Schedule of Values Template: Build an SOV That Gets Approved

Your schedule of values is the billing backbone of the whole project. Every pay application you submit — every Column C on every continuation sheet — traces back to it. A good SOV gets approved fast and keeps cash flowing; a sloppy one invites line-item fights every single month.

What goes in a schedule of values

Each line needs an item number, a description of work, and a scheduled value. The total must equal your contract sum. Typical subcontractor SOVs run 10–40 lines: mobilization, submittals, materials by area or floor, labor by phase, punch list, and closeout.

Five rules experienced subs follow

1. Bill-friendly granularity

Split work the way it will actually complete. One giant "Install drywall — $180,000" line forces you to argue percentages every month. "Level 1 hang," "Level 1 finish," "Level 2 hang"… lets you bill lines at 100% as you finish them — much harder to dispute.

2. Front-load carefully and defensibly

Weighting early activities (mobilization, submittals, engineering) helps offset retainage drag — but GCs review SOVs for abuse. Keep early-line values tied to real costs you incur early.

3. Separate stored-material-heavy lines

If you'll buy major material early (switchgear, HVAC units, stone), give it its own line so Column F billing and its different retainage rate stay clean.

4. Include closeout as a line

O&M manuals, as-builts, warranties, training — give closeout a real value. If it's buried in other lines, you'll hit 100% billed with unpaid work remaining.

5. Add change orders as new lines, never edits

When a CO is approved, append it as its own line item (negative value for deductive COs). Editing existing scheduled values mid-project breaks the audit trail and will get your pay app kicked back. PayAppFlow handles CO lines natively and updates the contract sum to date on the G702-style application automatically.

SOV mistakes that stall payment

The classics: totals that don't equal the contract sum, renumbered items between periods, values edited after applications have been submitted, and missing CO lines. All four are structurally impossible in PayAppFlow — the schedule is the single source of truth every application computes from.