Construction business
Construction milestone cash gap
Model actual cash receipts and job payments in chronological periods to find the peak funding needed above a chosen reserve.
Your inputs
Complete the fields for your selected method. Zero means intentionally zero, not unknown. Currency selection labels amounts; it does not convert exchange rates.
How this calculation works
closing cash = previous closing + actual receipts - cash payments; peak funding gap = max(0, reserve - minimum cash)
For residential or commercial company costing. Use supplied job records, measured labor and quoted total expenses. No material takeoff, shopping list, supplier sourcing, code interpretation, engineering design or legal entitlement is provided. Use cash receipt dates, not invoice dates or earned revenue. Include deposits, actual retainage receipts, subcontract payments and other job cash flows at their supplied time. This is not a payment-deadline, borrowing-eligibility or contract-rights calculator.
What information do I need?
Use records for the same job, equipment or accounting period. Only the fields for your selected entry method are required. An unknown amount is not zero.
Input definitions and where to find them
- Cash allocated to job before first period (selected currency): Owner receipt dates and supplier/subcontract/labor cash-payment totals. Owner records or explicit assumption; no account connection or maintained rate tables required.
- Minimum cash reserve for this job (selected currency): Owner receipt dates and supplier/subcontract/labor cash-payment totals. Owner records or explicit assumption; no account connection or maintained rate tables required.
- Chronological cash periods or milestones: Owner receipt dates and supplier/subcontract/labor cash-payment totals. Owner records or explicit assumption; no account connection or maintained rate tables required.
- Period or milestone label: Owner receipt dates and supplier/subcontract/labor cash-payment totals. Owner records or explicit assumption; no account connection or maintained rate tables required.
- Cash actually received in this period (selected currency): Owner receipt dates and supplier/subcontract/labor cash-payment totals. Owner records or explicit assumption; no account connection or maintained rate tables required.
- Cash paid in this period (selected currency): Owner receipt dates and supplier/subcontract/labor cash-payment totals. Owner records or explicit assumption; no account connection or maintained rate tables required.
Use the Where to find this value controls beside the inputs for available work-it-out helpers. Estimates remain your assumptions; a helper does not verify the source figures.
Worked example
Example amounts use US dollars (USD).
Example answer: Peak funding needed above entered reserve is $4,000.00 for the illustrative inputs below.
Example inputs
- Cash allocated to job before first period: $5,000.00
- Minimum cash reserve for this job: $2,000.00
- Chronological cash periods or milestones
- Period or milestone label: Mobilization
- Cash actually received in this period: $5,000.00
- Cash paid in this period: $12,000.00
- Period or milestone label: Progress receipt
- Cash actually received in this period: $15,000.00
- Cash paid in this period: $5,000.00
- Period or milestone label: Completion
- Cash actually received in this period: $5,000.00
- Cash paid in this period: $3,000.00
- Peak funding needed above entered reserve
- $4,000.00
- Lowest modeled allocated cash balance
- -$2,000.00
- Closing job cash after entered periods
- $10,000.00
- Period-end balances can miss a larger within-period shortfall. Use smaller periods where receipt/payment timing matters.
These illustrative values are not recommended rates or industry averages. Replace every example input with your own figures.
Use the result well
Find maximum funding shortfall despite job contribution.
Keep inputs on the same scope and time basis. Calculations retain precision internally; displayed values generally round to two decimal places, with extra precision for very small values and whole-unit rounding where required. Economic comparisons describe your supplied assumptions and do not guarantee future results.
This tool provides business arithmetic. It does not approve engineering designs, establish legal or tax treatment, select equipment or certify safe operating conditions.