Progress Billing
Progress Billing uses accrual-based revenue recognition — retainer payments are not counted as revenue until work is applied to the Progress Bill.
Why it matters: How Canopy handles revenue for Progress Bills affects what appears in your Aged Receivables and Revenue and Profitability reports — understanding this prevents confusion when a paid retainer doesn't show up where you'd expect it.
Required: Time and Billing Permissions.
⚠️ Beta Feature: Progress Bill Retainers are currently in Beta and must be enabled before use. Go to Settings > Experimental Features and toggle on Progress Billing: Retainers.
Table of Contents
How Revenue Recognition Works
When a client pays a retainer invoice, that payment is held — not recognized as revenue — until work is applied to the Progress Bill. This mirrors how traditional invoices work: revenue reflects completed work, not money collected upfront.
What this means in practice:
Paying a retainer invoice does not generate revenue in your reports
Revenue appears as WIP is applied to the Progress Bill
If a retainer is never drawn against, it does not appear as income
Aged Receivables Report
The Aged Receivables report treats Progress Bill retainer invoices like unpaid standard invoices until payment is received.
Unpaid retainer invoices appear in the Aged Receivables report
Paid retainer invoices are removed from the report
Revenue and Profitability Report
The Revenue and Profitability report reflects work applied to a Progress Bill — not the retainer invoice amount itself.
Applied WIP appears as recognized revenue in the report
The retainer invoice amount is not reflected as revenue until work is applied
This matches standard invoice behavior, where revenue is based on completed work
Summary
Progress Billing follows standard accrual revenue recognition: collecting a retainer doesn't generate revenue until work is applied against it. Use Aged Receivables to monitor unpaid retainers and Revenue and Profitability to track work-based revenue across your Progress Bills.
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