The punch list is the walkthrough written down: a scuffed door, a cabinet door out of alignment, a missing outlet cover, a paint touch-up behind the fridge. Nothing on it stops the space being used, which is what makes the job substantially complete; everything on it stands between the contractor and the final check. Its cost is real and rarely budgeted: a crew day and a materials run to fix twenty small things is a crew day that earns nothing new.
A worked number
A $49,500 bathroom finishes with a fourteen-item punch list: a day for two people ($560 burdened), a plumber's return trip ($180), replacement hardware ($95). $835 of cost, 1.7% of the contract, with no revenue against it. Add a week's delay in the final draw and the retainage, and the punch list is the most expensive day on the job.
The mistake it hides
Letting new scope onto it. "While you're fixing the door, can you also add a shelf?" is a change order, not a punch item, and a punch list that keeps growing is a job that never closes. Walk the list with the client, agree it in writing, close it, and treat anything after that as new work.
In Obra
Record the punch list's costs on the project so the job's final margin includes them, and close the project when the list is done; the financial close freezes the numbers the way the walkthrough freezes the scope.