Contractor contract template — schedule of values, retainage and liens

A general contract is the one document that governs everyone on the job. Here is what it has to settle: draws, retainage, lien waivers, and the change-order rule that prevents most disputes.

Read this before you use it

This is a checklist of what a general contracting contract has to settle — not a ready-to-sign legal document, and not legal advice. Most states regulate home improvement contracts: required disclosures, cancellation windows, deposit limits and licence display all vary, and some trades carry extra rules. Adapt this, then have a lawyer in your state review it before you put it in front of a customer.

general contracting contract checklist

Download as a spreadsheet to work through, or print it to sit alongside your own agreement.

Checklist (Excel / Sheets) Printable PDF

What a general contracting contract has to settle

A general contract has to govern money, time and everyone else's subcontracts at once. The schedule of values is the spine — it sets what each line is worth, which is what every draw is measured against. Retainage needs its percentage and its release condition stated, or it becomes a dispute at the end of a job everyone was happy with. Lien waivers move with payment in a specific sequence, and getting it wrong is how a contractor who has paid everyone still ends up with a lien filed against the property.

Clauses it needs

Parties, licence number, property address and the contract sum
Schedule of values: every line with its contract value, attached and signed
Draw schedule: what triggers each payment and what documentation accompanies it
Retainage percentage, and the specific condition that releases it
Lien waivers: conditional on submission, unconditional on funds clearing
Subcontractor waivers collected before each draw is released
Change orders: written, priced, signed before work — no verbal authority
Allowances, each with its amount and how over/under is reconciled
Substantial completion defined, and the punch list process with an end date
Delay terms: excusable causes, notice requirements, and any liquidated damages

What general contracting contracts actually get argued over

Percent complete claimed ahead of what an inspection would confirm
Retainage never formally released because no condition was written
A sub files a lien after the owner has paid, because waivers were not collected
A punch list with no defined end, used to hold the final draw indefinitely

The estimate this contract is built on

A contract can only be as clear as the scope it references. BidWand drafts the itemised estimate — labour, materials, exclusions and assumptions — that the scope and exclusions clauses point at.

Free general contracting estimate template →

Draft the general contracting estimate this contract references

This generates the estimate, not the contract — describe the job and you get the itemised scope to attach. No email needed to see the first one.

What you get — see the format first

A complete estimate you can send to the customer, built from the rate you enter:

Description	Qty	Unit	Unit price	Total
Labor — itemized by task	hrs	hour	your rate	—
Materials — with your markup applied	qty	ea / sq ft	cost + markup	—
Permits, disposal, access	—	—	—	—

Plus a plain-English scope summary, assumptions (what had to be guessed), exclusions (what you are not doing — the section that prevents most change-order arguments), and a validity period. Printable, or send the link.

Every figure comes from the rate and markup you supply. We never fill in a market price for you.

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