Creating and Managing a Draw Request

How to create a draw, choose expense or progress billing, read retainage and net payment, generate the G702/G703 packet, and record funding without confusing it with paying vendors.

What do I do next?

Open **Draw Requests**. Find your draw in **Draw History** and match its badge below.

| What you see | Who acts now? | What to do next |
|---|---|---|
| No draw yet, and **New Draw Request** is available | You | Select **New Draw Request** and work through the three steps. |
| No draw yet, and **New Draw** is greyed out | You | You have no loan-funded expense waiting. Log the cost on **Expenses** with **Funding Source: Loan** first. |
| **Draft**, with **Create G702/G703** on the row | You | Select **Create G702/G703**. Clear anything the pre-flight check blocks, then generate the packet. |
| **Packet Prepared** | You, then your lender | Send the downloaded packet to your lender yourself. OwnerDraw does not send it. |
| **Packet Prepared**, money has arrived | You | Open the draw, pick **Date Funded**, add **Check / Wire Number** if you have it, then select **Mark as Funded**. |
| **Funded**, vendors not yet paid | You | Pay your vendors, then select **Mark Paid** on each expense on the **Expenses** page. |
| **Funded**, vendors paid | Nobody | Nothing further on this draw. Retainage stays held until your lender releases it. |

Draw Schedule versus a draw request

Two different things:

  • **Draw Schedule** (its own page) is the *plan* — how you and your lender expect the money to be released across the job. Nothing on it bills anybody.
  • **Draw Requests** is the *actual bill* — one numbered request at a time, with real amounts, retainage and a G702/G703 packet.

You can bill without a schedule, and having a schedule never creates a request for you.

Before you start

You need at least one eligible loan expense. **New Draw Request** only appears — and **New Draw** is only selectable — when the project has an expense that is:

  • attached to a budget line on this project,
  • **Funding Source: Loan** (cash-funded costs never enter a draw),
  • not already on another draw, and
  • either **Logged** or **Vendor Paid ✓**.

Already-paid expenses are deliberately included, because you are asking the bank to reimburse money you have already spent. The wizard marks those with a **Vendor Paid** badge and tells you: *Vendor Paid expenses are included for reimbursement draws.*

Creating the request

Select **New Draw Request**. There are three steps.

**Step 1 — choose how you are billing.** Two tabs:

  • **Expense-Based** — you tick the actual bills you want reimbursed. Best when you are paying real invoices as you go. This is the plain-English choice for most owner-builders.
  • **Progress Billing** — you set a **% complete** for each budget line and OwnerDraw calculates the amount. Use this when your lender bills by percentage of work rather than by invoice. If your Schedule of Values is mapped, you can switch between **SOV View** and **Detailed**.

If your last draw used the other method, you will see *Heads up — previous draw used a different mode.* The already-billed scope has been subtracted, but check the numbers before you continue — that warning exists so you don't bill the same work twice.

**Step 2 — Review Draw Summary.** Three numbers that matter:

  • **Total Requested** — the gross amount you are asking for.
  • **Less Retainage** — the percentage your lender holds back, taken from your project settings and shown as a badge.
  • **Net Payment Due** — what you should actually expect to receive. Gross minus retainage.

Retainage is not lost money; it is money held until the project is complete. It is also not a fee.

**Step 3 — Create Draw Draft.** Add **Notes (Optional)**, then select **Create Draw Draft**. The app explains: *Save this request as a draft. Nothing is sent to your lender.*

The pre-flight check

On the draw row, select **Create G702/G703**. Before generating anything, OwnerDraw runs **Pre-Flight Validation** and shows one of these.

**Blocks you:**

  • **Cannot Create G702/G703** — one or more budget lines are over budget, on a bank-financed project. Select **Open Budget Transfer** to move budget between lines, then try again.
  • **Incomplete Payment Gate Checklists** — quality checks tied to trades are unfinished. You may continue, but only after ticking *I acknowledge incomplete gate items and want to proceed*. The button reads **Acknowledge Gates First** until you do. Items ticked on the **QC Checklists** page count towards this check, and photos are optional.

**Warns you, but lets you continue:**

  • **Missing Lien Waivers** — expenses that still need a signed waiver under this project's waiver setting. You can select **Proceed Anyway**; your lender may still ask for them before funding.
  • **Over-Budget Items** on a cash-funded project — informational only.

If everything is clean you see **All Checks Passed** and the button reads **Create G702/G703**.

The button label tells you where you stand: **Fix Errors First**, **Acknowledge Gates First**, **Proceed Anyway**, or **Create G702/G703**.

Preparing the packet versus delivering it

Generating the packet downloads the G702/G703 file to your device and moves the draw to **Packet Prepared**.

**Packet Prepared** means the file was generated. It does **not** mean your lender received, opened, or accepted it. Review the packet, then send it to your lender using their required process; their review happens outside OwnerDraw.

Afterwards the row button becomes **Download G702/G703**, so you can download the same packet again. **Regenerate PDF** rebuilds it from your current data. **Send for Signature** is separate: it creates a signing link for the packet, which some lenders want signed by whoever is acting as contractor.

What the packet counts

The packet includes the draw you are packaging plus your earlier **funded** and **submitted** draws, so previously billed work appears as previous certificates rather than being billed twice.

Costs that are **not** counted:

  • expenses sitting on a **Draft** draw,
  • expenses on a later draw,
  • expenses with no draw attached,
  • anything with **Funding Source: Cash**.

Creating a PDF alone never makes a draw count as previously billed — only funded or submitted draws do. If any figure needs a second look, OwnerDraw tells you when you generate the packet rather than quietly producing something that looks right.

Recording funding

When the money lands, open the draw from **Draw History**:

1. Pick **Date Funded (optional)** — a real past date; a future date is refused.
2. Add **Check / Wire Number (optional)** if you have one.
3. Select **Mark as Funded**.

The badge becomes **Funded** and the date is shown back to you afterwards. You cannot mark a draw funded twice.

Funding a draw is not paying your vendors

Marking a draw funded records that *the bank paid you*. It never records that *you paid a subcontractor*.

Your loan-funded expenses become **Draw Funded — Vendor Unpaid** on the Expenses page. Once you have actually paid each vendor, select **Mark Paid** on that row. Only you can confirm that.

Changing a draw before it goes out

While a draw is still **Draft**:

  • **Remove from draw** (the **✕** beside an expense in the draw) takes that expense off the draw. An unpaid expense returns to **Logged**; one you already marked paid keeps **Vendor Paid ✓**. Gross, retainage and net are all corrected together.
  • **Delete Draw** removes the whole draft and returns its expenses the same way.
  • **Save Notes** stores your notes.

Once a draw is **Packet Prepared** or **Funded**, its expenses can no longer be removed and the draft cannot be deleted — the record stays intact for your lender's audit trail.

On the Expenses page, **Undo** reverses only a vendor payment: the expense drops back to **Draw Funded — Vendor Unpaid** if the draw is funded, **In Draw #n** if it is not, or **Logged** if it is on no draw. Undo never changes an amount, a receipt, a budget figure or a waiver.

Draw statuses, exactly as they happen

| Badge | What actually created it |
|---|---|
| **Draft** | You completed the three-step wizard and selected **Create Draw Draft**. Nothing was sent to your lender. |
| **Packet Prepared** | You generated the G702/G703 packet. OwnerDraw sets this when the packet is generated; it is not confirmation of delivery. |
| **Funded** | You selected **Mark as Funded** after the money arrived. |
| **Submitted** | An older status on historic draws. Nothing in the app creates it today; it still counts as previously billed. |

Common questions

**Do I have to use the Draw Schedule first?** No. It is a plan, not a requirement.

**Can I bill for something I already paid for?** Yes — that is a reimbursement draw. It must still be a loan-funded expense.

**Why is Net Payment lower than the amount I asked for?** Retainage. Your lender holds that back until completion.

**Can I edit a draw after generating the packet?** No. Notes stay editable on drafts and funded draws; the expense list and deletion are draft-only.

**Nothing was emailed to my bank — is that right?** Yes. OwnerDraw prepares the packet; you deliver it.

For professional builders

  • Expense-based and progress modes can be mixed across a job, but the cross-mode warning is worth reading each time — prior scope is subtracted, not reconciled for you.
  • Retainage is taken from the project's stored rate and each draw keeps its own snapshot, so historical draws stay arithmetically consistent if you renegotiate the rate.
  • The packet's previous-certificate figures come from funded and submitted draws only. If your lender treats delivery as submission, decide that convention up front rather than relying on the status badge.
  • **Send for Signature** produces a signing link for the packet itself; it is unrelated to lien-waiver signatures.

Related help

  • **How to Record and Manage Expenses** — logging costs, funding source, Mark Paid and Undo.
  • **How to Use the Budget Page** — revised budgets, transfers and what over-budget means.
  • **Lien Waivers in OwnerDraw: What to Send and When** — clearing the missing-waiver warning.

Figures in OwnerDraw are your own records. Always check a draw against your loan documents before sending it to your lender.