What is ra bill?

Running account billing exists because a project takes years and nobody waits until the end to be paid. Each bill covers the quantities executed since the last one, valued at contract rates, less retention and any advance being recovered.

One month's running account bill.

Retention and advance recovery come off every bill, which is why the cash actually arriving is always below the work certified.

The RA bill cycle is the heartbeat of project cash flow. Its length, far more than the client's payment terms, decides when money arrives.

The date on an RA bill is usually the date it was accepted, not the date the work was done or the date it was first submitted. Rejected and resubmitted bills often carry the new date only, which erases the very delay you are trying to measure.

Dating the bill by acceptance

Rejected and resubmitted bills often carry only the new date. That erases exactly the delay you are trying to measure.

Measuring the cycle from submission

The work was executed weeks before the bill was raised. The cash clock starts at execution.

Treating the bill as the unit of dispute

Bills are usually sent back over two or three line items. Following the bill hides which items keep failing; following the cause does not.

Crestline follows each RA bill as its own case, from execution through measurement, submission, review and certification, and keeps every rejected submission in the trail so the real elapsed time survives.