Work in progress (WIP)
Work in progress is the value of things you have started but not finished: partly built products, or a project where costs have been incurred and not yet billed. It sits on the balance sheet as an asset until it becomes a finished good or an invoice.
Also searched as: WIP, work in process
Updated July 2026
WIP is where manufacturing and project businesses most often mis-state their position. Materials and labour have left the business as cash, the output has not yet been sold, and if nobody records the in-between state, a perfectly healthy month looks like a loss.
The reverse error is just as common. Carrying WIP that will never convert, because the job was abandoned or the goods were scrapped, quietly inflates assets until someone writes it off in one painful adjustment.
Tracking it continuously means the figure is a real reflection of open work rather than a period-end estimate.
Where this lives in Wizard
ProductionPlan runs, pull the right materials, and get the real cost of every batch you make.
Project ManagementSee cost against budget while a project is still running, not after it has finished.
AccountingPost entries automatically, reconcile the bank, and close the month without rebuilding it in Excel.