How to Set Up Retention

Overview

Retention is the percentage of payment held by the customer to ensure the job is completed to specific standards and to safeguard against defects in workmanship.

Retention settings are usually defined at the beginning of a project to ensure amounts are calculated correctly for each invoice. Before setting up retention, you need to enter the correct account names or numbers in your Financial Defaults to ensure the amounts export correctly to your accounting package.

When the project has been completed, all cost centres have been claimed, and the defined retention period has passed, you can create a retention claim to receive the final claim rebate. Learn more in How to Create a Retention Claim.

You can also apply retention to How to Manage Contractor Work Orders.

You cannot Invoice per item to keep cost centre open for jobs with retention enabled.

US only: If you use Simpro Premium in the United States, the term 'retainage' is used instead of 'retention'.