Punch list
The list standing between you and your retainage — grouped by location, and priced against what's being held.
The walk
0 items · saved on this device
No items yet. Walk the job and add them as you go — one line per thing, with the location, so the person fixing it can find it without a phone call.
Punch list
Project
No items on this list.
A punch list isn’t paperwork, it’s cash flow
Every free version of this is a spreadsheet with columns for item, location and status. Which is fine, and misses the point: the owner does not release retainage until the list is closed. So the number that belongs at the top of the document is how much money is being held against how many open items.
This tool already knows that figure — your payment application holds the retainage on the same contract record. Divide it by the open items and you get what each remaining scuff mark is costing you in cash flow. That is usually the argument for closing the small ones this week.
Blocking versus untidy
Substantial completion is the point where the owner can use the work for its intended purpose — not the point where the list is empty. Items that merely need finishing don’t prevent it; items that stop the space being used do. Those two kinds of item get treated identically on most lists, and then everyone argues. Here they are marked apart, and the count of blocking items sits on the completion certificate where the argument actually happens.
Why the list gets dated and signed
A punch item is a defect known at or before substantial completion. Something that surfaces later is a warranty claim. The signature fixes which is which — without a dated, agreed list, every later complaint becomes an argument about whether it was always like that.
Where it meets the other tools
This closes the chain: an estimate becomes a contract, change orders move the sum, progress billing draws against it and holds retainage, and the punch list is what releases that retainage.
Items land on somebody as a work order, and the work log with photos is how a disputed one gets closed. On a property handover rather than a construction job, the property inspection or the move-in report is usually the better starting document.
General information, not legal advice. What constitutes substantial completion, when retainage must be released, and how punch items differ from warranty work are set by your contract and by state law — several states regulate retainage directly. Everything is built on your device.