YOUR VENDOR INVOICES ARE STACKING UP. HERE'S WHAT THAT SIGNALS.
AP piling up means cash is coming in slower than obligations are going out. It's almost always a billing and collections problem rather than a revenue problem. The work is done and the GC owes you, but the cash hasn't come in yet, and your material vendors and equipment companies aren't waiting. Piling AP appears before the cash crisis does, which is what makes it worth reading every week.
Every vendor invoice you push past terms is a relationship you're degrading. Material vendors who get paid late charge more on the next order, tighten credit limits, or move you to COD. Equipment companies put holds on accounts. The compounding effect of late AP, higher material costs, reduced credit, and COD requirements, can raise your project costs by 3 to 5% permanently. That comes off the margin on every bid going forward, long after the month that caused it has closed.
WHAT IT MEANS.
AP piling up is what happens when cash obligations come due faster than cash gets collected, so vendor invoices sit past terms while the work that covers them is still uncollected.
WHERE THE TIMING BREAKS DOWN.
AR gets collected slower than AP comes due
The GC pays at net 60 and the material vendor is net 30. That 30 day difference means you're paying vendors before you're collecting from GCs, every month, on every job. It's manageable with a cash reserve and a forecast. Without both of those, AP stacks up by default rather than by accident.
Billing lag compresses the cycle
If pay applications go out on the 20th instead of the 1st, every payment is 30 days later than it should be. Meanwhile the AP due dates don't move at all. The mismatch pushes AP past terms every single time, and the cause looks like slow GCs rather than a billing calendar nobody owns.
No cash reserve to cover the difference
The $650K cash floor in the CFOS model exists for this reason, to bridge the space between spending on a project and collecting from the GC. Without a cash reserve, every project start stresses AP. Mobilization is the most predictable cash event in the business and it still catches people out.
WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE IN DOLLARS.
Most material vendors offer 2/10 Net 30, a 2% discount for payment inside 10 days. On a $400K material package that's $8K available. Paying at 45 to 60 days instead means you lose the discount and pay late fees, which is 3 to 4% of material cost given away.
A vendor who gets paid consistently late will reduce your credit limit, require COD on new orders, or require a deposit before releasing materials. COD on a large material package demands cash before the project has billed anything, which creates the same problem you were trying to avoid.
The best pricing, the best allocation of scarce material, and the best service all go to customers who pay on time. A subcontractor with a reputation for slow pay gets the second best price, second priority on delivery, and less flexibility on returns and credits.
A verified civil client at $3.4M in revenue came to us with $245K in uncollected AR and AP stacking past terms. The collections process recovered the AR, cleared the AP, and eliminated four MCA loans inside one engagement. The money was already earned. It was sitting in receivables nobody was calling on.
HOW AP GETS CLEARED AND KEPT CURRENT.
AP gets ranked by which vendors affect upcoming projects, and those get paid first. Paying whoever calls loudest is how a sub ends up on credit hold with the one supplier the next job depends on. The ranking is written down before the week starts rather than decided on the phone with a vendor's credit manager.
Any pending pay application goes out immediately to accelerate incoming cash, and every outstanding AR invoice gets a call with a date attached to it. The cash to pay AP is usually sitting in uncollected receivables rather than missing from the business. Those two moves typically free up enough cash to cover the most critical vendor obligations inside 2 to 3 weeks.
The forecast puts AP due dates alongside expected AR collections, week by week, so the squeeze is visible before it forces a late payment. A supplier payment due in week 6 against a receipt expected in week 8 is a problem you can solve in week 2 with a phone call instead of week 6 with an apology.
Once AP is current, vendors get paid on a fixed weekly schedule aligned to AR collection instead of ad hoc payments whenever cash looks available. Vendors extend credit to contractors who are predictable. Predictable turns out to be worth more than fast.
FLAT MONTHLY FEE. NO SURPRISES.
Three tiers, priced by your trailing twelve month revenue. Which one you're in depends on how much of the work you want off your desk. No hourly billing, no payroll, and no add-ons.
| Last 12 months revenue | Monthly fee |
|---|---|
| Up to $1M | $1,900 to $2,900 |
| $1M to $3.5M | $2,600 to $3,900 |
| $3.5M to $6.5M | $3,800 to $5,700 |
| $6.5M to $9.5M | $5,100 to $7,100 |
| $9.5M to $12.5M | $6,100 to $8,500 |
| $12.5M to $15.5M | $7,400 to $11,000 |
| $15.5M to $18.5M | $9,400 to $13,500 |
| $18.5M+ | Quoted individually |
Range reflects the three tiers below. Which one you're in depends on how much of the work you want off your desk. No payroll. No hidden line items.
You stop guessing.
You get the CFO work. Job costing built against the way you estimate, a 13 week cash forecast, monthly WIP, and a meeting every month that ends in decisions rather than a report.
Your bookkeeper keeps doing the books.
You stop touching the books.
Everything in Core, and we run the bookkeeping and the controllership as well. Nobody in your office is answering coding questions or chasing a reconciliation at month end.
We do the books. No payroll.
Every job shows its margin while it's still running.
Everything in Executive, plus the job costing and WIP platform set up, loaded with your cost codes, and managed for you every month. You never have to learn it.
We do the job costing.
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