Reference

SBA Form 994F: Schedule of Work in Process

SBA Form 994F, "Schedule of Work in Process," is a U.S. Small Business Administration form used in the SBA's Surety Bond Guarantee program — the channel that helps small contractors get bonded when they can't get a bond through the private market on their own. A contractor applying through that program lists the work they're currently performing on the form and submits it to their surety agent, either on paper or through the SBA's electronic E-App system, as part of the bond application.

Why it matters beyond the SBA program itself

Most contractors reading a WIP schedule never file Form 994F itself — they aren't going through the SBA Surety Bond Guarantee program. What matters is that it's a government-published, standardized column layout for exactly the report banks and private sureties already ask for: contract price, estimated cost, cost to date, percent complete, earned revenue, billed to date, and over/(under) billing, per job. Because it's a public standard rather than one lender's house format, it's become a common reference point for what a WIP schedule should contain — useful as a checklist even for contractors who will never submit the form itself.

How it relates to the schedule your surety actually reads

A private surety or bank doesn't require your WIP schedule to be formatted as literal Form 994F — most accept a schedule in whatever layout a contractor already produces, as long as the numbers are right and nothing's missing. But matching the standard's column set removes an easy source of back-and-forth: a reviewer who already knows the 994F layout can read a schedule built to it without asking what a column means or why one's absent. See what a surety actually reads on the schedule for the ratios built from those same columns.

Want to see those columns computed from your own numbers? Try the free WIP calculator — it runs the cost-to-cost method on your device, nothing sent anywhere.