The construction industry uses retention fees and dates as a type of collateral to enforce quality, time
requirements and allows fault correction of the work being done. Retention tracking is cumulative and measured in
percentages of the total cost of the work being done.
The interim retention will usually be released when specific milestones are met during contract execution and are
released when applications are created and submitted. The final retention will usually be released at some later
point in time, closer to the end of the contract’s lifespan, at a time agreed upon by the contractor and the
sub-contractor.
When the final retention is released, all remaining interim retentions will also be released and no further
financial transactions will be processed.
A maximum retention may optionally be defined for a contract; a percentage defining the total accumulative
retention percentage allowed for a contract. Adding additional applications once the maximum retention is reached
will not automatically create or release any further retentions.
In certain situations, there is also a need to define different retention percentages by items. This could
typically be high value or high risk items that should not follow the default retention on the contract. Should
such an item retention percentage be defined, it will still fall under the contract maximum retention and the total
retention cannot exceed the maximum retention defined on the contract.
When applying for payment, the application will calculate retention for each item by distributing the total
accumulated retention proportionally across the items. In situations where the required item retention amounts
should be different from the general rule set on the contract, you will be allowed to override the calculated
retention value manually. With the assumption that there will be no need to apply for a different retention amount
when submitting the application, and that the contracted retention percentage will be used when submitting
application, it will only be possible to override the certified retention amount.