Industry
Retention tracking for MEP contractors: stop leaking margin
The average M&E contractor leaves 1.4% of annual turnover in unclaimed retention. Here's how to claw it back.
18 March 2026 6 min readBy Work App Team
Why retention slips
On a single £180k project, a 5% retention is £9,000. Half is released at practical completion, half at the end of the defects liability period — often 12 months later. By then the QS has moved on, the project file is in OneDrive purgatory, and the second moiety quietly ages.
The fix is process, not chasing
Capture retention at the invoice line. Diary the practical completion and end-of-defects dates the moment the contract is signed. Trigger an automatic claim email 14 days before release. Work App's Retention Tracker does this in the background.
Key takeaways
- Treat retention as a receivable, not a footnote
- Diary both release dates at contract signing
- Automate the chase — humans forget, software doesn't