From Billed Revenue

Start with earned revenue and billed revenue.

When earned revenue is ahead of billed revenue, the firm may be carrying underbilled work. That can come from delayed billing review, missing backup, incomplete contract updates, unresolved scope, or billing terms that no longer match the way the work is progressing.

When billed revenue is ahead of earned revenue, the project may be overbilled. That can be fine in milestone or upfront billing arrangements, as long as the remaining budget can support the work left to perform.

The gap becomes important when it grows across multiple close cycles or nobody can explain it clearly. At that point, it is no longer just a billing line. It is a project management issue.

A related planned vs actual review can help project managers compare the revenue pattern against the work that has actually been delivered.

2. Overbilling or Underbilling Stops Looking Like Timing

After you spot the earned-vs-billed gap, the next step is deciding whether it reflects normal timing or project risk.

Underbilling tied to a known billing cycle may not require much attention. Underbilling tied to unresolved scope, delayed project manager approval, missing billing backup, or client pushback deserves a closer look. The longer earned work sits unbilled, the harder it can be to collect cleanly.

Overbilling carries a different risk. It may help cash in the short term while the project still has meaningful labor, consultant work, or closeout effort ahead. If ETC is understated, the remaining margin can disappear quickly.

The question is direct: does the billing position make sense given the work remaining?

3. Cost-to-Complete Drift Shows Up Late

Cost-to-complete drift is one of the strongest warning signs because it often reveals that the forecast has been stale.

A project may carry the same ETC for several months while labor continues to post and the team manages added meetings, revised drawings, client comments, consultant delays, or extra coordination. When the project manager finally updates the forecast, the projected margin can drop in one close cycle.

The margin did not disappear in that one cycle. The report recognized it late.

BCS ProSoft often sees late ETC movement correlate with overruns, especially when the project is already past 70 percent complete. At that stage, the firm has less remaining fee available to absorb additional effort.

A budget vs actual variance review can help the team identify where the current project path has moved away from the original plan.

4. Projected Margin Drops Before the Status Story Changes

The final signal is projected margin decline.

This is where the WIP report earns its place in the leadership conversation. The project manager may still describe the project as manageable. The client may still be satisfied. The next invoice may be on schedule. At the same time, projected margin may be falling because labor, billing, and ETC no longer support the earlier project forecast.

A one-month dip deserves a question. A second month of decline needs an action. A late-stage project with falling margin, rising ETC, and unresolved billing exposure should move to principal review.

A broader project profitability process can help firms connect this project-level review to firm-level performance.

How to Build WIP Reports in Vantagepoint

After the firm knows what to look for, the report needs to be built so those warning signs are easy to find every month.

In Deltek Vantagepoint, the WIP report should be a saved monthly review view that controllers, project managers, and principals can use before close is finalized. The goal is not to create another finance export. The goal is to create a repeatable margin review.

Step 1: Name the Saved Report Around the Review

Start with a name that tells the team exactly why the report exists:

A&E Monthly WIP Margin Fade Review

This may sound minor, but report names influence behavior. A generic export gets treated like finance output. A margin fade review gets treated like a project control tool.

Step 2: Limit the Report to Active Projects

Set the report scope to active projects only. Closed projects, inactive pursuits, and old records pull attention away from work that can still be corrected.

The report should allow filtering by organization or office, principal, project manager, client, project type or market, contract type, project status, billing status, and phase or task.

Project-level reporting is usually enough for principals and leadership. Controllers and project managers often need phase-level visibility because a profitable phase can hide erosion in a weaker one.

Step 3: Group the Columns by How the Review Runs

The report should be organized in the same order the team thinks through project risk.

Use grouped columns such as:

• Ownership: Project number, project name, client, principal, and project manager.
• Contract and budget: Original contract amount, approved changes, revised contract amount, original budget, and revised budget.
• Cost: Job-to-date labor cost, consultant cost, reimbursable cost, and total cost.
• Revenue and billing: Earned revenue, billed revenue, overbilling, underbilling, and backlog remaining.
• Forecast and margin: Percent complete, ETC, EAC, projected profit, projected margin percentage, prior-month projected margin, margin change from prior month, and last forecast update date.

That order gives the review a natural flow. Who owns the project? What was sold? What has been spent? What has been earned and billed? Where does the current forecast say the project is headed?

Step 4: Add Filters for Projects That Need Review

Build saved filters that pull high-risk projects into a focused review queue. The WIP meeting should not become a tour through every active project. It should identify the few projects where a decision still matters.

Useful review filters include:

• Margin decline greater than 3 percentage points from prior month
• Underbilling above the firm’s review threshold
• Overbilling with rising ETC
• Projects over 70 percent complete with increasing ETC
• Projects with no forecast update during the current close cycle
• Labor cost rising faster than percent complete
• Approved changes missing from the current forecast

These filters help finance lead the review with projects that need attention before close is finalized.

Step 5: Create a Project Manager-Facing Version

Create a second version of the report for project managers. This version should keep the numbers project managers can explain and act on while removing fields that mainly support finance reconciliation.

The project manager-facing view should include project name, contract amount, percent complete, earned revenue, billed revenue, overbilling or underbilling, job-to-date cost, ETC, projected margin, margin change from prior month, and last forecast update date.

This version matters because the WIP review will fail if project managers see the report as finance’s spreadsheet. The report needs to help them discuss billing timing, remaining work, staffing needs, forecast changes, and margin movement with confidence.

How to Run the Monthly Review for Better Financial Health

The report setup gives the firm visibility, but the monthly review turns that visibility into action.

The review should happen before close is finalized, while the team can still correct billing, forecast, staffing, and scope issues for the month. If time is missing, costs are posted late, or forecasts are stale, the report may make a fading project look stable.

Here’s the rhythm we suggest every firm holds to each month:

• Clean time and costs first: Make sure the project cost base is current before the report is trusted. Missing time, late consultant invoices, miscoded labor, unposted reimbursables, and costs posted to the wrong phase can all distort project margin.
• Require forecast updates before the review: Project managers should update percent complete, ETC, and known project changes before the WIP meeting. This is where the report starts catching fade earlier because the forecast begins reflecting what the project manager already knows about remaining hours, consultant status, client revisions, open phases, and scope pressure.
• Run the saved Vantagepoint WIP report: Use the saved report and saved filters so the review starts from the same structure every month. This keeps the conversation focused on projects that meet the firm’s risk criteria.
• Review flagged projects in a consistent order: Start with projects that lost margin. Check percent complete to judge urgency. Compare earned revenue to billed revenue. Test whether ETC reflects current delivery reality. Confirm the forecast update date. That order keeps the conversation grounded in the same project logic each month.
• Assign the next action before the meeting ends: Each flagged project should leave the review with an owner, a next step, and a due date. The action may be a billing correction, scope review, staffing change, contract update, forecast revision, or principal follow-up.
• Put decisions back into Vantagepoint: Update Vantagepoint with the agreed changes, including revised ETC, billing corrections, contract updates, phase cleanup, staffing notes, or principal follow-up items. The next WIP report should reflect the decisions from the last review.

That routine is what keeps the WIP report from becoming another month-end packet. Finance brings the financial pattern, project managers explain the delivery reality, and principals decide where the project needs action before margin loss becomes the final result.

Where BCS ProSoft Helps with WIP Reports

This process is straightforward on paper. It gets harder when report fields, project manager forecasting habits, billing workflows, and close routines are not aligned in Vantagepoint.

BCS ProSoft helps A&E firms turn WIP reporting into a working project margin process inside Deltek Vantagepoint. That means more than adding columns to a report. It means connecting the report configuration, project manager forecast rhythm, billing review, project accounting structure, and close workflow so the right people are looking at the right signals before the month is locked.

In implementation and reporting conversations with project-based firms, BCS ProSoft often looks first for combinations of risk signals, such as:

• Margin decline with a stale ETC
• Underbilling tied to unresolved scope
• Overbilling with high remaining labor
• Rising labor cost after 70 percent complete
• Approved changes missing from the forecast
• Falling projected margin across multiple close cycles

One signal may have a reasonable explanation. Several together usually point to a project that needs action before the next close.

For A&E firms already using Vantagepoint, BCS ProSoft can help refine saved WIP views, project manager-facing report layouts, review filters, billing visibility, forecasting workflows, and close routines. For firms evaluating Vantagepoint, BCS can show how the system supports a more connected project financial review than spreadsheets and disconnected tools can provide.

WIP Reports: Catch Margin Fade Before It Becomes the Final Project Story

A WIP report will not fix a fading project on its own. It gives the right people a better chance to catch the fade while there are still decisions left to make.

For A&E firms, that timing matters. A few weeks can be the difference between correcting a forecast, billing earned work, escalating scope, adjusting staffing, or accepting a margin hit that could have been addressed earlier.

The strongest WIP reviews are built around a simple discipline: current costs, current forecasts, clear risk filters, and project managers who understand which numbers they own. When that process lives inside Deltek Vantagepoint, the firm gets a repeatable way to review active project risk before it becomes a closeout surprise.

BCS ProSoft helps A&E firms configure Vantagepoint so WIP reporting, billing review, forecasting, and monthly close work from the same project financial picture.

Request a Deltek Vantagepoint demo to see how BCS ProSoft can help your firm catch margin fade earlier.

Key Takeaways

• A WIP report should help A&E firms catch margin fade before closeout.
• Margin fade often hides in scope creep, delayed change orders, staffing changes, and disconnected reporting.
• The key signals are earned vs billed revenue, overbilling or underbilling, ETC movement, and projected margin.
• A strong Vantagepoint WIP report should include active-project filters, grouped columns, risk triggers, and a project manager-facing view.
• The monthly WIP review only works when costs are current, forecasts are updated, and decisions are recorded back in Vantagepoint.

Frequently Asked Questions