Draw Request Best Practices

Tips for smooth draw processing and avoiding common mistakes.

Bill early, bill honestly

Prepare the draw as soon as the work is done and inspected. Amounts should match work actually completed or bills actually received. Over-billing is fraud; under-billing starves your own job.

Let the pre-flight check do its job

**Create G702/G703** runs **Pre-Flight Validation** first. Treat its results as free proofreading:

• over-budget lines block generation on a bank-financed project — fix them with **Open Budget Transfer**;
• unfinished payment-gate checklists need a deliberate acknowledgement;
• missing lien waivers are a warning your lender may turn into a condition.

Remember what the app does and does not do

• **Packet Prepared** is OwnerDraw's status, set when you create the packet. Delivering it is your step.
• **Mark as Funded** records that the bank paid you.
• **Mark Paid** on each expense records that you paid a vendor. Funding a draw never does that for you.

Keep the record clean

• Attach receipts as you log expenses, not at draw time.
• Fix a draw while it is still **Draft** — remove an expense with **✕**, or use **Delete Draw**. After **Packet Prepared** the record is locked.
• Record **Date Funded** and the **Check / Wire Number** so you can reconcile later.
• Track retainage held across draws; it is real money you have not received yet.

Common mistakes

• Assuming the packet was emailed for you
• Assuming a funded draw means your subs were paid
• Billing the same scope twice after switching between expense and progress billing — read the cross-mode warning
• Ignoring waiver warnings until the lender raises them
• Leaving cash-funded costs in the budget and expecting them in a draw

Your loan officer is a partner. Organized, consistent, unsurprising requests get funded faster.