Construction Retention Calculator

Retention is your money, held by someone with no incentive to return it quickly. This works out how much is held, what each release is worth, and when each one is due.

The release that gets lost

Practical completion is an event everyone notices. The end of a twelve-month defects period, eighteen months after the site team moved on, is an event nobody is watching — and that is why the second half is the half that goes uncollected.

It is rarely refused. It is simply never asked for. The client has no process that releases money unprompted, so the sum sits on their balance sheet until somebody on your side writes an email.

Put it in the cash flow correctly

Retention belongs in your forecast as a receipt on its expected date, not as part of the valuation it was deducted from. Modelling it as though it arrives with the payment is one of the most common ways a cash flow forecast turns out optimistic.

More on this in Retention in Construction: How Much Is Yours, and When Do You Actually Get It.