Do you presently work from Estimates? If not it is something to , along with Progress Billing (or Invoicing).
Even under accrual accounting, you would not be able to record the income, and thus any effect on financials without creating invoices along the way. Is there any reason why you cannot issue monthly or even weekly invoices for work performed to that point?
You certainly can use WIP accounting to be able to review work performed to date and not yet billed.
Because it is not yet billed it cannot affect your P&L......yet. But once you convert any part of the WIP current asset into billed service it can (under accrual) become income.
There can be two parts to a WIP, one is the asset value you create by paying your employees. It can be an unbilled service item or even a physical product not yet complete. The other part is if you receive money towards an ongoing project, this WIP is a current liability. Thus you could have two corresponding WIP accounts, one asset and one liability, and once complete and all dust settles, the WIP liability applied against the WIP asset should result in your (hopefully) profit on the job.
