construction backlog

Construction Backlog Reporting: The Metric Surety and Lenders Watch

Backlog — the signed contract value a contractor has been awarded but not yet earned — is one of the first numbers a surety underwriter or bank credit officer looks at. It is a forward indicator of solvency in a way that revenue and profit, which look backward, can never be. Here is how to calculate backlog, what 'quality of backlog' means, how it feeds bonding capacity, and the reporting mistakes that quietly mislead the people who read it.