How Do You Bill for Stored Materials on a Pay App?

Stored materials are materials or equipment bought or fabricated for the job and delivered, but not yet built in: switchgear in a locked container on site, fixtures in a bonded warehouse, fabricated steel in the fabricator's yard. A standard continuation sheet has a column for materials presently stored, not in work completed (AIA's G703 summary describes the sheet). The basics are in how a subcontractor fills out a pay application; this post is the backup and the period-to-period method.

On federal work the rule is in the payments clause. In preparing estimates, the Contracting Officer may authorize material delivered on the site to be taken into consideration. Material delivered to locations other than the site may also be taken into consideration only if the contract specifically authorizes it and the contractor furnishes satisfactory evidence that it has acquired title to the material and that it will be used to perform the contract (FAR 52.232-5, paragraph (b)(2)). Material and work covered by progress payments become the Government's property at the time of payment, without relieving the contractor of responsibility for it (paragraph (f)).

Owner specifications spell out the package. The University of Houston's payment procedures section is a clear public example: it asks for a separate schedule-of-values line for each part of the work that may include stored materials, with on-site and off-site storage told apart, and for a certificate of insurance, evidence of transfer of title to the owner and consent of surety, paid invoices that match the amount requested, and no overhead and profit on stored materials (Section 01 29 00).

The same section asks for a summary each month: the value of materials stored as of the previous application, the value of those materials put in place since then, and the value newly stored since then and still stored. That three-part summary is the easiest way to show nothing is billed twice.

The job and companies are fictional. "Brightline Electric" has a schedule-of-values line "Switchgear and panelboards" worth $84,000.00: $62,000.00 of equipment and $22,000.00 of installation. Retainage is 10%. In period 5 the switchgear arrives and is locked in a container on site; the paid invoice is $58,400.00. In period 6 half of it is set and terminated, and half of the installation labor is done.

Period 6's work this period is the installed half of the equipment, $29,200.00, moved out of stored, plus half of the installation, $11,000.00: $40,200.00. The other $29,200.00 is still stored. Completed and stored to date is $40,200.00 + $29,200.00 = $69,400.00. The new money in period 6 is only $69,400.00 − $58,400.00 = $11,000.00; the installed switchgear was already paid as stored. Stored material is billed at the paid invoice, so the $3,600.00 between the invoice and the equipment's $62,000.00 scheduled value is billed as work with the last of the line, when all the gear is installed.

Percentages are rounded to two decimals: $58,400.00 ÷ $84,000.00 = 69.52% and $69,400.00 ÷ $84,000.00 = 82.62%. To run your own numbers, the pay application workbook has a stored-materials column on every line, and how to calculate retainage covers the 10%.

• Billing material that has not been delivered, or that is ordered but not paid for.
• Billing off-site material when the contract does not allow it, or without the insurance and title evidence it asks for.
• Adding overhead and profit to stored materials when the specification says invoice cost.
• Billing installed material a second time as work completed, instead of moving it out of stored.
• No separate line for the stored item, so the GC cannot see what is stored and what is installed.

The GC checks all of this before it signs its own application; how it does is in how a GC reviews a subcontractor's pay app. More on a sub's billing is in the subcontractor's guide and the project lifecycle.

On a Conflo pay app, every schedule-of-values line has a this-period percent and a Stored amount in dollars. Stored counts toward completed to date and the balance, and the GC's pay app to the owner has a This period panel showing the work completed, materials stored and retainage held. The form refuses a line that would bill past 100% of its scheduled value.

Conflo counts a stored amount once: on the next pay app it is part of that line's Previous, so when the material is installed you bill only the work that is new, such as the installation labor. In the example, pay app 5 would show $58,400.00 stored and pay app 6 $11,000.00 of work this period. Limit today: one Stored amount per line, with no field for where it is stored or whether it is on site or off.

Stored materials are billable when the contract allows them and the backup proves cost, location, insurance and title. Bill them at invoice cost on their own line.

Move them to work completed as they are installed, and attach a short summary each month so nobody wonders whether anything is billed twice.

See how pay apps work in Conflo

1. FAR 52.232-5, Payments under Fixed-Price Construction Contracts — Acquisition.gov, U.S. General Services Administration. Read October 22, 2026.
2. Section 01 29 00, Payment Procedures (master construction specification) — University of Houston, Facilities Planning and Construction. Read October 22, 2026.
3. Summary: G703–1992, Continuation Sheet — AIA Contract Documents (The American Institute of Architects). Read October 22, 2026.