Running Account Bill (RA Bill)

How Running Account Bills Work

A Running Account Bill is the contractor's claim for payment based on work completed during a specific period (typically monthly). The process follows a standard cycle: the contractor submits quantities of work completed during the period, the developer's Quantity Surveyor (QS) verifies quantities through joint measurement, the verified quantities are valued at BOQ rates, previous payments and retention are deducted, and the net amount is certified for payment.

The RA Bill is not a final settlement - it's an interim payment based on progress. The final bill, prepared at project completion, reconciles all RA Bills, variations, claims, and adjustments.

The RA Bill Bottleneck on Indian Sites

On most Indian construction projects, the RA Bill cycle takes 30-45 days from contractor submission to payment release. This timeline breaks down as: contractor compiles quantities and submits bill (5-7 days after month-end), QS team verifies through joint measurement (5-7 days), measurement disputes are resolved (3-5 days), certified bill is processed through accounts (5-7 days), and payment is released (7-10 days).

Each step has potential for delay. The joint measurement requires the contractor's representative and the developer's QS to be physically present at each work location. On a multi-tower project, measuring work across 4 towers, 20+ floors, and multiple trades can take days. Disputes over quantities - the contractor claims 450 sqm of plaster, the QS measures 420 sqm - add more time.

Why RA Bill Speed Matters for Project Velocity

The link between payment speed and construction speed is direct but often underappreciated. A subcontractor working on a Rs 5 crore package with monthly RA Bills of Rs 40-50 lakh is financing roughly 45 days of working capital at any given time. If RA Bill processing stretches to 60 days, they're financing 60 days of working capital - a 33% increase in their financial exposure.

The contractor's response is predictable: they reduce resource deployment (fewer workers, delayed material purchases) until the payment cycle normalises. Site progress slows. The developer's project manager reports "subcontractor productivity is low" without connecting it to the payment cycle.

On projects where RA Bills are processed within 15-20 days, contractors consistently deploy full resources. The correlation between payment cycle time and contractor productivity is one of the most reliable patterns in Indian construction management.

Digital Measurement and RA Bill Acceleration

The slowest step in the RA Bill cycle is joint measurement. When measurements require physical presence at every work location, the process is inherently slow on large projects.

Digital progress tracking changes this equation. When site engineers report task completion with GPS-tagged photos and measured quantities as part of their daily updates, the measurement data exists in the system before the RA Bill period even closes. The QS team can verify quantities from the digital record, conducting physical spot-checks on a sample basis rather than measuring every item.

This approach - digital measurement with spot-check verification - reduces the measurement phase from 5-7 days to 1-2 days, cutting the overall RA Bill cycle significantly.