I can really only find this used at Bechtel (where our taxes go); from the context, I am thinking it refers to the amount received for whatever work they were able to do during the year in question, looking at it as if they were working off a list..
A lot of these projects are long-term, some get interrupted, so they don't go from start to finish within one business year.
Consequently, the only way to show how they are doing is a) by new business sold and b) by how many of the existing contracts they have been working on (or off!), how much they billed and what they received