Stored Materials on the G703: How to Bill Them Correctly and Avoid Rejections

Why Stored Materials Trip Up So Many Pay Apps

Billing for stored materials is one of the most consistently mishandled line items on a G703 continuation sheet. Contractors either skip it entirely, lose track of what they already billed, or present it in a way that guarantees a rejection from the owner's architect. Getting this right protects your cash flow and keeps your schedule of values clean through project closeout.

What Column F Actually Means

The G703 gives you six columns that build on each other. Column C is your scheduled value. Column D is work completed in prior periods. Column E is work completed this period. Column F is materials presently stored. Column G is your total completed and stored to date, which is D plus E plus F. Column H is the percentage complete.

Column F is specifically for materials that have been delivered to the site, or stored off-site in a bonded warehouse, but not yet incorporated into the work. Think of a shipment of switchgear sitting in a locked storage container on your project, or structural steel fabricated and staged at the steel yard. You paid for it. You should be billing for it.

Three Things You Must Document Before Billing Stored Materials

Architects and owners will push back on Column F entries if you do not back them up. Prepare these three items before you submit:

• Vendor invoice or delivery receipt. Show that you actually paid for or took ownership of the material. A quote or purchase order alone is not enough.
• Photograph or inventory log. Proof of location matters. A photo of the material tagged and staged on-site, dated the same week as your billing period, is standard. For off-site storage, you need a warehouse receipt.
• Off-site storage agreement or bond. If the materials are not on the project site, most owners require a separate written agreement plus evidence of insurance covering the stored goods. Some require a bonded warehouse certificate. Check your contract before you bill.

Without this documentation, expect a red pen on that line item.

The Carry-Forward Problem Most Contractors Miss

Here is where stored materials billing gets messy in practice. In pay application 5, you bill $40,000 in Column F for a generator delivered to the site. The architect approves it. In pay application 6, your crew installs the generator. Now that $40,000 moves from Column F into Column D as prior completed work. Column F for that line item goes back to zero.

Many contractors forget to zero out Column F when the material gets installed. The result is a double-count: the material shows as both stored and installed, inflating the line item past 100% complete. Auditors catch this during lien waiver reconciliation or at final payment. It creates serious friction and can delay your retainage release.

Build a simple checklist into your monthly billing process. Before you submit each pay app, review every active Column F entry from the prior period and confirm whether the material was installed. If it was, move the value to D and clear F. If it is still staged, keep it in F and update your documentation.

Off-Site Materials Require Extra Steps

On-site stored materials are simpler to support. Off-site storage adds contract compliance requirements you cannot ignore. Most AIA-based contracts include language under Article 9 of the A201 General Conditions that conditions payment for off-site stored materials on the contractor providing title documentation, proof of insurance, and evidence that the materials are clearly identified as belonging to this project.

If your contract follows A201-2017, review Section 9.3.2 before billing off-site materials for the first time. Some owners add special conditions requiring a bonded warehouse or a UCC filing. Know what your specific contract requires. Billing off-site materials without meeting those conditions is a fast way to get a pay app rejected outright.

Keep Your Schedule of Values Granular Enough to Track It

Stored materials billing works best when your schedule of values has discrete line items for major material purchases. A single line item labeled Division 16 Electrical at $380,000 makes it hard to break out the switchgear, the wire, and the panels as separate stored material entries. Front-load the schedule of values setup to separate major procurements. It makes Column F entries cleaner and more defensible throughout the project.

Managing G702/G703 manually gets tedious fast. EZBilling handles progress billing, retainage, and change orders in one place, so your stored materials carry forward correctly every pay period.