RA Bill Format: What a Clean Running Account Bill Contains (and Why Yours Gets Stuck)

You finished the work weeks ago. The site engineer saw it, the measurements happened, and your RA bill is still "under certification". Meanwhile your labour wants their weekly payment and your material supplier is calling. Most stuck RA bills are stuck for one reason: the bill itself gave the client an excuse to sit on it.

What is an RA bill?

A running account bill is how construction and works contractors bill for a project in stages instead of waiting for the end. You do a portion of the work, the quantities are measured, and you raise a bill for the value of work done so far.

The bills run in a sequence — RA-1, RA-2, RA-3 — and each one is an on-account payment, not a final settlement. The final bill at the end of the project closes the account and reconciles everything.

Two things make RA bills different from a normal invoice:

• They're cumulative. Each bill states the total value of work measured up to date, then subtracts what was already billed in previous RA bills. Only the difference is payable now.
• They're typically certified. The client or their engineer checks your quantities against actual measurements before approving payment. No certification, no payment.

What a clean RA bill format contains

Every field below exists to remove a question the client could otherwise ask. Miss one, and your bill waits while someone "checks with the engineer".

• Project and work order reference — the work order number, date, and project name. This ties your bill to an agreed scope and agreed rates.
• Bill number and period — "RA Bill No. 3, for work done from 1 July to 15 August". Sequential numbering, no gaps.
• Item-wise measured quantities — each BOQ item, the unit, the rate from the work order, quantity executed up to date, and the amount. Your numbers should trace back to measurement records.
• Cumulative vs this-bill amounts — gross value of work up to this bill, minus gross value billed up to the previous RA bill, equals this bill's gross amount.
• Deductions — retention money as per contract, recovery of any mobilisation advance, and other agreed recoveries, each shown on its own line.
• Net payable and amount in words — the figure the client actually has to pay, written in both numbers and words.

Here's how the money section of an RA-3 might look on a ₹48,00,000 work order:

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Why RA bills get stuck

Four problems cause most of the delay:

1. Measurement disputes. Your quantity says 1,240 sq. ft., their engineer says 1,180. If measurements weren't recorded jointly as the work happened, this becomes your word against theirs — and the bill waits.
2. Missing work order reference. A bill that doesn't point to a signed work order with agreed rates invites the client to renegotiate the rate after the work is done.
3. Certification delays. The engineer is busy, on leave, or waiting for someone else. A bill with clean, traceable quantities gets certified fast; a messy one goes to the bottom of the pile.
4. Retention confusion. If the retention percentage or release timing was never written down, every bill becomes a fresh negotiation about how much to hold back.

This is where keeping the whole deal on one thread helps. DealInSec keeps your quotation, e-signed agreement, invoices, and payment status in one place, so every RA bill traces back to signed, agreed terms — and its Protection Check flags risky gaps like a missing retention release timeline before you sign. The free plan covers 4 deals a month.

Retention money: get the release timeline in writing

Retention is an amount — commonly a small percentage of each bill — that the client holds back as security until the defect liability period ends. The idea is fair: if defects show up after handover, the client has something in hand.

The problem is almost never the deduction. It's the release. Contractors routinely chase retention money long after the project ends because nothing was written about when it comes back.

Before you start work, get three things in writing:

• The retention percentage per bill, and any total cap.
• The length of the defect liability period, and when it starts (usually handover or completion — but say so explicitly).
• The release timeline: within how many days after the defect liability period ends the retention will be paid.

There's no universal retention rate — your contract governs. If a clause looks unusual or one-sided, have a CA or lawyer look at it before you sign.

The paper trail that gets RA bills certified faster

A clean RA bill format only works if the documents behind it exist. Three habits do most of the work:

• A signed work order before you mobilise. Scope, BOQ rates, billing cycle, retention terms, payment period. A written agreement — even a simple one — beats a WhatsApp "ok done" every time. Electronic contracts are generally recognised in India under Section 10A of the IT Act 2000.
• Joint measurement records. Measure with the client's representative present, get both signatures, and date every entry. Certification becomes a formality instead of a fight.
• Sequentially numbered bills. RA-1, RA-2, RA-3 with no gaps, each referencing the work order and the previous bill's cumulative value. Anyone auditing the account can follow the money in minutes.

This paper trail also matters if payment stops entirely. If you're a Udyam-registered MSME, the MSMED Act 2006 generally requires buyers to pay within the agreed period, capped at 45 days, and delayed payments commonly accrue compound interest at three times the RBI-notified bank rate under that Act. The MSME Samadhaan portal lets registered businesses file delayed-payment claims — but it needs documentation: your Udyam registration, invoices, and proof of work done. Contractors with signed work orders, measurement records, and numbered RA bills have that file ready. Those without, don't.

These provisions have conditions and exceptions, so talk to a CA or lawyer before relying on them for your specific case.

Frequently asked questions