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Pay-application guides

For the people who receive AIA G702/G703 pay applications: GCs, owners, lenders, and construction bookkeepers. Extract the numbers, prove they tie.

A pay application is the document that moves money on a US construction project. Once a month, each subcontractor submits a G702 certificate with a G703 continuation sheet behind it. The G703 breaks the contract into line items and states what each one is worth, what was billed in earlier periods, what is billed now, and what remains. The G702 rolls those columns up into nine lines that end in a payment amount. The two forms restate the same totals, which is what makes them checkable; start with the difference in G702 vs G703.

The receiver verifies every inbound application before certifying it. One wrong digit anywhere in the schedule changes the payment amount, and because this month’s Column D must equal last month’s D plus E, an error that gets paid repeats in every application after it. That verification is eight concrete checks, laid out in how to review a pay application. And when the certificate and the continuation sheet disagree outright, there are seven causes and a test that isolates each one: G703 doesn’t match the G702. The guides below cover the rest: retainage, schedules of values, rejections, lien waivers, and PDF to Excel.

Construction draw review: G702 and G703
A draw request is a pay application plus backup. The tie-out that runs on the two forms alone, the three checks that need the loan file, and a worked draw where every identity holds while $40,000 of it sits above the loan budget line.
9 min read
How to return a pay application
Returning an inbound pay application is a written notice with a figure in it. The review window, certifying a lesser amount against sending the packet back, and a filled correction request worked from one $600,000 application.
8 min read
Retainage on stored materials: G702 Line 5b
Line 5b applies the retainage rate to Column F, a base of its own. Two worked periods of one $250,000 subcontract show stored material moving into Column E, and a double count that lands entirely in the 5b base while every total in the document still ties.
8 min read
Verify a pay application you received
Every box on an AIA-style G702 and G703 in printed order: the identity that constrains it, the figure it has to hold, and the correction to send back when it fails.
9 min read
Billed past scheduled value (over 100%)
A subcontractor billed more than a line item’s scheduled value, so Column G passed Column C. Why it happens, a worked example where every total ties while one row is 8% over, and the correction to ask for.
7 min read
How to catch a front-loaded pay application
A front-loaded schedule of values passes every check that runs inside one document. Two worked periods of one $400,000 subcontract, priced: what the padded early lines take out of the end of the job.
8 min read
What a G702 checker cannot check
Which identities run from figures you type, which need the document read off the page, a worked application that ties everywhere except Line 4, and the four blind spots no checker reading one document can reach.
8 min read
Lien waiver vs pay application: do they match?
A waiver carries an amount, a date, and a type, and each maps onto the pay application beside it. The three checks a receiver runs before releasing payment.
7 min read
G703 doesn’t match the G702? How to find the error
The Column G total and Line 4 are the same number by definition. The seven reasons they disagree, and the check that isolates each one.
9 min read
Free AIA-style G702/G703 Excel template (formula-linked)
A continuation sheet and certificate with the tie-checks built in as formulas. Every column and line explained, plus how to verify that any pay app actually ties.
8 min read
G702 vs G703: what each form is and how they tie together
The certificate and the continuation sheet are two halves of one document. The same numbers must appear on both, and that redundancy is how you catch errors.
6 min read
How to review a subcontractor pay application: a checklist for GCs
The eight checks a receiver runs before certifying payment: per-line math through carry-forward against last month’s application.
5 min read
The 7 reasons pay applications get rejected (and how to catch them first)
Most rejections trace to a handful of preventable problems. The most common one is arithmetic.
5 min read
Retainage on a pay application: how it’s calculated and where it goes wrong
The 5a/5b bases, reducing retainage, and the five retainage mistakes that all shift the check by the same dollar amount.
4 min read
Schedule of values: a worked G703 example (with the math checked)
A small schedule of values reconciled line by line: G = D + E + F, percent complete, balance to finish, and the column totals that carry to the G702.
6 min read
Convert an AIA G702/G703 pay application PDF to Excel
Three ways to get an AIA G702/G703 out of a PDF and into Excel, and why extract-and-verify beats a generic converter for a document that drives a payment.
5 min read
Pay application software for general contractors: extract-and-verify vs create-and-submit
Billing networks, extract-only converters, and extract-and-verify review software compared, by the side of the document you sit on.
6 min read