In short
A contractor should track each site owner as one running account: every RA bill and extra-work bill raised on that site, every payment received from the owner with date and method, and the balance as billed minus received, set beside what the site has cost so the margin on each contract is visible.
A builder sells flats to many buyers. A contractor usually has one customer per site, the owner of the land, and that one customer often owes more than all the contractor’s suppliers put together. Yet the owner’s account is frequently the least organised record in the office: a folder of bill copies, a bank statement, and a partner’s memory of what was promised on a visit.
What an RA bill is, and why it is not the unit
A running account bill, or RA bill, is a periodic bill for the work done to date on a contract: RA Bill 1 after the foundation, RA Bill 2 after the second slab, and so on. In theory each bill is paid in full. In practice owners pay round amounts against the account when they can, part of one bill, a little of the next, an advance before a festival.
That is why matching each payment to a bill number is a losing game. The figure that matters is the account for the site: everything billed, everything received, and the difference.
One account per site
- The owner’s name and phone, on the site record.
- Each bill raised, with its date, a title such as "RA Bill 3" or "Extra work, compound wall", and the amount.
- Each payment received, with its date and method: cash, bank, UPI or cheque.
- The balance: billed minus received, current on any day.
Extra work is its own bill
Owners ask for things the contract did not include: a compound wall, a changed staircase, an extra room on the terrace. Record each as a separate bill on the same site account, with a title that says what it was, and get the owner’s agreement to the amount before the work starts. Folded into the next RA bill, extra work is the first line an owner questions.
Put the bill beside the cost
Billing tells you what you are owed. It does not tell you whether the site is making money. For that, the same site needs its own costs: labour and wages, material, sub-contractor payments and equipment on rent. With income and cost both recorded against the site, the margin on each contract is a figure you can read, not a feeling you have at the end of the job.
An owner who pays against the account should get an account. So should you.
When Sitegride is set up for a contractor, each site carries the owner’s details, the bills raised to them and the payments received, with the balance due always current, alongside the labour, material and sub-contractor costs of the same site.
Questions this answers
An RA (running account) bill is a periodic bill a contractor raises to the site owner for the work done to date, for example after the foundation or after each slab. Payments are often made against the account rather than against a particular bill.
As one running account per site: every bill raised, including extra-work bills, and every payment received with its date and method. The balance due is total billed minus total received, which works even when the owner pays round amounts against the account.
Record what you bill the owner and what the site costs you (labour, material, sub-contractors and equipment on rent) against the same site. The difference is the margin on that contract, readable at any point rather than only when the job closes.
Sitegride puts sites, sales, purchases, labour and money in one place, in English and Gujarati.