A running account (RA) bill is a part-payment bill raised at intervals while the work is still going on, usually monthly or at agreed stages. It claims payment for the quantity of each BOQ item completed up to that date, measured and checked, at the rates in the contract or work order.
Each RA bill is cumulative: it shows the quantity up to date, deducts what was already paid in earlier bills, and pays only the difference for this period. Deductions such as retention money, recovery of a mobilisation advance, material supplied by the client and applicable taxes are shown on the bill as agreed in the contract.
The last bill, after all work is measured, is called the final bill. Quantities claimed in RA bills are provisional until then, so a measurement error in one RA bill can be corrected in a later one. Keep a copy of each certified bill with its measurement sheets, because the final bill reconciles all of them.
Example
Illustrative: brickwork done to date 500 m³, already billed 300 m³, so RA bill 3 claims 200 m³. At an agreed rate of ₹5,000 per m³ that is ₹10,00,000 before contract deductions.
Subcontractor management in CivilPilot
Work orders, progress, RA bills, retention and advances for every subcontractor, with a portal they can use.
